- IMD Business School
News Stories · Leadership

An impactful EMBA journey celebrated

The 2017 cohort of EMBAs graduate
June 2017

On Friday, June 2 an amazing group of global leaders graduate the IMD Executive MBA program.

The group of 46 participants represent 21 industries and 24 different nationalities including Canada, Brazil, Saudi, South African, Kazakh, Japanese, and many more. Some lead large multinationals like Maersk, SAP, Volkswagen, or JP Morgan; others are from family businesses, some in start-ups, and others in NGOs like the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Many already hold a postgraduate degree in engineering or sciences, some a PhD in their field – but all have joined for one reason: to never stop learning.

The transformational journey across 15+ months brought the group to Switzerland, took them to Silicon Valley, Beijing and Shanghai, then split them up between Mumbai, Vietnam and Brazil. They each completed a real world series of five general management projects for their own companies exploring strategy, customer focus, finance, digital business and organizational design. They dove deep into their leadership capabilities with teams and personal coaching, and defined their career strategy to achieve transformative impact for themselves, their teams and their organizations.

The class wrote 16 unique business cases supervised by faculty, pitched 10 different start-ups in Silicon Valley, completed the intense crisis management simulation partnered with the Swiss Armed Forces.

Each graduate moves forward from the program with broad horizons, company networks, new friendships, and a clear vision of their own careers. They move forward as an Executive Master of Business Administration, but more importantly as more reflective leader with a high sense of self awareness.

Most will continue in their current companies, taking on greater management and leadership responsibilities and continuing to capitalize on the company projects they developed, both in the short and long term. Some will create their own companies, others will join the boards of companies. And at IMD, we look forward to welcoming them all back for alumni reunions and special events.

IMD congratulates the outgoing class and wishes them the best for the future.

Find out more about IMD’s EMBA.

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