News from Alumni

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EMBA-90
The class held its end of year party on November 12 at IESE in Madrid, organized by Gustavo Franchella. Class members were joined by Professor Rafael Termes who gave a talk on IESE’s work in the areas of research, technology and globalization.

EMBA-93
Larry Philips and Luis Abraira organized a reunion for all their fellow class members in Madrid on November 18, to celebrate the 11th anniversary of their graduation.

EMBA-98
Luis Sánchez has contacted us with news of his promotion to auditing partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

GEMBA-03
Fernanda Rodríguez writes to tell us of her recent appointment at Ernst & Young, where she will act as manager of transaction advisory services for Barcelona.

MBA-86
We have sadly been informed that Fernando López Torrens, member of the MBA class of ‘86, has recently died.

MBA-89
Eduardo Martínez got the members of his class together to celebrate the 15th anniversary of their graduation. They were joined by Jordi Canals and Professor José María Rodríguez.

MBA-94
The class celebrated its 10th anniversary on October 15 at IESE’s campus in Madrid. They were joined by Juan Antonio Galán and by Professor Santiago Álvarez de Mon, who talked to them about “Talent Management.”

Javier Serra Tous and Luis Miralles Ferrer have joined forces to set up M&S Assessors, offering advice on operations to companies in the services and industrial sectors.

MBA-03
After working in several large organizations, Mark Segal has taken a new step as managing partner at Arrows Software.
PADE-I-58/59

Eduardo Tarragona and Casimiro Molins invited the members of the PADE-58 and PADE-59 classes to meet up at one of their regular reunions on October 14.

PADE-I-79
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of their graduation, the PADE-I-79 class got together on November 23 at the Círculo del Liceo in Barcelona.

PADE-I-99
Regina María Llopis, president of Group AIA, received the Joan Bufí Prize on Nov. 17 for having shared with her employees part of the ownership of the company, thereby creating a highly positive working environment and developing committed personnel. The prize is awarded by the Fundación Bufí y Planas.

PDD-89
Xavier Casares has been appointed General Manager of digital business for the Godó Group in Barcelona, after occupying various posts in the Catalan Government.

PDD-I-89
José María Perramón and Amparo Vendrell arranged a reunion to coincide with the 15th anniversary of their graduation. Their guest was Professor Lluis Renart, who gave a talk on “Strategic Responses to the Emerging Markets of the New Europe.”

PDD-III-89
To celebrate their 16th anniversary, Joan Coll i Daroca invited all his fellow class members to join him on November 27 at the Fabra Observatory, where they were treated to a talk on astronomy, led by the staff of the Barcelona Municipal Planetarium.

PDD-III-94
Ricard Valls and Dolors Sanvicens arranged a class reunion to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their graduation at IESE’s Barcelona campus on November 30. Professor Nuria Chinchilla led a session on “Reconciling Work and Family.”

PDD-V-98
Antonio Bernal called all his class colleagues together for an academic session at IESE’s Barcelona campus on November 18.
Their guest for the day was Professor Luís María Huete, who led a session entitled “Clienting.”
Claudio Hoyos Martí has joined CAMAC as Deputy General Manager.

PDD-V-99
Emilio Cejeiro Thomas and Ramón Vinyes invited their class to IESE in Barcelona on September 30 to celebrate the fifth anniversary of their graduation. Those who attended were treated to a talk by Professor Josep Rosanas entitled “How to Destroy Your Company While Thinking You’re Wonderful.”

PDD-C-00
Rafael González de la Puente is president of a young and successful company of his own creation, Factor.gestión.

PDD-3-01
The class held a reunion on November 5 to catch up with each others’ news.

PDD-4-01
Antoni Fuster and Mercedes Sagüés met up with their fellow class members on November 17 at IESE’s Barcelona campus. Their guest was Professor Vicente Font, who led a case discussion.

PDD-VAL-01
Enrique Laso Fuentes has been named the new Image and Communications Manager for the IDEA Group, after working as a marketing manager at several other companies.

PDD-1-02
Jordi Vilà has been in touch to say that his company, Human Catalunya. opened its new offices in Madrid on November 11. The inauguration ceremony was attended by Ángel Mullor, Managing Director of Iberia, who gave a talk on managing change.

PDD-2-02
Manuel Sala and Mireia Mir arranged a class reunion on November 30. Their invited guest was Professor Joaquim Vilà, who led a continuous education program session on “Approaches of Innovative Companies.”

PDD-3-02
The members of the PDD-3-02 class held another reunion at IESE in Barcelona on November 25. The reunion was arranged by Class President Xavier López-Sautés and Class Secretary Eva Gispert, and Professor Josep Tàpies gave a talk entitled “Family Businesses: Characteristics and Continuity.”

