Business professionals Pamela de Beus, Arno van Dijk, Bart de Graaff, Manon de Zwart, Marion Geraats, Lucila Perez Mollo, Andreia Paiva, Marloes Smittenaar, Mariëlle Stege, Stefan Vasic and Claudia Verbeek have more than 12 years of work experience, and now have senior or director positions in various fields, from the corporate world to government and education. The 11 graduates represent 5 nationalities: Argentinian, Dutch, German, Portuguese and Swiss.
The online audience was welcomed by RSM Dean Ansgar Richter and the programme’s executive director Marijke Baumann.
Keynote speaker Patrick van Hees is an inspirator and happiness expert. He spoke to the graduates about leadership and personal happiness. He said it’s all about ‘CAR’, which stands for connections, actions and recharge. Van Hees said the Rotterdam philosopher Desiderius Erasmus was in favour of a balanced life too. Then he shared five tips for ‘happy corporate communication masters’:
- Put ‘recharging’ at the top of your to-do list
- Adapt a ‘mindful media use’ style
- Within corporate communication, try to connect to relevant happiness predictors, aligning with corporate values
- Look for the lights inside of the tunnel, instead of waiting until you’ve reached the end of it
- Who can you help? Which charity might you support? Whose light might you be?
Thesis awards
There were two awards as part of the ceremony. The 2020 Professor Cees van Riel Award for Impact in Corporate Communication went to Marloes Smittenaar for her thesis The pressure to change: the role of climate change communication strategies in the energy industry. She was presented the award by Professor Emeritus Cees van Riel, who is the founder of the MCC programme.
Graduate Claudia Verbeek won the Andreas Award for Innovation in Corporate Communication 2020 for her thesis Part of the deal? Explaining job switching behaviour of key talent though the lens of the push-pull-mooring model. The award was announced by Ing. Dries van de Beek, former chairman of the board of RSM’s Corporate Communication Centre.
Coach Guido Berens and Marijke Baumann presented the diplomas to all the graduates. They said the participants’ theses cover highly relevant topics, and are ‘academic works with truly practical value’.
Executive MSc in Corporate Communication
The part-time Executive Master of Science in Corporate Communication (MCC) is developed by RSM’s Corporate Communication Centre. Around 1,300 business professionals from 30 countries and nationalities have completed modules and workshops of the programme as short courses. More than 300 of them have graduated with an MSc in Corporate Communication title.
Graduates from the MCC programme usually apply their thesis research in their daily job, or it can open doors to new opportunities. From the Class of 2019, Bart van Leeuwen’s research was published in a professional business magazine for banks and insurance companies, and he is frequently asked to speak about his research at workshops and conferences. Sara Vernooij’s research was published in C-Magazine, the magazine for communication professionals in the Netherlands. And a recent article by Professor Paul Argenti in Harvard Business Review was co-based on the thesis research by Sanne Verhoeven.
