15th Anniversary CEMS Student Board

15th Anniversary CEMS Student Board

Content Editorial

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Executive Team (ET)

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Master in International Management (MIM) Team

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Corporate Partners (CP) Team …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 8 15 Years CEMS Student Board ……………………………..…………………………………………………………………………………………. 10 Alumni Relations (AR) Team

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Marketing & Communications (M&C) Team ………….…………………………………………………………………………………………. 14 CEMS Club Support (CCS) Team

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Global Sustainability Team (GST)

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Contact studentboard@cemsmail.org

www.facebook.com/CEMS.StudentBoard

@cems_alliance

Impressum © 2015 CEMS Student Board. Chief editor: David Staub. Co-editors: Maria Constanza Santis, Tutku Altinbas, Matthias Hoi, Diana Ho Shu Li, Eimhin McEvoy, Ying Ying Shum, Triona Campbell, Karel Kotoun, Merve Önbas, Arthur Brun, Milka Hänninen, Olga Gębka, Dinesh Sheombar, Federico Farolfi, Janik Hoehne, Christian Klingkowski, Aron Berhe, Iskander Shafigullin, Qingquing Xia, Christina Lomazzo, Florence Bernard, Jakub Mazal, Zsófia Simon, Sander Verberne, Hans-Dieter Steguweit, Arnav Chawla, Juliette ten Brink, Marius Declerck, Mathilde Carraro, Takuya Takizume, Mascha Sörensen, Sinan Al-Mansour, Bilun Berkan, Julianna Alanne.

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Editorial Dear CEMSies, Dear friends of the Student Board,

Dear CEMSies, Dear Student Board Representatives,

Going back in time, picture twelve students sitting around a table in Paris with the objective to envision how to best place the students opinion at the heart of CEMS operations. To give the students a voice in their own educational future, to strive to make CEMS a better place for generations to come.

In my opinion one of the best strategic moves for the alliance.

It is the people that make the difference in each organization. The most concentrated and the purest CEMS spirit can be found only within the CEMS SB. It is then an honor to be celebrating the 15 year anniversary of such an incredible organization. It is also crucial to be reviewing the achievements and projects the Student Board has been associated with during the past years.

Today, the CEMS student board represents the global student body, members sit on the major boards and committees that comprise the decision making and operational bodies of the alliance. The student voice is more than ever an inspirational force whose opinions are called upon often, and respected. And each member, going back fifteen years, has played a part in this accomplishment.

The range and the variety of projects that the Student Board has successfully put in place and will continue to implement is extensive. The purpose of this celebratory magazine is not to highlight all of the projects that have been implemented, but rather, it serves to demonstrate the pivotal role which the Student Board has taken up within the CEMS Alliance.

So from the very first few of you who sat at the table that day, to the newest elected members joining at the next meeting and all future meetings I hope you will always hold true to ‘The CEMS spirit’ - known as a mix of curiosity, passion for international experiences, tolerance for crosscultural differences as well as faith in your values. We need this more and more in the world we live in together.

One of the aims of the Student Board is to build bridges across cultures and continents. In this respect, the Student Board has been at the forefront of many projects that have aided enormously the developments of CEMS. Among such projects, we find notably the SAMP, cemsshare.net webhosting platform for CEMS Clubs, Global Value Statement, Podio, CEMS Shop, the Global Ambassador Program or the inaugural CEMS Asia Pacific Forum hosted in Singapore this year.

It has been an immense pleasure to get to know you all, work with you and one thing that you can be sure of, CEMS is very proud of each and every one of you.

I would like to express an immense gratitude towards all the past and future Student Board members for making CEMS and the world a better place, thank you!

Enjoy this flashback of the past fifteen years, special projects, very special people. Keep in touch with us, and with each other.

I hope you enjoy looking through this magazine as much as I did.

Happy anniversary,

Yours truly,

Triona Campbell Founder CEMS Student Board

Karel Kotoun President 2014/15 CEMS Student Board

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Executive Team (ET) What does the ET do?

What are the ET’s main projects in 2015/16?

The Executive Team is there to manage the entire Student Board, to coordinate and lead all the representatives in their various projects. In addition the Executive Team represents the Student Board towards a variety of stakeholders. The executive team ensures that the Student Board’s strategy is aligned with the long term goals of the CEMS alliance as a whole and works together with other CEMS stakeholders towards those goals. Finally the team strives to gather students’ views on different topics to communicate those to the CEMS Head Office and other stakeholders within the alliance in order to ensure that the students’ insights are taken into account in all decision making.

