One of the underlying issues with executive support is a common lack of Asian representation in leadership positions: often called the "bamboo ceiling." Research in 2023 by associate professor Jackson Lu, showed East Asian workers – Chinese, Japanese and Koreans – were viewed as less creative, creating a barrier to top roles. 

Institute Professor Daron Acemoglu says: "When people look at the big gulf that exists between rich and poor countries, they often think of factors such as geography or culture, which are essentially out of the control of most people. But how we organize society, which we broadly refer to as institutions — those are the root causes."

"As the economy recovered, the U.S. just poured more kerosene onto the fire," said professor Kristin Forbes. Ms. Forbes noted that America's deficit as a share of its gross domestic product is larger than that in many other advanced economies, and today's spending is adding to the American debt pile. Given that, strong growth today could come at a cost — including higher interest bills — down the road.

"The target here is to produce electricity cheaper than coal and gas plants," senior lecturer John Parsons said. These fossil fuel plants are "terribly simple and cheap to run — they're just dirty," he added.

John Sterman, a professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management with a focus in sustainability, achieved the holy grail of net zero eight years ago. His 1920s Lexington home was due for an update, but instead of just "upgrading and renovating," Sterman decided the "incremental cost of going deeper and doing a retrofit" was the right move.

"The National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) is an incredibly important first step, but it's just the first step. That's not going to be enough to meet the demand for all the public sector stuff, and the publicly minded stuff that academics should be doing and would want to do," says research scientist Neil Thompson. "We're just going to need to keep investing to get more and more scale here."

Lecturer Malia Lazu says: "By successfully navigating all seven stages, companies will be able to steer through the ongoing work DEI success requires. At a time when Stage 4 pushback is becoming entrenched, each company that stays the course helps create the critical mass to sustain the DEI journey."

Medikana, founded by Corina Negron (MBA '23), is an MIT-backed platform that streamlines and automates international medical device commercialization. MacroCycle was founded by Stwart Peña Feliz (MBA '23). Through MacroCycle's patented technology, plastic waste of any quality can be upcycled to virgin grade plastic with zero carbon emissions.

Eglae Recchia (MBA '09) is the Chief Product Officer for Berkadia. In this role, Recchia drives the strategy, vision, and experience of Berkadia's internal and external-facing digital products. She leads and oversees the product, design, and financial model teams, in addition to co-managing BeEngaged Powered by Berkadia, an accelerator program for startups that are destined to redefine the commercial real estate space.