All business is global business in today’s multinational society. Wharton alumni, who lead industries around the world, are the driving force behind Wharton’s Global Alumni Forums, which bring together alumni, faculty, and business leaders to meet and discuss cutting-edge business topics.
This year’s alumni forums, organized by local alumni leaders in collaboration with Wharton and the INSEAD Alliance, will happen in Singapore on May 26-28, in London on June 9-12, and in Santiago, Chile on June 30-July 1. These meetings follow last year’s highly successful sessions in Moscow, Shanghai, and Mexico City.
Dean Patrick T. Harker will attend all three forums, along with Wharton faculty members and distinguished alumni from companies and industries around the world.
Singapore Forum Focuses on Global Crossroads
The Alumni Forum in Singapore will reflect that country’s role in the global economy with the theme, “Crossroads: A Fusion of Ideas, Cultures & Opportunities.” The keynote speaker is Goh Chok Tong, Senior Minister of Singapore, and Wharton alumni speakers include M.R. Pridiyathorn Devakula, WG’70, Governor of the Central Bank of Thailand; Akinari Horii, WG’81, Director General of the International Department Bank of Japan; and Chanthol Sun, AMP'97, Minister of Public Works and Transport for the Kingdom of Cambodia.
Wharton faculty participants include Raphael (Raffi) Amit, Robert B. Goergen Professor of Entrepreneurship and Professor of Management; Janice R. Bellace, Associate Provost, Samuel A. Blank Professor of Legal Studies, and Professor of Management; Richard J. Herring, Jacob Safra Professor of International Banking and Professor of Finance; and Marshall W. Meyer, Richard A. Sapp Professor and Professor of Management and Sociology.
The session also features an optional trip to the ruins at Angkor Wat in Cambodia, which cover hundreds of square kilometers and consist of thousands of structures. Angkor Wat was begun by Khmer (Cambodian) Kings in the ninth century and then built up over the next 400 years. Introduced to the contemporary world in 1863, it has been undergoing detailed archaeological reconstruction ever since.
Wharton has previously held well-attended alumni meetings throughout Asia, in such cities as Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul, and Manila.
Santiago and London Host Meetings
For the first time, alumni, faculty, and distinguished speakers will hold a global alumni forum in Santiago, Chile, discussing the theme “Leadership in an Ever-Changing and Global World.” Featured speakers will include Bill Keller, AMP'00, Executive Editor of The New York Times; Brian Roberts, W’81, Chairman and CEO of Comcast; and Vittorio Corbo, President of the Board of the Central Bank of Chile. Ricardo Lagos Escobar, President of Chile, has also been invited to speak.
Faculty participants include George S. Day, Geoffrey T. Boisi Professor, Professor of Marketing, co-director of the Mack Center for Technological Innovation, and director of the Emerging Technologies Management Research Program; Eric Clemons, Professor of Operations and Information Management and Management; and Olivia Mitchell, International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans Professor, Professor of Insurance and Risk Management and Business and Public Policy, Executive Director of the Pension Research Council, and director of the Boettner Center for Pensions and Retirement Research.
The Alumni Forum in London will include panels and plenary sessions around the topic, “250 Years of Globalisation.” Alumni participants will include Marco De Benedetti, WG'87, CEO of Telecom Italia Mobile; Leonard A. Lauder, W'54, Chairman of Estée Lauder Companies; Aditya Mittal, W'96, President and Group CFO of Mittal Steel Company; and forum organizer Sir Paul Judge, WG'73, Chairman of the Royal Society of Arts.
Faculty participants will include Professor Tom Donaldson, Mark O. Winkelman Professor and Professor of Legal Studies, on Corporate Social Responsibility; Professor Richard Herring, Jacob Safra Professor of International Banking, Professor of Finance, director of The Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies, and co-director of the Wharton Financial Institutions Center, on EMEA Financial Markets; and Professor Stephen Kobrin, William H. Wurster Professor of Multinational Management, on Global Strategy.
The demands of fast-paced, multinational companies for superior global education have also spurred the Alliance between Wharton and INSEAD, which has led to new ties between alumni of the two schools. This alliance combines the resources of two world leaders in management education to deliver top-quality business education to students and executives across four dedicated campuses: Wharton's U.S. campuses in Philadelphia and San Francisco, and those of INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, and Singapore.
