IMD Community

IMD’s close-knit and active community of alumni features more than 125,000 professionals from over 80 industries in 140 countries, including more than 11,000 board members and C-suite executives. IMD’s alumni and development team works hard to foster strong and fruitful connections between its alumni and to support lifelong learning through club engagements, its new HIVE platform, and networking events.

In 2021, IMD launched several exciting projects for and in collaboration with alumni, including the first Giving Day for scholarships and the creation of a global alumni survey.

In December, as part of an accelerated program for fundraising, IMD hosted its first Giving Day. This new event offered the chance for alumni and friends of IMD to come together to raise funds for scholarships that make it possible for more of the best and brightest participants from around the world to access IMD’s executive development and degree programs.

In 2021, IMD and leading global mining group Rio Tinto agreed to establish the Rio Tinto Chair in Stakeholder Engagement. The purpose of the chair will be to develop and diffuse knowledge about how leading multinationals can build robust stakeholder engagement capabilities that allow them to operate in otherwise politically challenging environments. Rio Tinto has pledged three million Swiss francs for the chair, which will be established in perpetuity by IMD. The agreement with Rio Tinto will be in force for an initial duration of 10 years.

International Alumni Event

In 2021, IMD hosted its Annual International Alumni Event in an innovative hybrid format, which enabled more than 200 alumni to connect on campus in Lausanne and many more from around the world to take part virtually.

The event, “A Path to Resilience: Advancing Executive and Organizational Mental Health and Wellbeing”, focused on topics including addressing stress, mindfulness in the workplace, and strategizing in your sleep.

Through its 50 alumni clubs worldwide, IMD and its former program participants maintain deep ties and relationships with a range of activities such as speaker events, industry visits and social gatherings.

In 2021, the UK club organized an event on COP26 to explore how business could be a force for good on climate change. The panel outlined several steps to take, including simplified ESG reporting, setting broader emissions targets, addressing transition risk and incorporating ESG into products and services.

The Lausanne club hosted an inspiring event entitled “Lower limb exoskeletons, beyond the handicap”, featuring para-artist, exoskeleton test pilot and former acrobat Silke Pan and EPFL rehabilitation and assistive robotics expert Mohamed Bouri.

In August, more than 4,000 former participants took part in IMD’s first global alumni survey. The survey showed that alumni felt extremely positive about IMD, both in terms of their memories and experiences as a participant but also about the institute today.

The survey results (see below) were compared against data from 37 institutions* in the US, New Zealand, Australia, the UK, Singapore and Canada, with IMD outperforming the benchmark significantly in several key areas.

Respondents were also very receptive to survey questions about the plan to launch an International Alumni Association, which would substantially broaden IMD’s portfolio and reach.

In 2021, Co-Founder of WiReD magazine, entrepreneur and Executive in Residence Ian Charles Stewart hosted three virtual Founder Series events in collaboration with phase2, interviewing entrepreneurs to share ideas with the ACE community on how to overcome challenges, disrupt the market and scale startups successfully.

The series featured brand marketing company Frontify, click-and-collect cash firm Sonect, and blockchain banking service Nuri.

The IMD alumni and development team would like to extend its warmest gratitude to all of the fantastic volunteers and supporters who gave their time and resources so generously in 2021.

In particular, the team would like to say a big thank you to the Alumni Advisory Council, the alumni club presidents and committee members, the MBA and EMBA class representatives, and the Giving Day donors and ambassadors.