Community News: International Advisory Board Annual Meeting

Recently, we welcomed the International Advisory Board Members for our Annual Meeting at the Academy. The International Advisory Board is one of our most important alumni stakeholder groups which guides the WU Executive Club by providing strategic advice. IAB members represent our community interests across different specializations and cohorts within the Executive Club. The Annual Meeting is the main personal contact point between us, the Community Engagement Management Team, and the IAB. We provide our IAB members with updates about what has been going on in the Executive Club in the past year and which initiatives and activities are planned for the coming year.

Our IAB President Daniel Thomas and Vice President Valentina Stantcheva introduced thoughts of how to enhance existing activities and introduced new ideas how IAB members can further connect with the WU Executive Club Community. The Community Engagement Management Team also presented a series of quarterly interaction points that will enable to IAB to support our community more efficiently. And our Dean Barbara Stöttinger summarized some of the recent developments at the WU. After all we looked back at our successful Mentoring4U program and at the development of our stakeholder groups.

Annually the most senior IAB members are asked to resign their board seat to ensure a steady influx of new members and new ideas. This year 6 members resigned their seats and interest in joining our IAB has been great indeed! In a two-step application process interested WU Executive Club members could submit their CVs and a Motivation letter. From all 39 submissions the IAB presidents selected a shortlist of 10 candidates who then filmed short introduction videos. Plenty of information for our IAB members to select their 6 favorites.

We want to thank Adrian Pocola, Ana Illie, Rita Jakusch, Hortensia Nastase, Olena Khlon and Florian Sturm for supporting the IAB in the past couple of years! We are most grateful for the time and effort they have contributed to advise and support the WU Executive Club.

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Use the chance to connect with our resigning members. They remain important parts of our Executive Club community or as our IAB Member Martina Ernst put it: "...they will stay in the IAB Clan anyway."

• Adrian Pocola (external link): Senior VP of Innovative Educational Products, MDeducation, Program: MBA Project Management

• Ana Ilie (external link): Managing Partner, Newarch Investments Ltd., Program: MBA P&PM

• Rita Jakusch (external link): Managing Director, HYPO NOE Landesbank für Niederösterreich & Wien AG., Program: Global Executive MBA 

• Hortensia Nastase (external link): Vice President, MullenLow eSA, Program: Executive MBA Bucharest

• Olena Khlon (external link): Chief Executive Officer, SHB Finance, Program: Global Executive MBA

• Florian Sturm (external link): Head of Sales, Semperit AG, Program: MBA Marketing & Sales

A very warm welcome to our 6 new IAB Members: Xiaoping Li, Marek Paska, Calin Purice, Regina Carvalho Babo Rodrigues, Nina Schweighofer and Victoria Zykova. We are very much looking forward to your ideas and contributions to the strategic development of the WU Executive Club.

©WU Executive Academy

A great opportunity to extend your network! Connect with our new IAB Members on LinkedIn!

• Xiaoping Li (external link): Project Specialist/Advisor, UNIDO - United Nations Industrial Development Organization. Program: Global Executive MBA.

• Marek Paska (external link): UK General Manager Central & Eastern Europe, Amicus Therapeutics. Program: Global Executive MBA

• Calin Purice (external link): Founder and CEO, ExaDo GmbH. Program: Global Executive MBA

• Regina Carvalho Babo Rodrigues (external link): Data/Technical Analyst, Erste Digital. Program: MBA Digital Transformation and Data Science

• Nina Schweighofer (external link): Head of Section Banking Supervision, European Central Bank. Program: Global Executive MBA

• Victoria Zykova (external link): Head of Business Development and Sales, TriLite Technologies GmbH. Program: MBA Marketing & Sales

Find more information on our website or, for Executive Club Members, on WU EA CONNECT! (external link) And if are interested in getting involved in the IAB, please contact us for further information. Selection criteria include your willingness to engage in the community, readiness to invest some time and minimum event attendance.

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