The opportunity to interact with CEOs on a personal level is one of the many unique opportunities Tuck offers its students. CEOs that visit Tuck, and believe me there are plenty, come to spend quality time with faculty and students. CEOs will learn your name, who you are, what you have done, and may even wonder why you look like you are about to fall asleep at any moment (you will understand when you are in Fall A).
During my first week at Tuck some of my classmates and I had the opportunity to enjoy a nice, private, fluorescent bulb lit dinner with the CEO of Siemens Corporation Eric Spiegel T’87. I will keep most of the details private but not because of some big corporate or personal revelation, but because I don’t want to give away the whole Tuck experience. Not yet at least. This is something you have to experience for yourself. There are a few things that I will mention, however. Getting insight on what it takes to lead a large organization directly from the person at the top was fascinating. Additionally, we received not only great career lessons but also great life lessons. After the dinner, there was one thing that left me curious, and I’m sure most of you would have been curious as well if you were in my shoes. Why didn’t Eric Spiegel eat his raspberry cheesecake?
I mean, who doesn’t like cheesecake? Or maybe he does and he wasn’t hungry, I don’t know. I sat next to him and I think I finished my piece well before he finished his salad. I wonder if he would have noticed if I switched his dessert plate with mine. I figure CEOs have more important matters to worry than why a dessert plate is suddenly full of crumbs. Oh well, I guess I may never know the answer.
This post, of course, was all in good humor and just meant to demonstrate the type of interactions students have with CEOs. Having this type of access to top executives is one of the many reasons why I chose Tuck. I hope I get the opportunity to sit down with Eric Spiegel again because he really did give us plenty of invaluable advice. Next time, I’m going to ask for brownies. What would he do with a brownie?
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