What does a former President of Malawi have in common with the VP for Talent and Development at Amazon Web Services, former Chief Operational Risk Officer of the World Bank, Head of Human and Child Rights at the Ingka (formerly Ikea) Group, and the VP for Social Impact at Visa CAMEA? They all are keynote speakers at the GBSN Beyond Virtual Conference starting next week. See the full list of remarkable speakers here.
You can see from the agenda that GBSN Beyond is no ordinary conference in the business education space. Speakers come from business, civil society, and government, as well as academia because we believe innovation and impact occurs at the intersection of different perspective and that business schools are much more powerful forces of good when they are connected across sectors. You’ll also see considerable international diversity amongst the speakers, with as many coming from Africa, Asia-Pacific, and South America, as from Europe and the United State. But please don’t be misled by all the diversity. Although they operate in different sectors and geographic contexts, everyone participating in Beyond shares GBSN’s vision for the developing world to have the talent it needs to generate inclusive and sustainable prosperity.
In addition to a large number of sessions exploring the role and impact of business schools, the agenda addresses some of the most challenging issues facing society, especially in areas such as climate, health, and human rights. Conference sessions are organized into clusters in the diagram below, showing that there is something for any business school leader, professor, and student interested in making a difference. And there are a number of networking events and other experiences available on the platform.
Please join us for the event, November 15-17, even it is just for a few sessions. Individual seats are still available and, of course, it is open to everyone—students, faculty, and staff—at institutions that have registered to participate. Register here if you haven’t already.
For GBSN, Beyond is much more than a virtual conference. We started it last year with two major objectives:
- to be more inclusive than we could in our regular face-to-face events and
- to actually do things that move the needle on our mission “to improve access to quality, locally relevant management and entrepreneurship education for the developing world”
More than 1,000 people representing more than 100 institutions across nearly 40 countries have already registered to participate in this year’s GBSN Beyond. Participants will come from places like Papua New Guinea and Haiti, as well as Nigeria, China, France, Brazil, and the United States.
Regarding action, GBSN Beyond includes a series of experiences across three tracks. The HUMLOG Challenge sponsored by the Hanken School of Economics brings together student teams to improve community disaster resilience. Learn more about the six finalists here. Our Faculty Micro-Simulation Development Lab with Capsim supports teams of professors working together to build micro-simulations for future classroom use everywhere.
Finally, this year with EFMD we have convened the first-ever Going Beyond Awards to engage business schools in reflecting on their community impact. We are in the final judging stages for each of these tracks and invite everyone to check out all the great submissions and celebrate the winners during the awards ceremony on Wednesday, November 17.
GBSN Beyond is also an opportunity to experiment with new ideas for achieving our mission. This year we worked closely with Universidad de Los Andes for an initiative called Race2Imagine. We connected them with Miami-Herbert Business School, Thunderbird-School of Global Management, and the Geneva School of Economics and Management to convene a three-part series of conversations on health, climate, and human rights, respectively. The conversations featured local impact stories by students and faculty, as well as experts on the subjects. Learn more about Race2Imagine here.
Planning the series of events and experiences of GBSN Beyond takes a lot of work and support. We are thankful for the generous support of our fantastic sponsors and a small army of volunteers, including many experts from around the world who served as coaches and judges in our various challenges. And, I can’t say enough about the fantastic GBSN Team who always go Beyond to assist the whole GBSN community to make a positive difference in society.
Dan LeClair, CEO, Global Business School Network
Dan LeClair was named CEO of the Global Business School Network (GBSN) in February of 2019. Prior to GBSN, Dan was an Executive Vice President at AACSB International, an association and accrediting organization that serves some 1,600 business schools in more than 100 countries. His experience at AACSB includes two and half years as Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, seven years as Chief Operating Officer, and five years as Chief Knowledge Officer.
A founding member of the Responsible Research in Business and Management (RRBM) initiative, Dan currently participates on its working board. He also serves in an advisory capacity to several organizations and startups in business and higher education. Before AACSB, Dan was a tenured associate professor and associate dean at The University of Tampa.
Dan played a lead role in creating a think-tank joint venture between the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) and AACSB and has been recognized for pioneering efforts in the formation of the UN’s Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), where he served on the Steering Committee for many years. Dan has also participated in industry-level task forces for a wide range of organizations, including the Chartered Association of Business Schools, Graduate Management Admission Council, Executive MBA Council, and Aspen Institute’s Business and Society Program.
Widely recognized as a thought leader in management education, Dan is the author of over 80 research reports, articles, and blogs, and has delivered more than 170 presentations in 30 countries. As a lead spokesperson for reform and innovation in management education, Dan has been frequently cited in a wide range of US and international newspapers, magazines, and professional publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, China Daily, Forbes, Fast Company, and The Economist.
Dan earned a PhD from the University of Florida writing on game theory.