Kevin Donovan, associate professor of economics at Yale SOM and the Jackson School of Global Affairs, focuses on economic growth and development in sub-Saharan Africa. He’s done field work in countries such as Rwanda and Kenya for years. But when he took on the responsibility of organizing a 2026 academic conference in the region for the Structural Change and Economic Growth Consortium (STEG), a research initiative with which he is affiliated, he needed help making contact with local universities.

That’s where the Global Network for Advanced Management (GNAM), a coalition of 33 leading business schools across the world founded by Yale SOM in 2012, came in. The network works to create partnerships among students, faculty, staff, and alumni who might never otherwise come in contact. Its annual Global Network Week program sends MBA students on weeklong exchange programs at international universities. The network also sponsors student competitions, offers virtual courses that are accessible to students at any member school, and administers a visiting PhD student program.

Donovan hoped to host the conference in sub-Saharan Africa, where much of STEG’s research is focused. He asked Camino de Paz, SOM’s assistant dean of global network programs, for help getting in touch with Strathmore Business School in Nairobi, Kenya. Through relationships cultivated during past GNAM initiatives, de Paz introduced him to the school’s executive dean, Caesar Mwangi. The two ultimately arrived at an agreement to host STEG’s conference at Strathmore in January.

“GNAM serves as a platform for collaboration by connecting business schools across the globe. Yale SOM and Strathmore Business School have leveraged this platform to bring the STEG conference to Kenya for the first time,” de Paz said.

Scholars from Saïd Business School at Oxford University, another GNAM member, will also participate in the conference.

“The theme of economic growth and development in sub-Saharan Africa is very close to our hearts,” Mwangi said. “We view our collaboration with GNAM as a vital bridge between Africa and the global community of management education. Through the network, we are equipping our students and faculty to engage the world with purpose, excellence, and a transformative mindset.”

Donovan said that organizers have sent conference invitations to academics across East Africa. Hosting the conference in a region so critical to STEG’s work, he added, will help international researchers and local experts form ongoing relationships.

“That, to me, is how conversations about research turn into the kind of economics that can effect policy change,” he said. See original story.