The ceremony took place in the beautiful Salle Henri Leboeuf in the magnificent Art Nouveau Bozar Centre for Fine Arts. Keynote speaker was Swiss psychiatrist and balloonist Bertrand Piccard, the first person to complete a non-stop balloon flight around the globe. He is currently working on an ‘airplane of perpetual endurance’, the Solar Impulse, capable of flying day and night on solar power during a circumnavigation of the earth. In a moving speech, he told graduands to never give up, and never to allow themselves to be stopped by others saying that dreams could not be realised. “Continue and endure and you will achieve your dreams,” he said.
A valedictory speech by two CEMS MiM graduates from Louvain School of Management, which organised the ceremony, included the CEMS value statement for upholding and being guided by CEMS principles; the pursuit of excellence with the highest standards of integrity, humility, and ethical conduct; professional responsibility and accountability in relation to society and the environment; and drawing upon the value of cultural diversity with respect and empathy. The two speakers spoke on behalf of their fellow graduates when they asserted their decisions and actions, now and in the future, will reflect the commitment to global citizenship made on the day of graduation.
A party after the graduation for CEMS graduates, family and friends, CEMS corporate partners, CEMS alumni and the CEMS academic community celebrated the new cohort of young, promising and responsible leaders.
The CEMS Master in International Management programme is an RSM flagship programme. It is ranked among the top seven of its kind worldwide by the Financial Times. CEMS gathers the best business schools from 29 participating countries worldwide: one per country. RSM is the only Dutch business school in the CEMS network.
CEMS is a global alliance of academic and corporate institutions dedicated to educating and preparing future generations of global business leaders to enter into a multilingual, multicultural and interconnected business world through the CEMS Master’s in International Management (MIM). CEMS promotes global citizenship, with a particular emphasis on these values: the pursuit of excellence with high standards of performance and ethical conduct; understanding and drawing upon cultural diversity with respect and empathy; and professional responsibility and accountability in relation to society as a whole. www.cems.org
Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) is ranked among Europe’s top 10 business schools for education and among the top three for research. RSM provides ground-breaking research and education furthering excellence in all aspects of management and is based in the international port city of Rotterdam - a vital nexus of business, logistics and trade. RSM’s primary focus is on developing business leaders with international careers who carry their innovative mindset into a sustainable future thanks to a first-class range of bachelor, master, MBA, PhD and executive programmes. RSM also has offices in the Amsterdam Zuidas business district and in Taipei, Taiwan. www.rsm.nl
For more information on RSM or on this release, please contact Marianne Schouten, Media & Public Relations Manager for RSM, on +31 10 408 2877 or by email at mschouten@rsm.nl.
