B-School Trains Flynn Aide

Continuing in its effort to diversify students participating in its corporate management training program, the Business School has granted a scholarship to the city of Boston for a city official to enroll in the Advanced Management Program (APM), which begins today, according to B-School administrators.

Nancy Snyder, Boston Mayor Raymond I., Flynn's staff director, will spend the next 11 weeks at the B-School with high-level executives from corporations around the world developing her managerial skills, said Paul Vatter, executive director of executive education at the business school.

"Diversity is the key to a successful program...The major emphasis is on broadening executives who, for the most part, come from a relatively narrow backround," said Robert R. Glauber, director of the AMP and professor of business administration.

"It's a tremendously broadening experience...It's a great advantage to get to understand how the people from the private sector think and manage," Vatter said.

Each year, the B-School provides two scholarships for government managers to enroll in the AMP, one for the city of Boston and one for the state of Massachusettes, according to Vatter. Daniel Sullivan, Massachusetts' undersecretary for human resources, is the state participant in the program this spring, Glauber said.

"The city of Boston is a $1 billion corporation and at some level needs to function [as well as a private corporation], so many of the management skills necessary are the same," Neal Sullivan, director of the mayor's policy office, said yesterday.

"As staff director in the past few years, [Snyder] has proven herself to be one of the most skillful people in the mayor's administration," Sullivan said of Snyder, who has managed communications between the mayor and his department heads for more than two years.

"Certainly her current job is among the most challenging in all of city government," he said. Snyder will continue as the mayor's staff director at the conclusion of the program, Sullivan added.

The AMP teaches its participants, who usually have 25 years of business experience, to view their companies' organization as a unit and to relate that organization to other financial forces in the economy, in addition to training them in planning and leadership skills, according to Vatter.

The program is highly intensive, meeting for class six days a week, according to James E. Aisner, news director of the B-School. "We have classes six days a week, but we hope they're studying seven," Vatter said.

Snyder is the second city official to enter the B-School's program, according to Sullivan. Last year, William Doherty, director of the Boston City Schools program, participated in the program, benefitting from "exposure to a whole variety of management approaches and top managers from accross the country," Sullivan said.