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The Thunderbird Alumni Impact blog highlights the achievements and success stories of “T-birds” all over the world. Here you’ll find news and information from the alumni community as well as interviews, pictures and networking event information.
Thunderbird School of Global Management celebrated an important milestone over the weekend: the graduation of our 40,000th alumnus. The occasion happened June 5th at the commencement ceremony for our Global MBA for Latin American Managers program, a dual degree offered from Thunderbird and Tecnológico de Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico. The 40,000th alumnus to receive a Thunderbird degree was Emanuel Lima Abud, of Mexico City.
Saturday’s commencement ceremony at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort brought 162 new T-birds into our alumni family. The graduates hailed from more than 18 countries, including Argentina, Austria, Egypt, Mexico and Venezuela. This was the 11th graduating class for this unique program.
The joint Global MBA degree combines Thunderbird’s global curriculum with Latin America’s top-ranked MBA school (Tecnológico de Monterrey). Coursework has a distinct Latin American focus, and is delivered via live satellite sessions, face-to-face seminars, online interactions and a one-week interim seminar to Geneva, Tokyo, Dubai or Shanghai. Students spent the last week of the course at Thunderbird’s campus in Glendale for final classroom instruction and project presentations.
The ceremony’s commencement speaker was Gustavo Guzmán Sepúlveda, CEO of Grupo Iusacell, one of Mexico’s leading mobile operators that serves about 3.5 million subscribers. The company provides cellular services that reach about 90% of Mexico’s population. Graduation ended with all graduates taking the Thunderbird Oath of Honor and the Tecnológico de Monterrey Vow.
In a special closing to the ceremony, Thunderbird President Ángel Cabrera awarded Thunderbird’s Global Leadership Award to Carlos Cruz Limón, Rector of Innovation and Institutional Development at the Tecnológico de Monterrey. This award is given to an outstanding leader who has professionally exemplified Thunderbird’s five pillars: global mindset, global citizenship, global entrepreneurship, global thought leadership and global learning network. Limón is credited to to first forging the partnership between the two schools 11 years ago.
More pictures from the ceremony at Thunderbird’s Flickr page.
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