Thunderbird Alumni
20+ by 2025: Regional Centers of Excellence Bring Thunderbird to the World The construction of our new global headquarters at the heart of the downtown Phoenix business district is probably the most visible of our current strategic initiatives. As you’ll read on page 8, the building is a profound reflection of how we are continuing our 74-year tradition of bringing the world to Thunderbird. But bringing the world to Thunderbird, by itself, is no longer sufficient. We also have to bring Thunderbird to the world. And so the complement to our new global headquarters is our initiative to have at least 20 regional Centers of Excellence around the world by the year 2025. “Thunderbird’s global headquarters and global network of regional centers are two sides of the same coin,” explained Sanjeev Khagram, Thunderbird Director General and Dean. “We need both.” “This is not just a vision for the future. It’s a strategy we’re executing with precision. In 2019 alone we expanded from three hubs to nine: Moscow, Geneva,
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Thunderbird Magazine Spring 2020
Regional Centers Fueled By Alumni Dubai, Tokyo, Seoul, Nairobi, Jakarta, Washington DC, and Los Angeles. In 2020, we plan to open hubs in Shanghai, Mexico City, São Paulo, Mumbai, and Istanbul. We are blitz scaling,” said Dean Khagram.
BRINGING THUNDERBIRD AND ASU TO THE WORLD “The global network of regional Centers of Excellence is the way we take Thunderbird to the world,” Khagram said. “The hubs facilitate engagement by the incredible T-birds in these regions to ramp up and diversify educational offerings and make the Thunderbird experience more accessible to more people than ever before. We taught our students to create, manage, and lead global enterprises. Now we are doing it ourselves.” The reginal center concept isn’t exactly new to Thunderbird; we’ve had satellite offices in Moscow, Geneva, and Dubai. “What’s changed is how we
think about the suite of services that we can bring into these local markets,” explained Dean Khagram. “We’re drawing on a portfolio of services that go beyond Thunderbird – to also include assets from across ASU that will enable us to deliver solutions tailored to the culture and maturity of the local market.” Broadly, each regional hub will enable four types of engagement: 1) enabling Thunderbird alumni in the region to get involved; 2) recruiting and placing students from the region, including into online and/or hybrid degrees; 3) developing and disseminating localized thought leadership and applied research; 4) commercial activities such as language and professional skills training and executive education.
AGILITY IN EDUCATION Thunderbird is at the forefront of the broader ASU global engagement strategy. “Thunderbird has always been comfortable establishing a regional pres-
Mr. Hilmi Panigoro ’85 (left) Ms. Lilis Setyayanti Sidarta ’88 (middle) Mr. Jimmy Masrin ’87 (right)
Thunderbird.asu.edu/magazine