In 2015 the executive team grew from a team of two into a team of three reflecting the growing need for coordination as the work of the Student Board becomes more complex. The ET directs and coordinates the work of the Student Board. The ET strives to provide the student board members with a working environment that enables the maximum impact with the given resources. To that end the ET will concentrate its efforts on creating a clear strategy for the next five years exploring the possible gains of altering the SB's organizational structure readjusting the student board's knowledge management to boost transparency and efficiency.

What has the ET accomplished over the past 15 years?

Strategy: Traditionally the ET has outlined objectives on a year-by-year basis. While having tangible objectives is crucial, the lack of a longer-term view and a clear mission makes it challenging for the Student Board to communicate about its work in a meaningful way. In addition a view for the future should help to guide and prioritize the work of the Student Board and the use of its resources.

Since its establishment the Student Board has been the voice of all CEMS students across the alliance. The Student board has worked towards enhancing the CEMS experience for the students through supporting interaction between the students and the academic and corporate stakeholders as well the CEMS alumni. The complexity of the cooperation has grown steadily through the years hand in hand with the growth of the whole alliance. The Executive team has supported the Student Board in facilitating best practice sharing among the schools, supporting interaction between the schools, enhancing the curriculum through valuable student input, raising awareness on sustainability and helped CEMS in growing into a truly global alliance.

Moreover the Student Board has provided the students with opportunities to network and develop to their careers.

Organization of Work: The student board is currently organized into 6 teams (with a seventh 'ad hoc' team to be considered for the 2016). Given the planned expansion of the CEMS network the ET thinks it is a worthwhile exercise to reassess whether dividing the Student Board into the current six (or seven) teams is likely to continue to be the most efficient way of organizing our work.

Knowledge Management: Majority of the work of the Student Board takes place online. The Student Board representatives work jointly on complex projects across time zones. Moreover, each handover poses a risk of losing important information and insights if not handled properly. Appropriate online tools are crucial for effective knowledge management and for maximum working efficiency. The ET team plans to reassess different possibilities and to create a set of guidelines to support knowledge management.

Contact: studentboard@cemsmail.org

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ET 2015: Karel Kotoun, Merve Önbas (from left to right). Missing: Arthur Brun

Voices from the past 15 years Georg Woschnagg Student Board Representative 2000/01 «The idea of the Student Board was to engage CEMS students to actively shape the CEMS program together with the academics, corporates and alumni in order to create a strong global network. […]

The Student Board has become an important part of the CEMS community and has achieved a lot over the years. To become a standing member of the CEMS Executive Committee allowed CEMS students to bring in new ideas and therefore to actively shape the future of the CEMS alliance.»

Lorraine Jorquera Student Board President 2002/03 «I feel that the CEMS Student Board has really encouraged the views and opinions of students to be heard. This, for me, is its greatest achievement. To have students’ voices heard within this network is amazing and crucial to the continuing success of CEMS. […] No matter what your choice of career is, go for it because you can achieve more than you think you can. And you never know, one day you could turn a hobby into a whole career!»

Torsten Röwekamp Student Board Representative 2000/01 «My passion for CEMS comes from networking, curiosity for different cultures and the great people the CEMS program brings forward. On top, I felt that I could really make an impact on the further development of CEMS by being part of the SB. The value of an academic program for me depends on three factors. Quality of education, reputation of the institution and alumni network. That is why we came up with C for content, A for awareness and N for networking.»

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Master in International Management (MIM) Team What does the MIM Team do?

The MIM Affairs Team works on developing the CEMS Master in International Management program content.

One of the key tasks is to provide the CEMS Head Office with students’ perspective on different topics. MIM Affairs Team takes actively part in researching potential new universities or conducting peer reviews on participating Universities. One of the latest initiatives that is promoted by the MIM Team is the inclusion of more entrepreneurship-related elements into the CEMS curriculum. Overall the MIM Affairs Team strives to improve the coherence of the CEMS program, and to ensure that all CEMSies across the globe are able to fully enjoy their CEMS experience.

What has the MIM Team accomplished over the past 15 years?

Over the past fifteen years, CEMS has evolved into a global alliance with a diverse range of academic, corporate and social partners. During this journey of continuous improvement, the MIM Team is very proud to have worked closely with Head Office to conduct research and to provide strategic insights on different topics. This ranges from the proposal of new universities, introduction of a virtual CEMS educationfair, corporate partner benchmarking and many evaluations about the CEMS curriculum. Over the years the MIM Team has made sure that the students' perspective will be heard when making important decisions that affect the program. The greatest accomplishment of the MIM Team is the holistic contribution to CEMS’ mission to educate and prepare future generations of global business leaders.

What are the MIM Team’s main projects in 2015/16?

