Friday, 4 October.  Participants from the Institute’s Executive Master in International Negotiation and Policy-Making (INP) and from the Executive Certificate in Advocacy in International Affairs returned to the Villa Barton for a joint ceremony to recognize their respective achievements, followed by a celebration dinner with friends and family.  Recent graduates returned for the festivities from as far as Moscow, Sofia and Dakar.

In an inspiring graduation address to mark the occasion, Mrs. Caroline Kende-Robb, Executive Director of the Africa Progress Panel, spoke about the shifting values and paradigms that she has witnessed within the international development community over three decades of her career, from her early work at the World Bank and the IMF to her current role at the Panel.  A passionate advocate for grass-roots campaigns and a personal champion of multilateral collaboration and multi-stakeholder approaches to effective policy-making, Mrs. Kende-Robb shared anecdotes about how the critically-needed cultural changes within these large organisations began with one individual who was willing to speak against the current and become a beacon for change.

Student speaker Dean Jordan Sullivan, a Canadian-American participant of the Advocacy Certificate, shared remarks about her own career in global Media and the opportunity that the Advocacy programme provided her for reinventing her career path, announcing her newfound position after graduation, working on Global public health issues (AIDS, Infectious Diseases, and Violence against Women) at the US Mission.

Then fellow graduates from the Executive Master in International Negotiation and Policy-Making (INP), Nicola Gryczka (newly appointed Senior Community Manager for Latin America at the World Economic Forum) and classmate Orlando Whyte, took the floor to deliver a shared speech about valuable lessons learned, inspiring professors and their most memorable and challenging projects, ending their speech with a PowerPoint video montage of their cohort memories.

Also in attendance to officiate were the Directors of Executive Education, Prof. Cédric Dupont and Dr. Sophie Huber, and Mr. Rolf Olsen, CEO of LEIDAR, co-Director of the Advocacy Certificate and annual lecturer in several of the Institute’s other programmes.
 

Both the Executive Master in International Negotiation and Policy-Making and the Executive Certificate - Advocacy in International Affairs are cohort-based experiences, designed in convenient formats for working professionals.  They are delivered by the Graduate Institute’s Executive Education division at the Villa Barton, newly dedicated to that home. 

More at www.graduateinstitute.ch/executive