In May, Columbia Business School celebrated some 850 students who received their degrees. While they are not the first students to graduate during a recession, they face their own unique challenges and opportunities in this changed landscape.

My conversations with alumni throughout the recent reunion gatherings revealed that, regardless of the times in which they graduate, our alumni have the mindset to capture opportunity and forge a meaningful career path.

Sometimes that path is not always a straight line, as you will read about in this issue’s Takeaway. Amer Yaqub ’92 started out in marketing during a tough economy, and today he is the publisher of Foreign Policy, where he is using his education and experience to keep print journalism alive and profitable in an industry challenged by decreasing margins.

Alumni such as Yaqub have spoken to the relevance of a Columbia Business School education. Many factors go into this, including faculty ideas. We feature some of those ideas by Joel Brockner, the Phillip Hettleman Professor of Business and chair of the Management Division, who proposes guidelines about how companies can make hard decisions in a fair way.

We also profile the School’s commitment to teaching excellence, which requires the influence of such excellent teachers as Ray Horton, the Frank R. Lautenberg Professor of Ethics and Corporate Governance, whom we honor in this issue. Ray inspired countless people as he built and broadened the School’s Social Enterprise Program. He epitomizes our faculty’s ability to engage students and add to the intellectual life of the School.

We remember another great professor in these pages: Boris “Bob” Yavitz, PhD ’64, the Paul Garrett Professor Emeritus of Public Policy and Business Responsibility. As dean of Columbia Business School from 1975 to 1982, Bob enhanced the School’s faculty and improved ties to the business community.

These tributes represent the talent that enriches our community and makes the Columbia Business School network a valuable asset in any economic climate.