|
According to María Puig, the alumni team’s greatest achievement in recent years has been the internationalization of the Alumni Association. “The number of overseas alumni has grown steadily and we have worked tirelessly to provide them with better services. Our overseas alumni now represent one of the most important bedrocks of IESE’s global success,” she said. Puig is also extremely pleased that the association has continued to offer highly personalized treatment to its alumni, even though its
membership has almost doubled: “We have expanded from 16,500 to 30,000.”
In order to meet these challenges, the alumni team has also had to expand. As Puig explains, “the department’s staff has increased threefold, and now comprises 17 full-time members. We have hired someone to launch new projects incorporating new technologies and the Continuous Education program team has been incorporated into our department, which has enabled us to rigorously promote the program
both throughout Spain and overseas. We have also raised the international character of the department in order to be able to better attend the needs of overseas alumni chapters and have recently added association staff in Madrid,” she said.
The results speak for themselves. The percentage
of alumni who remain members
of the association is among the highest
in the world. Puig singles out three main
reasons for this success. First and foremost,
it is the affection that alumni have for IESE,
and their desire to repay the school for
what they have learned there, she said.
Secondly, the association's success has
been a consequence of the personal
growth that IESE’s Continuous Education
program encourages and the networking
that takes place at the school. Thirdly, the
association offers a range of services that
can bring more tangible benefits to its
members, such as the job database.
Global Alumni Reunion
Puig has a host of fond memories from the
last 10 years, of which the annual reunions
feature prominently. Since she took the
helm of the department, IESE has organized
three overseas reunions, in Amsterdam,
London and Munich. The effort has
been more than worthwhile. “Those who
benefit first and foremost,” she xplains,“are the alumni living in the host country,
as we lend them our support which
allows them to become better acquainted
with their school and strengthen their links
with the business community in their area.
However, these international reunions are
also of great benefit to all our alumni, who
get the opportunity to visit fellow alumni
and develop their knowledge of other
countries and cultures. Of course, it goes
without saying that IESE never passes up
the opportunity to raise its profile in other
parts of the world.”
Puig and her team have played a leading
role in many of the defining moments
of IESE’s recent history. “I have especially
fond memories of the Amsterdam reunion,
which involved a great team effort on our
part. I particularly remember a session
presented by C.K. Prahalad, and chaired
by Pedro Nueno. During the introduction,
Nueno paraphrased Prahalad, saying that
at IESE we always achieve great things
because we always set such high goals.
Another treasured memory is last year’s
reunion in Barcelona. It was remarkable for
a number of reasons. We were celebrating
the school’s 50th anniversary; we had an
impressive number of high-profile speakers
and were able to incorporate parallel
sessions for the first time ever. It was also
the first time that we had held a reunion at
the new Barcelona campus, with its stateof-
the-art facilities. Finally, it’s impossible
to forget the closing event, a magnificent
concert featuring the world-famous tenor
José Carreras at the historic Liceo opera
house.”
Now Puig bids her team a fond farewell as
she takes on new challenges in the Global
Executive MBA program. “My predecessor,
Elena Liquete, has done an extraordinary
job over the years. I believe that we must
continue along the course that she has set
to ensure that we remain one of the best
schools in the world. And I'm counting on
our alumni to help us."
|
