From GSB to Downing Street: Stanford reflects on Sunak’s prime minister term

The GSB alum resigned as U.K. prime minister following his Conservative Party's defeat. Stanford professors praised Sunak's tenure.

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Rishi Sunak MBA ’06 resigned as prime minister of the U.K. last Friday after leading the Conservative Party to an overwhelming loss in the general election.

Sunak’s resignation marked the Conservative Party’s worst defeat in history and an end to the party’s 14 years in power. Keir Starmer, the center-left leader of the Labour Party, took office at 10 Downing Street, pledging to rebuild trust in the British government.

Sunak received an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business (GSB) in 2006 as a Fulbright Scholar. At Stanford, he met his future wife, fellow business student Akshata Murthy ’06, the daughter of billionaire N. R. Narayana Murthy.

In a 2022 interview, Sunak praised the University. 

“At Stanford, you’re in the heart of an ecosystem and a culture that is unlike anything else I’ve seen in the world,” he said. “That desire to do things iteratively, to move quickly…those are all things that I’ve taken with me for the rest of my career and I’ve tried to bring them into government as well, which is a different animal.”

Sunak’s selection as prime minister in 2022 excited some Stanford students and faculty. 

“His ethos of civic-mindedness, and a desire to use his skills to advance the greater good, will serve him well as he prepares to lead the U.K.,” GSB Dean and incoming University president Jonathan Levin ’94 wrote at the time. “I wish him all the best.”

Sunak was the first person of color to become prime minister in British history. At 42, he was also one of the youngest. 

GSB associate dean for external relations Derrick Bolton M.A. ’98 MBA ’98 served as assistant dean for MBA admissions when Sunak and Murthy were students. Despite the election result, Bolton wrote to The Daily that the GSB “remains extremely proud” of Sunak and Murthy. “Akshata and Rishi are exemplars of service and leadership,” he wrote.

As the fifth consecutive Conservative prime minister since 2010, Sunak’s premiership followed Liz Truss’s deeply unpopular tax plan and Boris Johnson’s scandals. The British economy has struggled in recent years amid Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic and a cost-of-living crisis.

The Conservative Party continued to decline in popularity under Sunak, despite policies aimed at stabilizing the economy. In a controversial move, his government also proposed to stop migrant crossings to the U.K. by deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda.

“He did as well as anyone possibly could given the conditions he inherited,” Bolton wrote. “Voter sentiment was about changing from a party that had been in power for nearly 15 years, not about Rishi.”

Bob Joss MBA ’67 Ph.D. ’70, the former Dean of the GSB, also praised Sunak. “I believe he conducted himself quite admirably while in office,” he wrote. “He is a very good communicator and explained his policies and ideas clearly to the British people.”

Professor of organizational behavior Jeffrey Pfeffer Ph.D. ’72 once taught Sunak in a course titled “Paths to Power.” The class discussed that “falling from power requires one thing — achieving it in the first place,” Pfeffer wrote.

“I give Sunak a lot of credit for ascending the party ranks and becoming prime minister at a relatively early age,” Pfeffer added.

Pfeffer and Joss had few memories of interacting with Sunak as a student. The prime minister’s minimal impression on Stanford faculty drew attention from The Guardian in 2022. Joss wrote that he knew Murthy better than her husband: “Her parents visited the GSB and gave a great talk about their philanthropic efforts in India.”

Pfeffer connected Sunak’s tenure with Stanford’s entrepreneurial ethos. “Did he perform a miracle to keep the Conservatives in power? No. But, as we teach at the GSB about start-ups, there is no fault in trying,” he wrote.

U.K. student Niklas Viatio ’25, was less upbeat about Sunak’s legacy. “I think he’ll be remembered as pretty weak and ineffective,” he told The Daily. “He didn’t really achieve that much. He called an election at a bad time and had a horrifically awful political campaign.”

Viatio said he was neither surprised nor inspired by the result. “Not hugely enthused” by Labour’s victory, Viatio said he hoped to see a leader with “an actual vision” for the U.K.

Laith Gordon ’26, a London native, lauded the peaceful transition of power from Sunak to Starmer, inviting a comparison to the U.S., where concerns over democracy and the peaceful transition of power are mounting ahead of the presidential election. Joss also noted that Sunak “conceded the loss and congratulated his successor in what I thought was quite an exemplary manner.”

Gordon observed that both Sunak and Starmer stressed “kindness, decency and tolerance” in their speeches. “I hope with these values and a focus on the people, not the parties, the new leadership can navigate the U.K. through the challenges that it and the world faces over the next few years,” he wrote.

Although Sunak won re-election as a member of parliament, some have speculated that the former prime minister could flee London for Stanford. Sunak and Murthy own a penthouse in California, though miles away from campus in Santa Monica.

“Who knows, maybe the GSB will be lucky enough to entice Akshata and Rishi to teach a course,” Bolton wrote. He recalled that U.K.’s former Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne have taught or spoken at Stanford, giving students “a deeper understanding of the intersections of business and policy.”

”It would be cool to meet him if he does come here,” Viatio said.

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