Mike Canady joined the Graduate School of Business (GSB) as its chief operating and financial officer on March 16.
Canady is the GSB’s first chief operating and financial officer appointed from outside a background in higher education administration. He previously worked at Charles Schwab for 32 years across a range of positions, including as the chief of staff to Charles Schwab M.B.A. ’61 and the bank’s senior vice president of financial planning and analysis.
“[Canady’s previous] roles demanded sound judgment, adaptability, and the ability to earn trust at every level—from a founder to teams spanning geographies and cultures,” GSB Dean Sarah Soule wrote to The Daily.
Despite lacking experience in higher education leadership, Canady said the job specifications were closely aligned with his experience.
“My mentor shared with me the opportunity… it is exactly the type of thing that I was looking for across the board,” he said.
According to Canady, the GSB conducted the recruitment process in collaboration with a recruitment firm. Charles Schwab, who was an alumni of the GSB’s M.B.A. program, was not involved in the process, although Canady claimed he said “good things about Stanford” when they worked together.
Canady’s recruitment follows a growing pattern of diversification in the University’s recruitment of management personnel from outside higher education.
Raj Chellaraj, Canady’s predecessor and former CFO and administrative dean at GSB, served as the assistant secretary of state for George H.W. Bush before joining Stanford. Currently, Chellaraj is serving as senior advisor to the director of the Hoover Institution and to the president of Stanford University on finance and operations.
This type of hire has also occurred outside of GSB. Scott Calvert, senior associate dean for administration at the School of Engineering, was a pilot for 21 years in the U.S. Navy.
According to Calvert, senior management positions in higher education are “mostly people business.” Calvert imagines that Canady “s[aw] a lot of that in his time at Schwab.”
Canady said he sees parallels in corporate and university management structures.
“[At a company] you’ve got your clients, you’ve got employees and you’ve got your shareholders. At Stanford, you have your faculty, your students, your alumni and the whole greater community,” he said.
Canady’s appointment at the GSB marks the completion of a change in the school’s leadership team. Soule became Dean of the GSB in June 2025, replacing Jonathan Levin ’94 after he was appointed University president in 2024.
As a newcomer to the GSB’s management team, Canady said that he was interested in the school’s investment initiatives. On this subject, Canady says he is still in “learning mode,” and frequently has conversations with colleagues.
He said he is currently taking the “30, 60, 90 day approach,” a management science framework that sets employees up in their first three months of a new role. He identified budgeting amid university-wide fiscal constraints and the adoption of artificial intelligence as some of his early priorities.
“I want to make sure I’m not bringing a bias into things,” Canady said. “I want to go with an open mind and just see… what we should be focusing on.”
Canady said the most important reason for his transition to academia is to continue learning, describing himself as a “learner by nature.”
“Part of the reason I’m here is the view that I can continue to learn and grow,” he said. “I felt like this environment — there’s ample opportunities to learn, grow and add value.”