Alumni Engagement - 2020

Engaging alumni for a better world.

Our alumni truly worked their magic during this unexpectedly difficult year – supporting each other and the school in impactful ways. The community now numbers some 61,550 alumni of 166 nationalities; they are applying their INSEAD learning and living INSEAD values across 175 countries.

 

 

Volunteering for impact

 

In April 2020, with campus closures and the “INSEAD experience” for students facing sudden limitations, Dean Ilian Mihov reached out to our global alumni community for help. Within a week of receiving an email asking for volunteers, more than 1,600 alumni stepped up to support the school. Some helped to source jobs; others partnered with a student on a project; a few shared an inspiring story on an INSEAD platform; and many simply participated in a one-to-one “no-agenda” chat with a current student. At a time when so many alumni were themselves experiencing hardship or tragedy, the generosity of the global response had an overwhelming, emotional yet practical impact on our students, faculty, staff and students. Our gratitude goes out across the world to all those who contributed.

 

At the same time, the alumni community was mobilising spontaneously to help the regions of the world most afflicted by the virus. Project Green for Impact was started by members of the newly graduated MBA’19D class, initially with the goal of supporting communities in China by supplying much-needed medical and personal protective equipment. Soon, it spread – with the pandemic – to cover other countries, other classes and collaborations with other alumni associations – from Wuhan to Harvard. And within a few weeks of launching, 1,692 members had accomplished 2,300 acts of impact, including securing 22,000 pairs of sterile gloves for Chinese healthcare facilities and five non- invasive ventilators for a hospital in northern Italy.

Alumni Engagement

 

Learning for a lifetime

 

For the sustained success and growth of our alumni, we are pleased to offer a range of lifelong learning options. And, in typical INSEAD style, the school, together with the INSEAD Alumni Association (IAA) transformed the COVID-19 crisis into an opportunity both to innovate and to expand. In close collaboration with the IAA, they delivered over 60 webinars and interactive workshops in 2019/2020. They also organised INSEAD’s first ever Summer Learning Festival, featuring popular faculty, expert alumni and outside specialists as speakers, and engaging more than 50,000 friends and former students across the globe. The IAA sponsored an additional five webinars to support National Alumni Associations and Global Clubs in delivering online events.

 

We held the first ever alumni “pop- up programme” in digital format, using other digital innovations including a digital video platform with exclusive access to all previous lifelong learning recordings. In collaboration with our Career Development Centre colleagues, we also launched iLink – a new peer-to- peer advising and mentoring service exclusively for alumni and students. The platform, available on MyINSEAD and easy to navigate, facilitates targeted networking and meaningful connections.

 

Not content with resting on our laurels, we have pledged to make even more advances in lifelong learning in 2020/2021, including 20 webinars, four more digital pop-up programmes, a “hybrid” Alumni Forum Europe (replacing the event originally scheduled for June 2020 in Munich) and many smaller workshop- style events.

 

 

Joining events online

 

Every year, thousands of alumni come home to INSEAD to celebrate milestone reunions. In September 2019, we had no idea that 2019/2020 would prove to be an exception when we were preparing to welcome some 6,000 alumni back to our campuses. Events went to plan in September, October and November, respectively, for: the MBA’18J&D day (Fontainebleau); the MBA’74, MBA’79, MBA’84J&D and MBA’89J&D weekend (Fontainebleau); and the MBA’04J&D and TIEMBA weekend (Singapore).

 

Fast-forward to June 2020 and the emotions were very similar, even though the format showed a marked contrast. We would like to thank all the members of MBA’15J&D and MBA’10J&D who made our pilot Digital Reunion such a success. The weekend programme included the usual updates from the Deans, a faculty session with Professors Jennifer and Gianpiero Petriglieri, and much- anticipated class meetings.

 

Global INSEAD Day, of course, is always a multi-location celebration with near-simultaneous events throughout the world on or around the school’s “birthday” of 12 September each year. After the usual fun and festivities of 2019, the event went wholly digital for 2020 and the number of locations increased exponentially, to include alumni homes from Sydney to Singapore and San Francisco, as the virtual event travelled around the world. With 7,000 registrations, “Global INSEAD Day: The Digital Edition” allowed us to toast the 60th birthday of the INSEAD Alumni Association together – once again in record numbers.

 

Similarly, the INSEAD Alumni Recognition Awards could not be presented in person this year but the list of winners in 2019/2020 is as impressive as ever – yet more cause for pride in our close-knit yet far-flung community.