Local Governance Structure: A lack of guidance on how to interact with the internal and external stakeholders has been slowing the interactions and the coordination at the local levels. The Local Governance Structure is a call to action toward the integration of the CEMS communities around the world: the main goal is to strengthen the relations both on and off campus, clarify roles and actions. It is made up of internal meetings between Local Office, Corporate Partners, Alumni and Student Board Representative and external meetings with Corporate Partners.

Blended Learning: New online content is currently being designed to different mandatory elements of the curriculum in order to introduce blended learning into the program. The new online content in the form of SPOCS (small private online courses) is being developed in cooperation with different universities. The first pilot project was created for the mandatory Global Strategy course and was launched in autumn 2015. The MIM team works together with the head office to gather feedback and to assist in marketing the new application throughout the community once finalized. The development of online modules for the Business Communication Skills Seminar and the Business Project is currently underway In addition members of the Student Board are involved in steering groups for the new projects, in order to provide instant student feedback and to facilitate knowledge sharing between the different pilot projects.

Entrepreneurship: Students’ perspective on ‘ideal course’ in the form of Position Paper was delivered to the Faculty Group specialized in Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship and will be further discussed on the special meeting in January 2016. Additionally to course, few other initiatives regarding entrepreneurial spirit within CEMS were also considered recently. These are for instance: constructing an additional program as start-up school, organizing an event with students pitching their ideas in front of experts or promoting crowdfunding within CEMS community.

Contact: mim.studentboard@cemsmail.org

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MIM Team 2015: Dinesh Sheombar, Olga Gębka, Milka Hänninen, Federico Farolfi (from left to right).

Voices from the past 15 years Christian Bjøl Student Board President 2005/06 «My SB experience taught me a lot of things about myself – notably how I thrive in a multicultural setting where I have to manage a lot of different cultural sensibilities. […] I think the most important thing the Student Board taught me was how rewarding it can be to work with a team for improving things on behalf of your community, in this case the student community. On the Student Board, no one was there by accident – everybody really wanted to be there and to make a difference.»

Wieteke Dupain Student Board President 2004/05 «I would like the CEMS Student Board to continue to represent the voice of the students; being a highly valued sounding board for the leadership of CEMS. To continue to influence CEMS future development on how to make CEMS even better than it is today. That it remains a learning ground for young leaders to develop skills and cultural empathy preparing you for success in your future career and for society. Last but not least, for the Student Board to continue to think and act as "alumni to be".»

Jonathan Hostens Student Board President 2008/09 «As a student you do not realize how you act, what impression you leave. Though, the impression is crucially important. You will make the difference when you have an informal contact. Reputation can get you a really long way. […] The Student Board gives us a chance to get a perspective on international organizations. Being involved at the top level brings you perspective of politics. The collaboration between the countries we cannot take for granted but thanks to this collaboration it produces something unique.»

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Corporate Partners (CP) Team What does the CP Team do?

The CP Team is currently the youngest one in the Student Board; it was founded about a year ago in order to facilitate and improve the quantity and quality of CEMS students’ exposure to the corporate world. We have been lately working on improving the quality of IT interaction between stakeholders including CEMS Corporate Partners. Our current goal is to strengthen the value proposition from CEMS to Corporate Partners in general and to enhance the interaction between Corporate Partners and students. We also help other Student Board teams to engage Corporate Partners in their projects. Apart from that, we work to enhance CEMS students’ career and work opportunities in general.

What has the CP Team accomplished over the past 15 years?

The most important accomplishment of the CP team thus far was the team’s first project, the “IT Offer”, started during the fall of 2014. The purpose of the project was to create an analysis of the existing ITchannels within the CEMS alliance, focusing on how to enhance the effectiveness of each of these. The report has been a part of the major IT-restructuring currently happening within the CEMS alliance, and it addresses the different challenges associated with the different IT-channels, as well as how to potentially solve them.

The aim has been to strengthen the line of communication between the different stakeholders in the alliance, and to solidify CEMS’ position in the forefront of management education.

What are the CP Team’s main projects in 2015/16?

Entrepreneurship Event Project: While many CEMS students are determined to work in big corporations, more and more CEMSies are getting interested in becoming entrepreneurs and starting on their own. The CEMS Student Board recognizes the need for greater exposure on entrepreneurship as an alternative career path and on entrepreneurial skills in general. Thus, we are planning to organize an event where CEMS students and alumni with startup ideas can get together to develop their projects and pitch to judges such as Corporate Partners and win prizes. With this event we aim not only to enhance the entrepreneurial part of the CEMS program, but also to exhibit entrepreneurial spirit of CEMS students to the Corporate Partners. The event is to be tried for the first time next year and could potentially become an annual thing in future.

