Endings Are Also New Beginnings

This past weekend, I had the distinct honor and pleasure of traveling to Warsaw and attending a variety of graduation ceremonies for the Warsaw Executive MBA Program.

The events marked the culmination of a highly successful and extraordinary partnership with the Warsaw School of Economics that spanned 17 fantastic years and 16 graduating classes. It is difficult to describe the energy, enthusiasm, and sense of accomplishment that permeated this special occasion.

As someone who taught in this program for 10 years, I can attest that the trust and relationships that developed between our two schools will endure despite the program's conclusion. In fact, because of all that we accomplished over the last 17 years, I am certain that we will soon work together again!

Warsaw has and will continue to be of the utmost importance to the Carlson School and its global community. Outside of the United States, Warsaw has the highest concentration of our alumni in the world!

It was wonderful to see so many of the students from the early years of the program, all the way from WEMBA 01, attending the ceremonies and the parties that followed. These students, who are among the best I have ever taught, have gone on to start firms and lead large enterprises and I know we will hear similar success stories in the future from the recent grads.

To ensure that we are forever linked with our WEMBA alums, we will be treating the WEMBA alumni club as one of the Carlson School's regional alumni clubs, and plan to use social media to its fullest so that the physical distance that separates us does not interfere with the closeness of our connection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What made the occasion even more special was that Michal Szapiro (left), son of WSE's Rector Tomasz Szapiro (pictured right), was part of this last class of WEMBA graduates who received their University of Minnesota MBAs that day.