Hennessy listens to his assistant, Jeff Wachtel. Acosta buttonholes Hennessy in a nearby hallway. Hennessy suggests Engineering School Dean Jim Plummer instead. Hennessy holds a brief scheduled phone conversation with Eugene Bauer, vice president for the Medical Center. They talk about the search for a new dean, and Hennessy agrees to participate at a meeting the next morning concerning children's health.
Sunlight breaks through the clouds and filters through the office's wood blinds.
As provost, Hennessy remarks, he was the officially designated guardian of endangered species on campus. Now, as he clutches a thick packet of documents that he's been briefly perusing, he notes that as president he's also a CEO of the Pac-10 athletics conference. Each president of a conference school is a CEO, it seems. For these visitors, Hennessy quickly dons his suit jacket and walks to the lobby to welcome Rick Wagoner, General Motors' chief executive officer, who is accompanied by GM Vice President Michael Grimaldi and Donna Lawrence, Stanford's director of university corporate relations. Hennessy meets with Donna Lawrence, Stanford's director of university corporate relations, General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner and GM Vice President Michael Grimaldi.