October 17, 2020. Shanghai – The CEIBS Global EMBA Class Committee (CCT) annual union meeting was held today in Shanghai. 34 CCT members from different cohorts came together to share their experience within the Global EMBA community.

Learning from sharing ▲

With a vision of ‘China Depth & Global Breadth’, the Global EMBA programme is renowned for its diverse student body, with over 20 nationalities represented in each class. As a result, cross-cultural communication and management are key to the programme’s success. From the first cohort in 1995 until now, the Global EMBA programme has graduated over 2,200 participants from 40 classes. The Global EMBA Class Committee Union was founded to break down the boundaries between different cohorts and to provide a life-time learning community where alumni can continue to learn from each other, collaborate and improve the overall programme experience.

The mission of the Global EMBA CCT Union is to build a platform that goes beyond the classes themselves, allowing different cohorts to strengthen their communication and collaboration, and finally to build a Global EMBA community that is valuable for all its members. The Global EMBA CCT Union Meeting is held annually with four meetings held since 2017. With the support of the union, the Global EMBA community holds company visits and sharing sessions on a regular basis.

The 2020 Global EMBA CCT Union meeting convened on the theme of “share and gain” in 2020. Isa Luo, Director of the CEIBS Global EMBA programme, gave a welcome speech on behalf of faculty. She noted, “This year marks the 4^th annual meeting of the union and it is great to see everyone from the committee again. The prosperity of the Global EMBA community relies on the support from each of you.”

This year has been an extraordinary one as COVID-19 has interrupted everyone’s plans to some extent. As such, CEIBS has taken a proactive approach to facing the challenges and changes brought by the pandemic. We are proud to share that the enrolment of Global EMBA 2020 is going strong. Over 35% of new participants come from direct referrals of alumni. This shows the growing demand for self-development in such turbulent times. Despite the challenges, Isa encouraged alumni to put their heads together to bring in different perspectives and suggestions in terms of the programme’s management. The brainstorming shed light on the running of the Global EMBA programme and facilitated the communication between different classes.

CEIBS Global EMBA Director Isa Luo giving a welcome speech to alumni.▲

The CCT members also took part in four rounds of the “Race for Speed” as part of a 90-minute team-building activity, where they were further exposed to the importance of teamwork and learned how to win as a team through working together. Afterwards, participants from the 15^th Gobi Challenge shared their takeaways from the competition. This year witnessed a record high number of Global EMBA participants in the Gobi Challenge – 16 alumni in total. Seoul Min (Global EMBA 2010) from the winning Gobi 6A team was excited to see more and more Global EMBA alumni challenging themselves in the Gobi Desert.

 Race for Speed ▲

Gobi heros (from left to right): Steven Yu (GEMBA 17), Olivier Brault (GEMBA 19), Gareth Yu (GEMBA 15), Jane Yan (GEMBA 18), Dylan Ren (GEMBA 18), Seoul Min (GEMBA 10) ▲

2015 Representatives▲

A heart-warming video then brought everyone back to the good times of the Global EMBA 2015 class. Cedric Devroye and Li Jin, both Global EMBA 2015 graduates, shared their stories about how the Global EMBA 2015 built their class culture. Cedric commented that the class committee needs to focus on the demands and experience of the students and about how vital it is for CCT members to carry out their duty with open-mindedness. It has been three years since their graduation and they are still actively organising activities of different sorts, including charity contributions, study meets and gatherings. Jin commented that becoming a CCT member is not only just about serving the class, but also a process where one could challenge and develop oneself.

2016 Representatives▲

Richard Hong from the Global EMBA 2016 class praised the effectiveness of the monthly Global EMBA 2016 newsletter. He said he believes it has played a vital role in connecting everyone through updates and information sharing during the period with no face-to-face gatherings caused by the pandemic.

2017 Representatives▲

David Moreno and Mercury Gu represented the Global EMBA 2017 class. David shared how much he misses spending time with his classmates even though he graduated just one year ago. CCT members from the Global EMBA 2017 cohort actively integrated resources amongst alumni. They organised learning related activities such as TedTalks and company visits. The G17 Accelerator was also an initiative which aimed to offer assistance to classmates and alumni start-up projects. These projects helped the class to learn and successfully integrate different classmates and bond together as a class.

2018 Representatives▲

Xavier Zhu joined Dylan Ren for the sharing on behalf of Global EMBA 2018 class. Xavier and Dylan said they believe that diversity is one of the signatures of the Global EMBA and learning to understand and balance the needs of alumni and optimising the integration of resources are the two areas CCT should continue to focus and develop. In addition, the pointed out that integrity and transparency are the cornerstone of the CCT’s operation. No matter whether you are a CCT member or a class member, activities in class or after class need students’ contributions.

2019 Representatives▲

The pandemic has interrupted everyone’s plan to some extent through 2020. The Global EMBA 2019 class was impacted particularly hard, and their CCT representatives, Joseph Hu and Nisa Ni, shared their study experiences during this period. Online sessions enabled them to work together and CCT members co-ordinated resources through collecting the topics that alumni were interested in. With the support of the Global EMBA office, the Connect & Learn initiative received very positive feedback, with over 400 participants across three sessions organised by Global EMBA 2019 independently.

After the sharing session, CCT members were divided into groups to have in-depth discussions on different topics and put forward constructive suggestions on the cultivation of class culture and the development of a lifelong learning and communication platform for alumni under the new normal of COVID-19.