How to Secure C-Suite Sponsorship for an Alumni Program

Getting executive buy-in for an alumni program can be a formidable challenge, but one that is essential to its long-term success and effectiveness. So how do you get it on the C-suite radar and position it as an essential strategic initiative? What key moments or strategies make the difference? And once you’ve secured sponsorship, how do you align the program with broader business goals, measure its success, and report on its impact?

Thank you to our guest speakers, the team at leading biotech company Genentech responsible for launching their own alumni program:

Cori Davis, Chief People Officer
Rhona O’Leary, Global Head of Portfolio and Product Development Strategy
Elizabeth Majoch, Independent Consultant and Advisor focused on Talent & People Strategies
Joseph Ham-Silvestre, Principal People Experience Partner

We discussed:

• How to bring alumni programs to the C-suite’s attention and secure sponsorship
• The pivotal strategies that helped gain executive backing
• Practical advice for organizations new to alumni programs on aligning with executive goals
• How to track, measure, and report outcomes to maintain ongoing executive engagement.

Five Things We Learned About Securing C-Suite Sponsorship for an Alumni Program

Alumni enthusiasm spans all levels …

“The number of people who have left Genentech and gone on to be C-suite leaders is truly impressive, north of 1,500. Alumni enthusiasm spans all levels. No matter what level you were, people want to stay engaged ...”
Rhona O’Leary 

Listen to your alumni …

“It’s important to harness the power and the passion behind our gAlumni. Exit surveys show a high percentage want to stay engaged with Genentech. You should listen to your alumni …”
Joseph Ham-Silvestre

Get your platform in place …

“Shout out to EnterpriseAlumni for the platform we have now. Being able to track our intern and postdoc populations has been a huge advantage for us. The fact that we now have this group of C-suite alumni has been hugely valuable …”
Elizabeth Majoch

Use your alumni for referrals ….

“Ask the alumni group to identify their interest areas to identify who might be interested in what. When we get referrals from alumni, so we don't want them to go into a general pot. We want to say: this is a special group we want to pay special attention to …”
Cori Davis

Show love and respect …

“You have to have an engaged alumni population and positive sentiment. There’s a ton of love, respect and shared passion and purpose with the alumni population at Genentech. That’s really special ...”
Elizabeth Majoch

Q&A

Emma Sinclair: How did you initially get a digitally driven alumni program onto the C-suite radar?

Cori: We had a group of executives who would gather on an annual basis at the JP Morgan conference. Our CEO saw the opportunity to get people involved at the executive level. An executive had the idea to broaden it. So, we worked for a couple of years to bring it to life.

Elizabeth: Our take on alumni engagement was: how can we maximize business objectives, goals and outcomes of our executive alumni? People think of alumni engagement with talent and recruiting. We took it from a different angle, starting with that executive engagement population.

Rhona: When people leave Genentech, they often go to smaller companies and don't have the same depth of resources as when they worked here. It was common for people to reach back to former colleagues at Genentech and ask for advice. We wanted to formalize the opportunity for information sharing so we could share learnings with each other.

Cori: The culture of an organization and the way a person leaves really sets the stage for whether an alumni program is successful. People need to want to be affiliated with the organization even after they leave. What's so great is there's this real sense of cohesion and love for the company, because they leave on good terms because we manage that exit really well.

Do people sign up even when they've been off-boarded?

Rhona: I've been at the company 30 years. I’m my own alumni network! The number of people who have left Genentech and gone on to be C-suite leaders is truly impressive. It's north of 1,500, for a company that's been around less than 50 years. The alumni enthusiasm spans all levels. No matter what level you were, people want to stay engaged at all levels. We target events for different types of alumni. We target the JP Morgan conference in San Francisco for our C-suite alumni. At events for our scientists and technical alumni, the topics will be more tailored. All of our events are oversubscribed which is a testament to the experience people had whilst they were at the company.

What advice would you offer in aligning with executive priorities?

Rhona: Aligning with business objectives is super critical. How relationships work in terms of how you do deals, bring in innovation and out-license products all help build relationships that lead to development deals. Having C-suite leaders weigh in was really important. You need to get champions from across the leadership team.

How do you avoid a start/stop cycle with alumni?

