- Rishi Sunak and Akshata Murty returned to Stanford as commencement speakers for the Class of 2025.
- Ms Murty described Stanford as a transformational experience that changed their lives and perspectives.
- Mr Sunak emphasised the limitations of data in decision-making and the importance of tangible actions.
Two decades after meeting and falling in love on campus, former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his wife, investor and philanthropist Akshata Murty, returned to Stanford Graduate School of Business, not as students but as commencement speakers for the Class of 2025.
"This is literally where we met," said Ms Murty during the address on Saturday. Recalling her journey from India to California, she described Stanford as "nothing short of transformational."
"It opened our eyes to a whole new way of thinking. It also changed the course of our lives," she said.
Ms Murty revealed that a former admissions director once told her, based only on their application essays, that she and Mr Sunak were destined to be together. "So, thank you, Stanford. Twenty years and two daughters later, forget about being the best business school in the world, you're an even better matchmaking service," she joked.
Later, she posted a photo from their favourite spot in Stanford on Instagram, writing, "Back up at the Dish for our favourite morning run in Stanford."
In her speech, Ms Murty also shared a memory from their student days. "There was no one more annoying than Rishi when we would go on a run. He would beg to come and then he would want to talk to me the whole way around the loop."
Together, the couple shared three key life lessons they have learned along the way.
The first lesson was about the "comfort of data." "I'm a numbers guy," Mr Sunak said, mentioning how it helped him bond with his father-in-law, Infosys founder Narayana Murthy. But he said there were limitations. "Data can't look around corners," he said.
The second takeaway was led by Ms Murty, who focused on bridging idealism with practicality. Reflecting on her early drive to address inequality and push for social change, she spoke about how Mr Sunak would constantly challenge her to think deeper. "He always asked, 'how?' I had genuinely never met someone my age who thought like that," she said.
That approach, she explained, helped her shift from purely idealistic goals to taking small, tangible steps that could lead to meaningful impact.
"There was no one more intriguing than Rishi when he was talking to me about how to affect social change at scale. Idealism is inspiring, but he helped me see that if it's untethered from reality, there is no traction. You float without impact. I learned from him that the path to achieving something transformational is rooted in the gravity of tangible steps," she said.
The third principle was drawn from the Sanskrit idea of Dharma, the notion of doing one's duty without obsessing over the result. "It's about finding fulfillment in effort, not outcomes," they said.
Mr Sunak closed the speech with a tribute to their relationship, "We've always pushed each other's thinking to become sharper and better."
The graduates of Stanford's Class of 2006, got married in 2009.
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