MBA and EMBA ceremonies celebrate graduates’ hard work and dedication

After a roller-coaster year of little to no in-person classes, positive energy was overflowing during the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) Full-time MBA and Executive MBAgraduation ceremonies at the Rotterdam Van Nelle Fabriek on 25 March 2022. Friends, family and cohorts cheered as each graduate crossed the stage to receive their well-earned diploma. Graduates and attendees were welcomed in grand style – via a long, RSM-blue carpet – into the cavernous UNESCO World Heritage site to see it dressed up to the nines. An enormous screen at the front of the event hall gave a front-row seat feeling to everyone, no matter where they were sitting. Additionally, it enabled graduates participating online to be seen by the audience. The ceremony closed with the celebratory tossing of the caps followed by a champagne reception.

MBA

The ceremony for the Full-time MBA programme class of 2022 can now be viewed online. It recognises the achievements of 147 students of multiple nationalities, with an average age of 30.

EMBA

The Executive MBA programme class of 2022 can also now be viewed online. This year, 104 students of multiple nationalities graduated the executive programme. The average age of the graduating student body was 34.

Fearless in the pursuit of positive change

RSM Dean, Prof. Ansgar Richter, opened the ceremonies with a speech in acknowledgement of the students’ triumph at overcoming tough obstacles these last 12 months during their study. “I encourage you to be fearless in the pursuit of positive change,” said Prof. Richter.

Prof. Nicola Kleyn, Dean of Executive Education and Professor of Corporate Marketing, urged graduates to climb the mountains and learn to stop, celebrate and enjoy the view from the top. “You have undertaken a tough programme under even tougher circumstances. And now you’ve arrived on the other side, victorious,” said Prof. Kleyn.

The director of corporate and alumni relations, Sue Martin, encouraged graduates to join the RSM alumni network saying, “You will know in this world that friendship, kindness and community are the most important things in this world. Welcome to the alumni family!”

Receiving their diplomas – at last!

Hearty applause and the occasional hoot broke out as the graduates crossed the stage to receive their diplomas from Prof. Kleyn. Each graduate had the satisfied look of accomplishment (and more than a bit of relief) on their face as they turned their graduation cap tassel from right to left and exited the stage, new MBA and EMBA alumni.

Dean’s Honours

In recognition of their exceptional academic achievements, several EMBA and MBA graduates were presented with notable Dean’s Honours.

Full-time MBA cum laude graduates included:

Andrés Alfonso Ammann; Magdalena Andrzejewska; Mira Awwad; Henrique Cesar Vaz Guimarães Nogueira; Ananth Sai Reddy Eragam; Felipe Gonzaga Fernandes; Francisco Fonseca Pires Duarte Guerreiro; Mehedi Hasan; Vaishnavi Ketharnathan; Kamal Kishore; Georgios Lampridis; Veronica Yangfan Li; Abhimanyu Maheshwari; Steven Packer; Alexander Patzke; Johannes Radnitz; Gereon Rolvering; Mikaela Patricia Sanchez; Christian Schwampe; Kahori Tanaka; Ashutosh Chikkanayakanahalli Vishwanath Setty; Willem Vorster; and Chenyi Wu.

Full-time MBA summa cum laude graduates included:

Lisanne Adriaens; Scott Campbell; and Mukund Ganesh.

EMBA graduates with Dean’s Honours included:

Umut Barutçi; Andi Bimo; Andrea Fabbri; Inge Helderman; Erik Jongbloed; Bart van Keimpema; Peter Kranendonk; Aniket Lewarkar; Sven Neubeck; Gregorii Aleksandrovich Nikitin; Andrei Pîslariu; Juozas Pocevicius; Bruno van Rooijen; Jan Ruitenberg; Anna Yevhenivna Struk; Maurits Stuyt; Shijing Tan; Pim Verdaasdonk; Puneet Virk; Nikolaos Vogiatzis; Johannes Wennink; and Yizhi Wu.

EMBA graduates with Dean’s Honours with Distinction included:

Santiago Figueira; Vladislav Gatev; and Athanasia Kanli.

Faculty award

A special faculty award was given by the MBA and EMBA graduating classes to the faculty member who stood out the most to them.

The MBA faculty award went to Dr Trevor Wegner, lecturer for Quantitative Platform of Business.

Drs. Ronald Poppe, lecturer for Advanced Finance Management, took home the EMBA faculty award.

Student award

The MBA and EMBA students who made the most difference to their cohorts with their personality, energy and initiative was Minh Nguyen-Duc and Yizhi Wu respectively. In recognition of their efforts, both Minh and Wu each received a plaque, a cash award of €2,500 and eternal bragging rights.

Class speakers

MBA class speakers were Jose Luis Pal Antillón and Ananth Sai Reddy Eragam and the EMBA class speaker was Athanasia Kanli.

More information

Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) is one of Europe’s top-ranked business schools. RSM provides ground-breaking research and education furthering excellence in all aspects of management and is based in the international port city of Rotterdam – a vital nexus of business, logistics and trade. RSM’s primary focus is on developing business leaders with international careers who can become a force for positive change by carrying their innovative mindset into a sustainable future. Our first-class range of bachelor, master, MBA, PhD and executive programmes encourage them to become critical, creative, caring and collaborative thinkers and doers. www.rsm.nl

For more information about RSM or this release, please contact Erika Harriford-McLaren, communications manager for RSM, on +31 10 408 2877 or by email at harriford@rsm.nl.