Elizabeth: We treated it like we do with many projects at Genentech, which is: let’s experiment and put in some parameters. The CEO was very clear about this can be a feel-good program, but we need to reap the rewards so the program could pay for itself. The investment early on can be small if you are clear about what you want to achieve and how it will benefit both the company and the alumni population.

Cori: I think we did a really nice job of balancing internal involvement in sponsorship and also engaging our alumni. Trying to maintain a whole lot of events at once can lead to more ups and downs. We added incrementally to ensure the things we were focusing on were truly meaningful.

Why is the alumni program a core strategic initiative for business and not just HR?

Joe: It’s important to harness the power and the passion behind our gAlumni. Exit surveys show a high percentage want to stay engaged with Genentech. You should listen to your alumni. What are gAlumni hearing and seeing in the external landscape? How might they want to engage with us? What are we hearing? What not only influences us as an organization, but the larger biotech and pharma industry and the political government ecosystem?

How have alumni initiatives feed into the talent acquisition and retention strategy at Genentech?

Cori: Our boomerangs have increased, which is fantastic. We absolutely look for referrals as well. It’s important to ask the alumni group to identify their interest areas, so that we can identify who might be interested in what. We make sure that our talent acquisition partners have special attention. When we get referrals from alumni, so we don't want them to go into a general pot. We want to say: this is a special group we want to pay special attention to.

Joe: What does our customer voice know now that they might not know later? There might not be a role available to them at the moment, but how can we continue to keep them engaged? That's how we harness the power of our early talent community. How can we make sure that we keep them engaged after they've gone back to school to finish their research or their academics? Playing the long game is a benefit.

Elizabeth: Shout out to EnterpriseAlumni for the platform we have now. We've been able to do things that have been on the list for years. Being able to track our intern and postdoc populations has been a huge advantage. The fact that we now have this group of C-suite alumni has been hugely valuable.

Has gAlumni resulted in any business development deal coming exclusively to Genentech or Roche?

Rhona: It's hard to tell whether any specific interaction has resulted in any business development deal coming exclusively. It has opened doors to deals sooner. It allows us to keep those potential deals. Even if one comes through, that covers the cost of any kind of network. It has opened more doors than if we didn't have this network.

What's made a real difference to the program's success?

Cori: The balance of partnering, internal and external. We have this great feeling when we go to events where alumni get together and talk about what they're doing and share learnings and opportunities. We've pulled together different panels of senior level alum, including a past CEO, who have talked with our internal employees about what the early days were like, what they've moved on to, and their fond memories of Genentech. That’s really helped inspire our current employees and remind them of the initial origins and challenges of the company, and connect them with people who still have a real fondness for the place.

Rhona: gAlumni events shouldn't feel self-serving just for Genentech. If people feel like they're being squeezed for information, they aren't going to want to return. So, making it a safe space, a platform for dialogue, debate discussion and engagement, but not making it feel like we're doing a sales pitch is super critical.

What were some of the contributing factors that led to the successful launch of the program?

Elizabeth: Having it launched by the CEO and the Head of Business Development was critical, as they were highly respected by the gAlumni community. There was a desire from both the community that was already in place, the CEO and the Head of Business Development. All of those people enabled a successful launch. The platform was just the icing on the cake.

Joe: I would sum up our launch in three words: excitement, impact, and community. There was excitement from our executive C-suite but also internally. The impact is for the C-suite and the alumni themselves. Many of our alumni community are also in other organizations. They think: “Why should I join this alumni community versus others?” Finally, it’s community. We’re humans, not just gAlumni. Folks connect with more than just their professional sphere. It’s been great to see such a passion and heart and sense of community.

What you would suggest to other program managers who are considering launching or are supporting an alumni program?

Joe: Patience is key. Start small, whether it's one experiential piece, one operational piece, and perhaps one that specifically connects C-suite engagement. Then branch out. Having a really strong digital platform really helps. So, case in point, EnterpriseAlumni in allowing us to launch this platform.

Elizabeth: It can be bespoke and customized to whatever goals or objectives. Build engagement based on what you what you want to achieve, but also think about what the alumni want. You have to have an engaged alumni population and positive sentiment. There’s a ton of love, respect and shared passion and purpose with the alumni population at Genentech. That’s really special. Acknowledging that you can work with your leadership to design anything you want and recognizing your alumni are an extension of your community. And there's huge power in that.