PDD-C-02
Taking advantage of the Continuous Education session entitled “How Can Leaders Learn from the Mistakes of Their Managers?” at IESE in Madrid, Raquel Torres Navarro and José Luis Ferrero Navarro organized a reunion for members of the PDD-C-02 class.

PDD-2-03
Carlos Bach and Adolf Bargués have bought and restructured the company Intempore ETT, which offers global human resources solutions.

PDD-3-03
Diego López Lobaro has been appointed Southern European General Manager for Mead Embalaje.
Jordi Ribas Fernández has been made IT Manager for the Puig Group.

PDD-4-03
To celebrate the first anniversary of their graduation, the PDD-4-03 class held a reunion at Camp Nou, Barcelona Football Club’s stadium. They enjoyed a tour of the stadium and listened to a talk on “The Transformation of the Club’s Management.”

PDD-5-03
Professor Pedro Videla gave a talk entitled “Where is Our World Headed? Prospects for 2050” to all the PDD-5-03 alumni who came to the class reunion at IESE’s Barcelona campus.

Class members also took part in a family mountain bike excursion from Camprodón to Calella de Palafrugell, outside Barcelona.

PDD-D-03
Juan Rivera has been appointed Deputy Director of Communications and Quality at Caja Navarra.

PDD-1-04
Pere Garcia Hom and Ignasi Corrons i Boix invited all their fellow class members to gather at IESE’s Barcelona campus on November 24. They also invited Professor Frederic Sabrià, who talked to them about “Operations Management: the Rommel and Patton Approach.”

PDD-2-04
Members of the PDD-2-04 class met in Barcelona on October 7. Albert Domingo, founder of Nextret, and Nacho Giralt, founder of Atrápalo.com, talked about their experiences as entrepreneurs. The reunion was also attended by Professor Rama Velamuri, who set out the conceptual framework for setting up businesses in the future.

On November 14, the class enjoyed an outing to la Fageda d’en Jordà, in Garrotxa, near Barcelona.

PDD-3-04
A group of graduates led by Antonio Asensio, IESE's director of executive programs, accepted the invitation of Tomás Bennasar to visit Mallorca for a week-end get-away.

PDD-A-04
Lucía Francesch Huidobro and Pablo Gómez-Acebo Temes arranged a reunion for all their fellow class members on November 25 at IESE in Madrid. Their guest was Professor Javier Quintanilla, who led a session on “DP-143: When Salaries are no Longer Secret.”

PDD-C-04
On November 5, José Ángel Garces and Pablo Costa arranged a class reunion at IESE’s Madrid campus so that members could get together and hold a case discussion. Their guest, Professor Luis Manuel Calleja, led the discussion.

PDG-65
Enrique Durán Rigol invited all the members of his class to join him at IESE in Barcelona on December 2 to celebrate their 40th anniversary.

PDG-01/PADE-04
Francisco Ordóñez and Javier García-Monsalve have begun a new chapter in their professional careers as owners and joint managing directors of ACERTA.

PDG-I-03
José Miguel Vilalta, Class President, arranged for his fellow class members to join him at IESE in Barcelona on November 16. Participants enjoyed a session on the role of the manager in the 21st century. Guests at this session were Professor Pablo Cardona and Juan Torras, partner at Egon Zehnder International.

PDG-I-04
Raquel Fradera, Mercé Ribera, Luigi Ingrosso, Francisco Navarro, Antonio Rodríguez, Santiago Ruete and Josep Serramiá completed their pilgrimage to Santiago from Sarrià, walking more than 100 km.

Benelux

The IESE Benelux Annual Reunion took place on October 2 at the “Hilvaria” television studios in Hilvarenbeek in the Netherlands.

The speakers of the event were Joaquim Agut (MBA´80), CEO of Endemol and IESE professor Josep Valor, who gave a talk entitled “Internet, Content, Television and Music in the KaZaa Era.” Later on in the day, Jan Oosterveld (MBA´72) took over the presidency of the Benelux Alumni Chapter from Philip Alberdingk Thijm (MBA´89).

The new board of the Benelux Alumni Chapter are composed also by Martijn Eikelenboom (MBA‘88), Jérôme Koelewijn (MBA‘96), Lieke van Rhee (MBA‘99), Astrid-Odile de Visser (MBA‘90), and Alexander Wouterse (MBA‘89).

Munich

“Don’t Be Scared of China”

The first of the “Big Ideas” conferences kicked off in Munich with a discussion of what the opening up of China means for Europe.

China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, so what’s happening now? Is China a growing threat for Europe? A panel of experts gathered in Munich to discuss the topic, “China in the WTO - The Consequences for Europe,” as the first event of IESE´s “Big Ideas” series meant to heighten the business school’s profile in German-speaking markets.