 

 

INSEAD Alumni Recognition Awards: Recipients 2019/2020

Alumni Achievement

Bill Morneau MBA’90J
Bill Morneau MBA’90J
Minister of Finance,
Canada

Force for Good

Bart Hartman MBA’87J
Bart Hartman MBA’87J
Founder and CEO,
NOTS Solar Lamps BV

Young Alumni Achievement

Devina Pasta MBA’15D
Devina Pasta MBA’15D
Head of Digitalization,
Innovation & Cybersecurity,
Siemens Mobility

Global Entrepreneurship

Paulo veras MBA’01J
Paulo Veras MBA’01J
Founder and CEO, 99

Emerging Entrepreneur

Piers Ingram MBA’11J
Piers Ingram MBA’11J
Co-Founder and CEO,
Hummingbird Bioscience

Volunteer Leader

Brigitte Revrdin MBA’81
Brigitte Revrdin MBA’81
Diederik van Rappard MBA’99J
Diederik Van Rappard MBA’99J
Florence Hamilton MBA’85J
Florence Hamilton MBA’85J

Giving to INSEAD - 2020

A historic year in philanthropy.

The extraordinary support from our alumni, faculty, staff and corporate friends in a difficult year said much about our community’s confidence in the school’s ability to deliver on our mission to shape business as a force for good.

 

Despite the challenges brought by the pandemic, 3,332 donors gave to the school and the total amount in gifts and pledges reached €76.6 million, the highest since the start of the INSEAD Campaign: A Force for Good.

 

This result led us to reach our Campaign goal of €250 million, three years ahead of time. And it was not the only reason that made this year special. We set a new record with the largest gift ever from an alumnus and his wife that is amongst the top 20 largest gifts in the world made to any business school. The €60 million gift will enable us to establish an endowed fund of €40 million for the school’s research and a further €20 million in current funds to secure full ownership of the land on which our Europe Campus stands.

A show of strong support

 

 

A show of strong support

 

Faculty and Research

Gifts at this level have a transformational impact. The €40 million research fund will have a major influence on advancing the school’s academic excellence. A long-term, stable and flexible resource for research, the fund will allow the school to ensure that the yearly returns benefit faculty across all levels and disciplines, thereby increasing our impact on business and society through new and relevant knowledge in multiple areas.

 

Research in emerging domains received a significant boost through the establishment of the endowed Octapharma Chair in Decision Neuroscience. Healthcare management research, particularly important in the current context, also received a substantial pledge of support.

 

 

Allocation of Dean's Fund
Scholarships
 

Scholarships, vital for our pipeline of talented, diverse students, continued to be a key area of support. Donors gave a total of €4.5M in gifts and pledges. Their gifts strengthened a number of existing scholarships and established nine new ones, greatly enhancing the school’s scholarship portfolio. In total 302 students in the MBA’20J&D classes received scholarships through INSEAD.

 

 

The Dean’s Fund
 

The Dean’s Fund, an unrestricted resource that enables the school to sustain core priorities and respond to emerging opportunities, received €2.9 million in gifts and pledges. In a challenging year, this strong support enabled the school to provide scholarships, support faculty and develop the San Francisco Hub for Business Innovation.

 

San Francisco Hub inauguration
 

27 February 2020 was a historic day in our journey as the Business School for the World when INSEAD opened its state-of-the-art facility in San Francisco. The Hub, dedicated to connecting people, ideas and businesses from all over the world, would not have been possible without the generous donations from our alumni. While we recognised the Founding Donors for their key contributions, we were also grateful to all donors who participated in the project by naming a desk or a virtual brick.

San Francisco Hub inauguration
San Francisco Hub inauguration

The power of collective giving

 

With the Force for Good Campaign well underway, we reached 42% toward our 50% participation goal as INSEAD alumni, students, faculty and staff rallied together to support the school. MBA and TIEMBA reunions continued the tradition of giving back to the school through class gift campaigns. Their gifts made a tangible impact on the Dean’s Fund, scholarships and other projects.

 

Despite the unusual environment, MBA students maintained the Robin Hood tradition of fundraising for a scholarship that is to be awarded in the next class. This year, more than half of the students made a Robin Hood gift, with the ’20Js raising a total of €23,526 and the ’20Ds collecting €18,217.

 

INSEAD faculty, all of whom participated in pro bono teaching this year, created a Faculty Fund in support of the school, with gifts totalling €2.4 million to date.

 

Due to the pandemic, we had to postpone the much anticipated Giving Day 2020, originally scheduled for March. However, in June, our alumni community rallied to support the school, yielding the best Giving Day results ever. A total of 2,164 donors raised €2.3 million, enabling the school to address its strategic priorities and urgent needs.

 

As the Campaign moves forward, unrestricted giving will be more important than ever as we realise INSEAD’s mission to develop the next generation of responsible business leaders.

 

The power of collective giving

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