Internship Guide Update: An internship is a compulsory part of the CEMS program. Students are responsible for finding their own internship and also for all official documents required for the employment, which makes it not an easy process for everyone. The Internship Guide is meant to provide students with practical information regarding both the administrative support available from CEMS member universities and the legal framework that applies in each respective country. The guide is published each year by the Head Office and this year we are helping with the update for 2016 version.

Value Proposition Project: This project is in its initial phase, we are currently discussing it and thinking it through. In a nutshell, we feel that the value proposition from CEMS to Corporate Partners could use some improvement, and that the interaction between Corporate Partners and students could be enhanced.

With this project we aim to gain a clearer understanding of the CEMS Corporate Partner Value Proposition and what can be done to strengthen it.

Also, it would be useful to know student preferences in terms of companies and sectors they want to work in, so that value proposition and corporate acquisition strategy are actually in line with student needs.

Contact: cp.studentboard@cemsmail.org

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CP Team 2015: Christian Klingkowski, Aron Berhe, Iskander Shafigullin (from left to right). Missing: Janik Hoehne, Julianna Alanne.

Voices from the past 15 years Magne Borgund Student Board President 2006/07 «The fact that so many in the CEMS Community in 2006/07 were opposing the idea of “CEMS going global” made me realize that even the brightest students and the most excellent representatives from the academic institutions were sometimes lacking the necessary visions to take something good and make it even better. Some decisions can simply not be taken based on extensive analysis alone – they require an open mind, an open heart and a willingness to imagine a “tomorrow” being different than what seems like a perfect “world” today.»

Maria Teresa Montiglio Student Board Representative 2014/15 «Students all over the world are demanding for an alliance with the values that CEMS has: topclass universities, multicultural context and great opportunities of networking, Latin America is not an exception to these demands. […] In the Student Board, we work together – and very hard-, we study together, and in the end, we are the greatest friends. That’s my most important learning: the SB taught me that friendship and results of excellence can be in a balance.»

Karol Górnowicz Student Board President 2012/13 «CEMS experience taught me to be brave and equipped me with enough confidence to stand up, speak my mind clearly with confidence. Furthermore, CEMS granted me a group of great friends who proved to be a source of great inspiration and motivation throughout my tenure and long afterwards. All in all I believe one of the strongest features of CEMS experience was realizing that there are literally no boundaries in terms of ideal profession and place where I could fulfill my plans.»

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15 Years CEMS Student Board

Representation Founding

CAN Structure

The CEMS Student Board is founded after the Executive Board request a formal link with the student body. The starting year is spent mainly on developing the mission statement, the structure and understanding the Student Board’s role and our focus areas.

The Content-AwarenessNetworking structure is introduced in the Student Board. The structure addresses academic content, brand awareness and the CEMS network.

The structure would come to govern the way the Student Board works for more than 7 years.

2000

2001

2002

2003

The Student Board becomes an official invitee of the Academic Committee, CEMS Coordinators meetings, Language Sub-Committee meetings and task forces.

The growing throughout the CEMS Governance Structure increases the influence of the Student Board.

2004

2005

Social Responsibility CSR is placed high on the agenda within the Student Board, and the work on charity projects is undertaken.

Project examples include “Walk the World” and “UNICEF Schools for Africa”.

2006

2007

SAMP

Articles of Association

cems.org Student Zone

CEMS goes global

The StudentAlumni-Mentorship Program (SAMP) allows students to make use of the valuable CEMS Alumni Association.

Alumni volunteer as mentors and give advice on personal and professional development and support students in their career planning.

The Articles of Association are created in 2003. CEMS Student Board is officially located in St. Gallen, Switzerland.

Launch of the completely redesigned Student Zone on cems.org with many new features, e.g. personal page with contact information, CV and career information and an up-todate overview of CEMS MIM modules and courses, completion and grades. In addition, several other pages and databases were created or improved.

The Student Board plays a key role in the decision to go global. Through thorough analysis of the benefits and drawbacks, the Student Board presents a convincing case for going global.

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New Mission & Structure

Global Values Statement

The Student Board introduces a new structure and mission statement in order to accommodate the global move by CEMS. The CAN structure is replaced by a structure that for the first time introduces CSR as a separate target area within the Student Board.

The Global Values Statement is launched for the first time during the Annual Events in Rotterdam. The GVS gives CEMS MIM graduates the opportunity to make a formal commitment to the CEMS principles on the day of their graduation.

2008

2009

2010

2011

New Generation Consulting

Global Sustainability Week

New Generation Consulting (NGC) is a consulting project set up and run by CEMS students with the support of the Student Board. NGC creates international virtual teams of CEMS students who acts as consultants giving advice to social enterprises to overcome a businessrelated challenge.

