A New Chapter for CASI Student Leadership

Each year, student leaders with the Corporations and Society Initiative (CASI) help shape conversations across the GSB community through speaker events, moderated discussions, and small-group engagement on topics ranging from cybersecurity and private equity to technology, media, democracy, and public trust.

CASI is pleased to welcome its newly selected student leaders, who will help guide the initiative’s programming and conversations during the next academic year. Dani De La Torre and Eric Wang will serve as co-directors. The group includes Rohan Dighe, Gauraang Biyani, Ānaru Latta, Grace McCamy, Ben Mucsi, Megha Parwani, Sam Peinado, and Kamaria Wilson.

CASI Director Lisa Sanchez-Corea Simpson said the student leaders drive many of the conversations and exchanges that define CASI’s programming throughout the year.

 “This year’s student leaders brought intellectual curiosity, openness, and a desire to examine how business decisions affect society, especially as it relates to governance and accountability,” Simpson said.  “We’re excited to see what the incoming student leaders will bring to CASI in the year ahead.”

Several outgoing student leaders from the 2025–2026 academic year reflected on the experiences that had the greatest impact on them and the conversations they believe mattered most.

For Helen Cashman (MBA ’26), moderating CASI’s panel with Megan Greenwell on private equity underscored the importance of creating space at business schools for discussions about the broader societal effects of business models and financial systems. 

“I looked forward to our bi-weekly meetings where classmates from different professional backgrounds and philosophies dived into conversations about how things work for and against societal benefit,” she remarked. “I came away from each discussion with a deeper recognition of how industries as varied as prediction markets and consulting are influencing everyday life.”

Cashman said CASI more than delivered on the promise of digging into where relationships between business and other institutions are failing to serve people.

For Woody Hines (MBA ’26), some of the most memorable moments came from watching students openly debate ideas with guest speakers. He pointed to Rutger Bregman’s lecture and the CASI discussion with New York Times investigative reporters Walt Bagdonich and Michael Forsythe as particular highlights. Hines also described the opportunity to apply a critical lens to business within a business school setting as one of the most meaningful aspects of his experience with CASI.

“Moral and ethical critiques of corporate America can, at times, risk being removed from important details about industry. The chance to have these discussions with talented, accomplished peers made these among the more textured and nuanced conversations that I've had, rich with perspectives from the field." 

For Alexis Opferman (MBA ’26), CASI was an instrumental part in her GSB experience.

“It's easy to get lost in the bubble of the GSB, or Stanford more broadly,” she said. “CASI provides an avenue to reflect on things beyond our excel models and financial statements. For me, it brings to light how I, as a GSB student, can fit into a bigger picture and adds texture to our calling to change lives, change organizations, and change the world.”

Dylan Ackerman (MBA ’26) said CASI’s role on campus feels especially important during a period of rapid technological change and growing social uncertainty.

“If we truly aspire to change organizations or the world as GSB alums, it is of utmost importance that we seriously examine how businesses have operated, including the negative consequences some have created, and how others have managed to chart a different approach.”

As CASI looks ahead to the coming academic year, the initiative will continue *please strengthen – more like filling an unmet need or a gap – that would not take plaxce without CASI for inquiry, debate, and reflection across the GSB community, carrying forward conversations that challenge conventional thinking and encourage deeper engagement with the role of business in society.