Dear Friends and Colleagues: 

The 25-26 academic year has been a flurry of activity. From hosting one of the world's most impactful investors, Howard Marks, to recording a live podcast with Federal Reserve Governor Stephen Miran, to sponsoring a visit with Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert via the WBUR Breakfast Club series, to executing our 2nd Annual Mehrotra Institute Summit, we have truly been excited at the momentum building within the institute. I am reaching out today to share with you some of our upcoming initiatives and I hope you are able to join us in person for these events.

New Season of the "Is Business Broken?" Podcast

In addition to planning and executing a variety of discourse-related events, we've been working hard on our podcast. The newest season of our award-winning podcast will soon be released, and we've got a teaser for you that features Federal Reserve Governor Stephen Miran who was recently on campus with the Mehrotra Institute discussing issues like tariffs, the independence of the federal reserve, and interest rates. This episode will be released on March 12th. Feel free to check this page for the episode that day, or of course you can find us wherever you normally listen to your podcasts.

Thank you for your continuing support, engagement, and partnership.

Kris May, Executive Director

Upcoming Events

Raif Ali Dinçkök Student Forum - Innovation Speaker Series

This spring, our focus is on innovation and the complex issues that surround the innovation process, the impact innovation can have on society, and the systems that should support the innovation process. To that end, the incredible students who manage the Raif Ali Dinçkök student forum have developed a series of fireside chats all focused on leaders that have developed, created, or supported new products, ideas, and services, and the resulting impact to society has been immeasurable. We would love to welcome you as our guest to these events. To register, please visit our events page here and register for the events you would like to attend. You can also access the individual event registration links below.

Programming Life with Stéphane Bancel CEO, Moderna - Register Here

Riding S Curves with Hedge Fund Manager Alex Sacerdote - Register Here

Gravity Always Wins with Uber and GrubHub Investor Bill Gurley - Register Here

Chewing Glass with Whoop CEO Will Ahmed - Register Here

Corporations in Politics Event

Mehrotra Institute visiting professor Roy Shapira will be hosting a panel of speakers investigating the role of corporations in politics. The idea of a firewall between business and politics is gone. At the global level, trade wars affect how businesses manage their supply chains, and visa restrictions affect hiring and talent retention. At the local level, legislators and regulators take a more active position in corporate life, and companies face decisions on whether to participate in public debates to go beyond their core business. This new reality puts companies in a position they’re not necessarily used to: managing political risk as a core business function.

The Corporations in Politics event brings together legal and business experts to tackle today’s most pressing dilemmas: Should executives retreat to silence to avoid regulatory retribution? What role should the board play in overseeing political risk? And where is the line for HR when employees’ social media activity intersects with contentious public issues? Register here.

WBUR Breakfast Club with Bombas Co-Founders

This year, we have joined WBUR as the presenting sponsor for a series of events hosted at the WBUR CitySpace. The WBUR Breakfast Club brings Boston decision makers together to connect with one another and to explore the most pressing issues facing business leaders today. From the boardroom to the newsroom, from Boston to the world, WBUR is reimagining how consequential issues in business and society get discussed and understood — elevating the conversation to help shape what comes next. Please join us for the next installment in the series on March 18th at 7:30am with the Co-Founders of Bombas in conversation with Ari Shapiro. Register here.

IMAP Lunch Seminar - The CELT Project

Our upcoming IMAP lunch seminar, on April 16th at 12:30pm, will give an overview of the Clean Energy and Environment Legacy Transition Initiative (CELT), a collaboration between the BU Institute for Global Sustainability (IGS) and the UMass Lowell RIST Institute for Sustainability and Energy to accelerate decarbonization in the 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts. Funded by the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, CELT supports a municipal and state fellows’ program, data for decisions, and statewide collaborations to support clean energy projects. This talk will introduce the CELT Atlas and Explorer, two public data tools focused on providing community level maps and information about energy infrastructure, sustainability grants, housing and population, and energy affordability across the state. We will also share case studies of sustainability projects cities and towns are tackling in order to meet 2050 NetZero state goals. Register here.

The WBUR Festival - 2026 Announcement

We are excited to announce that we will be participating in this year's 2026 WBUR festival once again and will be recording a live episode of the "Is Business Broken?" podcast. We will be officially announcing our panel in the coming months, but we encourage you to pencil in Saturday, May 30th on your calendars and look forward to sharing more information with you soon. Learn more about the festival here.

Boston University's Ravi K. Mehrotra Institute for Business, Markets, & Society was founded thanks to generous donations to the Questrom School of Business at Boston University from the Mehrotra family and others. Our mission is to advance research, education, and public discourse on the role business and markets do, can, and should play in creating value, and solving global societal challenges.

We are grateful to our team and advisory board for their support in aiding our mission. To contribute to our program or learn more about it, please email Kris May at krismay@bu.edu.

Copyright (C) 2026 Boston University. All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website or were in recent contact with us regarding an event.