The Global Sustainability Week (GSW) is an annual event held by every CEMS school.

Through different local activities and events, CEMS students raise awareness about sustainability in business and everyday life.

2012

2013

2014

2015

Selection Process

Podio

Alumni of the Quarter

Asia-Pacific Forum

The Student Board plays an important role in the selection task force through extensive data gathering and sourcing. The Student Board continues to support the harmonization of the selection process. ‘Integrity’ was successfully included into the new selection criteria.

Podio is introduced as a platform for the Student Board members to replace the former outdated platform. This collaboration software allows all members of the Student Board to work and share task in an easy way given that they are located all around the globe.

Alumni of the Quarter is a campaign aimed at the whole CEMS community and provides an opportunity to showcase and celebrate the success of CEMS alumni. Each quarter, three alumni are selected out of a pool of nominees and via online voting CEMS students and alumni can vote for their favorite candidates. Since 2015, this project continues as Alumni of the Year campaign.

The CEMS Asia-Pacific Forum (APF) is the first student-led regional CEMS event in Asia. The first forum was hosted by National University of Singapore (NUS) and included 60 CEMS students interacting with corporate partners through workshops, skill seminars and case competitions.

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Alumni Relations (AR) Team What does the AR Team do?

The Alumni Relations team aims at improving studentalumni relations and the visibility and engagement of the CEMS Alumni Association within the CEMS community by closely collaborating with the CEMS Student Board, CEMS Clubs and the CEMS Alumni Association (CAA).

What has the AR Team accomplished over the past 15 years?

The Alumni Relations (AR) team was only founded in 2013, which makes it one of the youngest teams in the CEMS Student Board. From the beginning, the team benefitted from the close collaboration with the CAA, especially the CAA Executive Director Wieteke Dupain.

In the two years of its existence, AR has accomplished several projects that support many CEMS stakeholders on the alumni side. For the CEMS students, the Student Alumni Mentoring Program (SAMP) Guide was created in 2014 to help students establish and manage the SAMP on a local level. On the global level, the Global Advisory & Mentoring Platform (GAMP) was introduced in 2014 by the CAA, which the AR team supports with its promotion throughout the CEMS community. In 2013, the AR team introduced the pilot Alumni of the Quarter initiative and continues ever since with it as the Alumni of the Month/Year campaign celebrating and presenting the CEMS alumni to the CEMS community. The Local Governance Guide accomplished in 2015 aims at standardizing and facilitating the CEMS stakeholder interaction to create a more engaged and informed CEMS community.

What are the AR Team’s main projects in 2015/16?

Global Alumni Week: The GAW is a globally organized week of activities that involves all CEMS stakeholders with a special focus on alumni and students. The first GAW will take place from April 4th to 10th 2016 and shall then become an annual event similar to the Global Sustainability Week. The core of the week are a combination of global and local events. The global events will be digital; the local events, organized by every CEMS Club individually, will cover a range of formal and informal activities. The goal of the GAW is to create more engagement with alumni, students and corporate partners internally, and to increase the value of the alumni network of the CAA both internally and externally.

Business Project Brochure: The BP Brochure is a guide for CEMS alumni to explain the value of the CEMS Business Project and, ultimately, to engage alumni to apply for business projects with their current employer or start-up. The BP Brochure will clarify any doubts about what the business project is, what its aim is and how alumni can apply to become a business project partner. In the end, this brochure shall lead to more applications for supervising the business project from CEMS alumni. For companies it is an effective tool to brand themselves for soon-to-be graduates and to get insights from the academic world. For alumni, potentially supervising the project, it is a chance to gain project management skills as well as to get additional capacities from a passionate team of students.

Alumni of the Year Campaign: In order to celebrate the CEMS community as a whole, we would like to applaud our alumni for their successes since graduating from the CEMS MIM program. Therefore, each month one alumnus/alumna will be featured in the CEMS’ social media channels. A short interview and a profile present each month’s alumnus/alumna and his/her connection to CEMS. Before the Annual Events at the end of November each year, out of all alumni of the month the CEMS community and the CAA Board will elect the Alumni of the Year, who will be honored during the Annual Events.

Contact: ar.studentboard@cemsmail.org

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AR Team 2015: Diana Ho Shu Li, Eimhin McEvoy, Tutku Altinbas, Matthias Hoi, Ying Ying Shum (from left to right).

Missing: Mascha Sörensen.

Voices from the past 15 years Thomas Rüdiger Smith Student Board President 2009/10 «There are so many learnings from having led this group of people. You learn a lot about yourself, your passions, working and motivating people. I think that the most important thing that I take away and still practice today as a manager, is that when people are passionate - give them all the space they need and you will see great things. Personally, it was a year of immense personal development and I learnt a lot about my limitations, strengths and weaknesses - things that I could not be without.»

