“When I visited the GSB, I felt the palpable energy and magic on campus and knew that Stanford was where I wanted to go.”
Between watching her parents run their own organic farm in upstate New York throughout her childhood to scaling the Athleta Girl business in her early career, Shane Dunau, MBA ’24, realized that she loved “turning crazy, creative ideas into reality.” She left her position as Director of Merchandising for Athleta Girl to come to business school to “gain the skills and confidence to run [her] own firm or company one day.”
Throughout her career at Athleta, Shane focused on highlighting the life stage of puberty. “From talking to customers in focus groups, I was constantly reminded of the huge physical and emotional changes that happen in puberty that are seldom talked about,” says Shane. “I felt that if we could celebrate milestones like getting your first period or buying a bra, we could have a big impact on the way girls see themselves in the future.”
At Stanford, Shane is one of the co-presidents for Women in Management, and has continued her work advocating for women and gender inclusivity, particularly regarding issues that shape women’s confidence, health, and wealth. “Right now, only 2% of VC dollars go to founding teams that are all women, despite teams with female founders having statistically better returns than all-male teams.” She’s committed to improving these numbers by either investing in or coaching female founders in the future.
Within the classroom, Shane notes how the confidence gap impacts gender dynamics as well. “As women, we are slower to raise our hands, self-editing before we give ourselves the chance to speak because that’s how we’ve been taught. I have tried to model speaking up, even when I’m unsure. I want to show that you don’t need to be perfect to have something to contribute to the conversation.”
In just a few months, Shane will graduate with her MBA degree. “I’m leaving Stanford believing that I can accomplish great things because the people around me have given me the confidence to see that for myself.”
