Budget and Auxiliaries alum here.<p>B&amp;A is a boring-sounding organization which is the primary <i>income sheet</i> profit-center, which rakes in slightly more than tuition; SMC is <i>balance sheet</i> (aka investment) management.<p>Stanford is unlike most other universities in the fact that there is no pretense of firewalling business opportunity development from academic research.  I think this pushes away some pure-research, money-is-evil people and attracts more entrepreneurial folks.