Kate Simpson Student Board Representative 2008-2009 «With 1 day’s notice, I jumped on a flight from Dublin to Valencia for my first Student Board meeting. Little did I know about the adventure that awaited me on the other side. We discussed, deliberated and debated in various languages, lingoes and lexicons during the meeting. It felt like being on an episode of The Apprentice and the Eurovision all at the same time . If the Student Board is not the best preparation for the international boardroom, I don’t know what is. The most enjoyable part of the experience was making friends for life that cross borders and cultures.»

Tom Zacharski Student Board Vice-President 2009/10 «Having nearly 30 representatives each from a different country, background, and school in a room, discussing common issues was the most rewarding experience of my CEMS career. It's surprising how similar we can all be in our thinking, yet when it comes to details we all contribute through different ways of viewing problems. All of us were passionate about the program and genuinely wanted to change it which made for an extremely fun "work hard, play hard" mentality.»

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Marketing & Communications (M&C) Team What does the M&C Team do?

The M&C team is supporting the CEMS Student Board, the CEMS Head Office and the different CEMS Clubs in marketing and communication issues. We organize, standardize and coordinate communication flow from mentioned stakeholders to CEMS students. We manage the Student Board’s social media accounts and help the Head Office managing the official CEMS accounts.

Apart from social media, we support other Student Board teams and the CEMS Clubs in online and offline marketing and communication campaigns. We also help CEMS Clubs in going global with their campaigns. Last but not least, we facilitate internal Student Board communication with tools like the internal Student Board newsletter, which is published on a monthly basis.

What has the M&C Team accomplished over the past 15 years?

We built up two successful social media channels: The official CEMS Student Board Facebook page with over 1500 likes and the official CEMS Instagram account with over 300 followers at the moment. Apart from that, we also launched a WeChat account for our friends in Beijing, since access to Facebook is restricted in China. The step into Chinese social media was in line with our strategy to give the non-European member schools in America and Asia-Pacific more visibility on our channels. Furthermore, we have a lot of projects that were launched in the past and are ongoing. Worth mentioning are here especially the “Catching up with CEMSies” and the “New Faces in the Student Board” campaigns, which are both a huge success and gave the Student Board a lot of visibility in the past.

What are the M&C Team’s main projects in 2015/16?

Instagram Project: The popularity of Instagram has continuously been rising recently. Not surprising that at some point also the voices of CEMS students asking for a presence of CEMS on Instagram got louder. With the approval of CEMS Head Office, we launched the official CEMS Instagram account @cems_alliance in the course of summer 2015. We currently have three Instagram ambassadors. They are all current CEMS students posting pictures which represent their CEMS life. Furthermore, we monitor all pictures that are posted using the hashtag #CEMS and repost the nicest and funniest ones. In 2016, we plan to run a photo competition among all CEMSies in order to find the next generation of CEMS Instagram ambassadors.

Wikipedia Project: Wikipedia is an important source of information for almost everyone these days. We noticed that there were basically only an English and a German article about CEMS. In our opinion, this didn’t really reflect the global CEMS spirit. Therefore, we set ourselves the goal that there should be an informative article about CEMS in at least all the national languages of CEMS member schools. We created an English article containing basic information about the CEMS alliance, the MIM, the member schools, the corporate and the alumni association. CEMSies from all over the world helped us translating it into their national languages. We are currently still updating the new articles. At present, the CEMS article is already available in 15 languages, and there are more to follow.

New Communication Strategy: The CEMS global alliance unifies a lot of different stakeholders. As a result, communication can get complicated over time.

The CEMS Student Board recognized the need for more harmonized communication approaches at the different CEMS schools. The result of the New Communication Strategy is going to be guidelines for the different CEMS Offices and CEMS Clubs on how to communicate with current CEMS students. This is going to add a lot of convenience for current and future CEMSies, since regardless at which school they are, they can expect the same or at least similar communication channels and information flow.

Contact: marketing.studentboard@cemsmail.org

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M&C Team 2015: Maria Constanza Santis, David Staub, Qingquing Xia (from left to right). Missing: Christina Lomazzo, Florence Malling Bernard.

Voices from the past 15 years Marco Proto Student Board President 2010/11 «My decision to apply for CEMS was the impression that it would be an additional challenge academically, socially and culturally. I am attracted to challenges, and I tend to make life hard for myself. I could sometimes try to take it easier, but in the end I find challenge always pays off in terms of personal growth and life experiences. I know CEMS did. […] I think that personally, my greatest achievement was the good tone in communication I had with all the stakeholders; it’s what remains for me, even years after my engagement.»

