Grateful MIT LGO alumni and associates express heartfelt appreciation toward Rosenfield
The MIT Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) program, a renowned joint graduate program that combines an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management with a Master’s degree from one of MIT’s engineering departments, recently held a special event to honour its long-serving director, Don Rosenfield.
Origins and Evolution
The LGO program, initially known as Leaders for Manufacturing (LFM), was born out of a collaboration between MIT Sloan and the MIT School of Engineering in the late 1980s. The program was designed to address a growing industry need for leaders with strong technical and management skills, by integrating business education with advanced engineering.
The program typically recruits students with a background in engineering or science who aspire to develop leadership abilities in operations, manufacturing, and technology sectors. From its inception, LGO emphasized a rigorous curriculum combining management courses at Sloan with technical masters-level courses in engineering, alongside practical industry projects—internships and thesis work in partnership with major corporate sponsors.
While specific founding dates and key milestones are not readily available, MIT Sloan’s website and historical information on LGO establish the program’s long-standing reputation as a prestigious joint engineering-management degree focused on developing global operations leaders. The program also integrates action learning and real-world projects, as demonstrated by student stories that showcase the blend of academic training and applied leadership experience.
The DonFest Celebration
On May 15, a two-day event called "DonFest" was held to celebrate and tease Don Rosenfield, who is retiring next month after 26 years as LGO’s director. The event included a conference on May 16, looking back on Rosenfield's career as a teacher, researcher, and friend to LGO students, alumni, colleagues, and staff.
The event culminated in an evening gala reception at Fenway Park’s EMC Club, where a highlight was a game called "Stump Don," where Rosenfield had to guess the identities of several former students based on their voices and a few clues.
Rosenfield, known for remembering the names, careers, and family members of the 1,000-plus LGO students he's taught, successfully guessed all the students in the game.
Founding Figures
The LGO program was co-founded by MIT professors Tom Magnanti and David Hardt. Magnanti, previously head of management science at MIT Sloan School of Management, is now president of the Singapore University of Technology and Design and an MIT Institute Professor.
Emanuel Sachs, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the time, proposed a research idea for 3-D printing using an HP Deskjet printer and silicon carbide powder, but he did not serve as the director of the LGO program.
Zeynep Ton, an adjunct assistant professor of operations management at MIT Sloan, co-taught a class with Rosenfield and was impressed by his intellectual curiosity, nerdiness, generosity, compassion, tirelessness, diligence, modest teaching style, competence, compassion, and personal interest in students. However, she did not serve as the director of the LGO program.
The founding of LGO was featured in a Boston Globe article in June 1988 with the headline "MIT's Bold Plan for the Future Joins with Business to Help End US' Manufacturing Decline."
In summary, the MIT Leaders for Global Operations program began as a distinctive interdisciplinary initiative between MIT Engineering and Sloan, developed to create technical leaders with strong business acumen to meet evolving global industrial challenges. It has since become a prominent program combining MBA and master's engineering degrees with substantial industry engagement.
- The MIT Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) program, a notable joint graduate program, had its origins in the late 1980s through a collaboration between MIT Sloan and the MIT School of Engineering, aimed at addressing the growing industry need for leaders with a balance of technical and management skills.
- The LGO program typically attracts students with engineering or science backgrounds, aspirant leaders in operations, manufacturing, and technology sectors, who engage in a rigorous curriculum combining management courses with technical masters-level engineering courses and practical industry projects.
- Over two decades, the LGO program, then known as Leaders for Manufacturing (LFM), evolved into a prestigious joint engineering-management degree focused on developing global operations leaders, emphasizing action learning and real-world projects.
- In May 2022, a two-day celebration called "DonFest" was held to honor Don Rosenfield, who is retiring after 26 years as the LGO program's director, recognized for his career as a teacher, researcher, and friend to students, alumni, colleagues, and staff.
- The LGO program was co-founded by MIT professors Tom Magnanti and David Hardt, with Tom Magnanti continuing his academic journey as the president of the Singapore University of Technology and Design and an MIT Institute Professor.
- An article in the Boston Globe in June 1988 highlighted the founding of LGO, featuring the headline "MIT's Bold Plan for the Future Joins with Business to Help End US' Manufacturing Decline."
- As technology, education, and self-development continue to intertwine, the LGO program stands as a testament to the success of a synergistic approach to fostering global leaders in engineering and management.
