Only a few of Rishi Sunak’s Stanford professors remember him now, says report

Rishi Sunak is vying for the UK prime minister post.

United Kingdom's former finance minister Rishi Sunak, now in the race to become prime minister, is an alumnus of the Stanford business school.  Many would expect his teachers at the prestigious college to remember him but that does not seem to be the case.

The Guardian interviewed 12 professors from Sunak's time (2004-2006) at Stanford. None of them remembered teaching him.

Others had a vague memory of him.

Robert Joss, who was then Stanford business school's dean, told The Guardian there are about 400 students in each graduating class so it is not possible to know everyone well.

"You remember the students that get in trouble or the students that won the big prizes," he said.

One Stanford professor, Jeffrey Pfeffer, said he remembered Sunak being one of his students.

In a LinkedIn post, he hoped for his students to rise to positions where they can make a difference in the world.

Another professor, James Van Horne, initially did not remember Sunak but later found that he was enrolled in one of his classes on corporate finance.

“He was a good student and participated well, but beyond that I do not have a lot of recollection,” Van Horne was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

But a professor who Sunak cited in one of his speeches as chancellor had no memory of him at all.

“I have no recollection of ever interacting with him,” Paul Romer, a Nobel laureate, told The Guardian.

Sunak is competing with UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss in the prime ministerial race. The new UK premier will be announced in September.