Rimli Das Gupta Student Board President 2013/14 «I joined the SB to follow my life motto, which is to be the change that I want to see in the world.

Since I have started working full-time in the corporate world, I gradually understand how much my work in the Student Board has taught me. My time as the Global SB President taught me to make mistakes, accept and learn from them. Nobody is perfect, particularly not when taking up a new and challenging role.»

Dominik Bold Student Board Representative 2013/14 «The student board taught me that it is always worth getting involved and attempting to take the most out of the path you're currently on. In addition to the great time I had as a CEMS student, the experience on the student board showcased once more how enriching it is to work with motivated people with a variety of different backgrounds. […] I believe that, both CEMS and specifically my time in the student board prepared me to work in international teams.»

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CEMC Club Support (CCS) Team What does the CCS Team do?

We are here to build the bridges – between the Clubs, the Student Board and the Head Office, between the students, our Alumni and the Corporate Partners. The CCS Team supports creation and development of the CEMS Clubs across the Alliance by sharing the knowledge across the countries and the continents. We concentrate on resolution of any issues and hurdles that the CEMS Clubs might face, provide support and contribute to the further development of CEMSies’ experience in their studies by constant improvement of the Clubs’ activities and projects. Our goal is to: 1) ensure that each and every university is complemented by the CEMS Club and 2) bring the Clubs to a comparable level of performance regardless of the country as it extensively enriches the overall experience of the CEMS and brings additional value to the students.

What has the CCS Team accomplished over the past 15 years?

Since 2001 the CCS Team has contributed to the increase in number of the Clubs from 12 to 29 at each member university of the CEMS Alliance, as well as to the quality of experience delivered to the students.

Therefore, the Clubs have become an indispensable part of the CEMS life by organizing activities across academic, social and corporate world. We are proud to say that our activities such as empowering the Clubs by the knowledge-sharing, motivating and rewarding them with the CEMS Club Awards, giving them guiding hand through the CEMS Club Toolkit or connecting them at the CEMS Club Conferences have become stable, omnipresent and inherent part of the CEMS.

What are the CCS Team’s main projects in 2015/16?

Global Ambassador Program: The program was started to help develop the CEMS Clubs and inculcate the CEMS spirit at the newly joined universities of the CEMS Alliance. The program has been running for four terms and has been very successful to support currently eight CEMS Clubs. The project facilitates knowledge transfer between the CEMS Clubs and provides them with guidance and support during the early stages of the foundation by nominating knowledgeable, motivated and passionate exchange students with extensive experience from their home CEMS Clubs. One of the success stories in the past period has been the University of Sydney. Only after two terms of ambassador guidance, the Club evolved into a fullfledged element of the CEMS Alliance, enriching the students with variety of activities and projects.

CEMS Club Conferences: This special work setup brings together presidents and vice-presidents from different regions. During pre-planned sessions, workshops and networking events, participants have a unique opportunity to learn, to exchange experience and best practices, as well as to strengthen cross-border cooperation between the Clubs, which has substantially increased in the recent semesters. The Conference hosts a mix of sessions focused on cooperation with all stakeholders incl. Alumni and Corporate Partners, on socializing, hand-over process and other related activities of the Student Board and the CEMS Head Office.

Account Management System: This is a project of CEMS Club Support Team aiming at reinforced communication between the Student Board and the Clubs, monitoring, analyzing and resolving/helping with any issues and challenges that the Clubs might be facing. The team gathers essential information about the Clubs throughout the academic year via variety of communication channels, also using this opportunity to give instant advice, to share best practices from other countries and to better explain mission of the Student Board and its ongoing projects. This project helps us with data collection on different operational areas of the Clubs.

Contact: ccs.studentboard@cemsmail.org

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CCS Team 2015: Arnav Chawla, Hans-Dieter Steguweit, Jakub Mazal, Zsófia Simon, Sander Verberne (from left to right).

Voices from the past 15 years Thomas Rüdiger Smith Student Board President 2009/10 «I had a completely different CEMS experience than many of my fellow CEMSies. You become part of the global community in a different way - your focus and your community is disconnected from the schools you attend. You definitely miss out on the local CEMS communities, but I met so many fantastic people on the Student Board, a number of which would go on to become good friends. So part of me feel that I missed out on a number of things, but I would not change anything.»

Wieteke Dupain Student Board President 2004/05 «The Student Board taught me to make the world a better place, so everyone can live a happy and fulfilling life, it does not matter where you work, it matters with whom you work. And you should try to always hire or work with highly talented, driven and ambitious individuals who have a high level of integrity and a positive attitude. Because when you work with such people magic happens.»

