Building bridges into the Future

The CEMS Global Alliance Strategic Board was hosted by the Koç University Graduate School of Business in Turkey this week to discuss the future of business education and the different aspects of talent, as future leaders are becoming actors of disruption.
Building bridges into the Future- Group Picture

More than 20 deans and business leaders gathered to discuss the future of business education at Koç University this week. Members of the Strategic Board of CEMS, The Global Alliance in Management Education, converged in Istanbul to discuss the CEMS Vision action plan to set the direction on business education around responsible leadership, including for a much more inclusive business environment. CEMS, the Global Alliance in Management Education, is a global alliance of 31 leading business schools, over 70 multinational companies and 7 NGOs, which work together to deliver the CEMS Master in International Management (MIM).

CEMS Executive Director, Roland Siegers says, “We are so grateful to Koç University for their warm hospitality in a city that has long been recognized as building the bridge between continents, cultures and religions. Koc University is an important factor of economic and societal innovation, and it has very strong ties to the corporate world on a world-class campus.”

Hosted by Zeynep Gürhan Canlı, the dean of the College of Administrative Sciences and Economics and the Director of the Graduate School of Business at Koç University, the Strategic Board assessed the new CEMS Vision Action Plan covering the value propositions of various stakeholders, and the CEMS MIM offer, in light of the CEMS Vision.

Dr. Gürhan Canlı said “I am delighted to host this year’s CEMS Global Alliance Strategic Board Meeting at Koc University, Istanbul. I find that these meetings are not only a great opportunity to exchange ideas but also an avenue to see where our alliance is headed, what we need to do to improve the student value proposition, especially in an ever-changing world. In this regard, it is only fitting that our main topic this year is how to prepare talent for the future sustainability challenges in the age of disruption.”

A mini forum followed the meeting where the audience was addressed with a Keynote speech from Marco Neto of UNDP IICPSD, which led the discussions around the topic of disruption and the influence of the fast advancement of technology in a globalized environment on talent as well as future leaders who are becoming the actors of the disruption.

Members of the CEMS Strategic Board include:

The deans from CEMS schools, including Ingmar Björkman from AALTO, Sherif Kamel from AUC, Per Holten Andersen from CBS, Zita Zoltay-Paprika from CUB , Eugenia Bieto from ESADE, Luiz A. Ledur Brtio from FGV, Konstantin Krotov from GSOM, Peter Todd from HEC, Bharatendu Nath Srivastava from IIMC , Mark Vandenbosch from Ivey, Masa Inakage from Keio, Zeynep Gürhan Canlı from Koç , Naufel Vilcassim from LSE, Michel de Wolf from LSM, Daniel Traça from NOVA, Lars Strannegard from SSE, Anthony Brabazon and Andrew Keating from UCD, Hana Machkova from VSE , Thomas Bieger from HSG , Greg Whitwell from USYD and Edeltraud Hanappi-Egger from WU have attented the meeting.

Also in attendance were the top executives from the CEMS Corporate Partners, including Buket Çelebiöven from Arçelik, Mirko Warschum from A.T Kearney, Zhengrong Liu from Beiersdorf AG, Bertrand de Laleu from L’Oréal, Seran Ersan from Li & Fung.

Nicole de Fontaines, the Secretary General and Roland Siegers Executive Director have represented the CEMS Alliance in the Strategic Board.