Jürgen Kremb, special Asia correspondent for the internationally renowned German weekly newspaper Der Spiegel, summed up the meeting’s conclusions: “Don’t be scared of China.”

More than 60 delegates attended the event held at Munich’s Hotel Bayerischer Hof on November 24. Organized jointly by IESE’s office in Munich and the school’s international communication and alumni departments, the new-style event was a great success. It will be followed by other conferences and seminars, before returning to Munich to coincide with the inauguration of the new AMP Program in the city in the spring of 2005. The Munich event began with comments from Dean Jordi Canals on “Business Competitiveness and the Role of Management Education: IESE’s Strategy.” Dean Canals analyzed the developments that are currently changing the world we live in.

“In a European context,” observed Professor Canals, “we must respond to two key questions: Where are new jobs going to be created and who is going to discover and market the products and services of the future?” According to Canals, business schools must be capable of understanding these opportunities and their implications and act as a bridge between knowledge, the processes required and their implementation. He also explained how IESE is bringing its vision of being a leading business school on a world scale to fruition, with international campuses in Europe (Madrid and Barcelona) and programs in other strategic regions (the U.S., Latin America, Eastern Europe, China, Africa and the Middle East). Professor Canals gave details of the most recent developments at IESE, including the extension of its campuses and the new AMP Program in Munich.

To kick off discussion on China, IESE Professor Alfredo Pastor offered a brief summary of the current world trade situation prior to China’s entry into the WTO. He recalled that it was important to look at both sides of the coin and not just regard China as a commercial threat. The opening-up of China could be potentially beneficial to the rest of the world. It should be remembered that the competitive cost advantage it currently enjoys will gradually decrease over the coming decades as the country develops.

Tokio

César Alba, vice chancellor of the Spanish Embassy in Japan, welcomed almost 60 participants at the Japan alumni reunion, organized by the region’s alumni president, Haruki Katayama (MBA´03). Kimio Kase (EMBA´84), professor of the Globis Management School, and Jesús Córdoba, president of BMW Japan, led a session entitled “BMW U.S.”

Paris

IESE professor Pedro Videla visited IESE alumni in France on September 20. As part of the Continuous Education program, he gave a talk called “New Challenges for the World Economy” to an audience of 30.

Rome

Rome was the setting for a reunion of Italian alumni, celebrated on September 22 at the headquarters of Booz Allen Hamilton. IESE professor Johanna Mair gave a lecture called “Inspired Entrepreneurs.”

Sao Paulo

Brazilian Alumni met on November 11 at the headquarters of Instituto Superior da Empresa (ISE). IESE professor Brian Subirana addressed the topic “Wal-Mart: The Future of Bar Codes.”

Shanghai

Professor Paddy Miller was in Shanghai on November 1 to meet with local Alumni. He gave a talk entitled “The Asian Onslaught: Are European Leaders Fighting Back?”

Buenos Aires

The guest of honor at the reunion organized by the Alumni Association of Argentina and Uruguay was Senator Rodolfo Terragno, ex-minister of Works and Public Services in the government of Raúl Alfonsín. Terragno also served as head of the Cabinet of Ministers in the first part of the De la Rúa administration. Terragno was introduced by the vice-president of the alumni association, Néstor Farias Bouvier (MBA ´68). More than 50 alumni from Argentina and Uruguay attended the event.

On October 25, Buenos Aires was also the setting for a Continuous Education session led by IESE professor Santiago Álvarez de Mon called “Work and Passion: In Search of a Happy Synthesis.”

Chile

On October 20, a meeting of IESE alumni took place at the “Club de la Unión” in Santiago, Chile. Organized by members of the Chilean Alumni Association, the event included 140 participants. After a welcome from the association’s president, Luis Enrique Yarur (MBA´75), IESE professor Pedro Videla addressed all attendees on IESE´s behalf. Javier Muñoz from the IESE´s admissions department also attended.

New Regional Chapters IN ITALY, JAPAN, POLAND and BRAZIL

IESE’s Alumni Association continues growing and expanding its services and activities throughout the world. Recently four new Regional Chapters have been established in Italy, Japan, Poland and Brazil.

Presidents of these new groups are: Marco Morguese (MBA ‘03) in Italy, Haruki Katayama (MBA ‘03) in Japan, Marcin Wyzomierski (MBA ’04) in Poland, and Carlos María Redondo (PDD ‘88) in Brazil.

For a complete listing of Regional Chapters and to find the chapter nearest you, please consult the Association’s website (www.iese.edu/alumni).

The Regional Chapters help support IESE in a number of ways, including through the organization of meetings to bring together Alumni and faculty members and by helping to extend awareness of the school’s activities throughout the world.