Karol Górnowicz Student Board President 2012/13 «I have learned from the Student Board for good that effective collaboration is king. We perceive CEMS as a platform of great collaboration among Students, CPs, Alumni and the Faculty. The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team. […]

Ultimately, strategy is not really a solo sport. I learned everything from my Student Board friends who turned out to be the most remarkable group of people I had ever worked with.»

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Global Sustainability Team (GST) What does the GST do?

What are the GST’s main projects in 2015/16?

The Global Sustainability Team aims at bringing students closer to society, by creating a sense of responsibility about the world's environmental, cultural, economic and social challenges that they will face as future global business leaders. It fosters the development of sustainable solutions and responsible actions, supporting ideas and organizations that are creating a positive social impact in the community. It offers students the opportunity to engage in sustainability issues in practical ways, grounded in an interactive and knowledge sharing environment with fellow students, social and corporate partners.

Global Sustainability Week: The GSW comes with several events and with the CEMStainability Challenge: daily challenges covering topics such as consumption, transportation, water and energy, trash and food are launched on Facebook, incentivizing participation through awards. At the local level, schools and their CEMS Clubs organize a number of events, inviting their students to participate. These events range from trash collections, to blood and charity donations, to seminars and workshops. Together with other sustainabilityrelated activities that take place, GSW’s activities will be featured in the CEMStainability Booklet.

What has the GST accomplished over the past 15 years?

One of the biggest achievements of the GST has been the GVS (Global Value Statement), which has been an initiative that was introduced at the 2010 CEMS Annual Events in Rotterdam. This is the statement that CEMS students have the opportunity to formally commit to after their graduation. Also, one of the initiatives the GST is very proud of is the New Generation Consulting – a non-profit consulting organization for social enterprises which has been successfully externalized this year and is run by a board of CEMS students and Alumni. Other projects include the Global Sustainability Day (in partnership with CEMS schools) and the Global Sustainability Week.

CEMS Forest: This is a project resulting from the CEMS Carbon Footprint, designing the framework for measuring CEMS’ CO2 emissions, we have decided to focus on how to offset it by launching an emissions’ calculator. Thus, we are now developing the business plan for the plantation of a CEMS Forest, of which details will be launched soon. We would like this forest not only to address the environmental dimension of sustainability, but also the social and economic ones.

Therefore, we looked at locations, tree types and partners that will allow it to involve and generate gains for the local population.

Global Disaster Relief: There are many unfortunate humanitarian events taking place around the globe – the refugee crisis, the Nepali earthquake and many others. As a global community with an ethical and responsible approach the CEMS Alliance is concerned with these issues and aims to aid in efforts to relief disasters in order to promote global development. As such, an upcoming project, the GDR (Global Disaster Relief) project, will be an online platform facilitating the SB to collect financial donations from the CEMS Community for current targeted disasters/global issues.

The website will be managed by the SB and new projects will be highlighted whereby students can select their University and the amount they wish to donate for that specific project. The platform will be very minimalistic and user-friendly – there will be an overview of the allocated money and a ranking will be shown as to which University donated most.

Contact: sustainability.studentboard@cemsmail.org

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GST 2015: Marius Declerck, Juliette ten Brink, Mathilde Carraro, Takuya Takizume (from left to right). Missing: Sinan Al-Mansour.

Voices from the past 15 years Marco Proto Student Board President 2010/11 «I learned from the Student Board that trust goes both ways. On one hand a leader needs to be available at all times and have a good general overview, and creating trust is paramount, but doing that requires substantial personal sacrifice, and sometimes making very unpopular decisions. But as a leader you don’t have to always be alone; you can have a great team and trusted advisors to support you in making tough choices, and you’re safe leaving many decisions to team leaders.»

Lorraine Jorquera Student Board President 2002/03 «Being the Student Board President helped me connect with a lot of people and taught me how to get messages across to many different audiences. This was very helpful when working abroad in Paris during my CEMS internship or studying in Barcelona at ESADE. It opened my horizons and gave me the confidence to learn about new skills, theories and ideas as well as trying them out.

Knowing and dealing with a whole network of students, alumni and corporate and academic partners was great experience and also lots of fun.»

Dominik Bold Student Board Representative 2013/14 «I think during my time on the student board we pushed a variety of good initiatives, amongst them were projects driven by my team but also many others. If I had to chose one I would pick the Benchmarking Report on Corporate Partner interaction. I believe that the cooperation with our corporate partners and also pro-bono partners is one of the biggest assets that we can provide the CEMS students with. Therefore it was always my goal to foster and further develop these relationships.»

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