Update Magazine for Alumni of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
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June 2009 1 Update Magazine For alumni of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration 4 5 3 Preface Contents 2 Preface 3 The beginnings of You’ve got mail! an alumni organisation 3 Reunion When I was a little girl, I always enjoyed receiving a letter in the post. I am still a huge fan of print. Buying and 4 A glimpse of the past sending postcards is one of my favourite pastimes. My grandmother reached the ripe old age of 90 and she did not have a computer. We communicated the old-fashioned way 5 Alumni in the spotlight Leann Poeth-Chervenic – paper and pen. Although my grandmother has passed away my writing tradition continues. I enjoy sending cards and letters to my 6 MSc programme in family and friends in the Netherlands and abroad. It’s easy ... just Marketing-Finance put pen to paper and send news. Research Project 1993 Printed news goes back hundreds of years to the late 1400s when news pamphlets were passed around. The first newspaper (in 7 Research Project English) was the London Gazette of 1666. Technology changed Maastricht 2009/2010: all that. Newspapers, since the dawn of television, have had to Brazil compete with innovative ways of receiving news. Computers, email, on-line news sources, bring us the latest happenings at the 8 The impact of coaching click of a button. 8 Alumni Homecoming Twice a year you opened your post box and the Update magazine (and ContinuUM) appeared on your doormat. Day 2009 2 That crisp, glossy paper and fresh smell of ink greeted you with news from Maastricht. Unfortunately we, too, must accept technological advances. Printed news is more expensive and not environmentally friendly. So yes, I am sorry to inform you that this is the last printed version of the Update magazine (go ahead, wipe your tears with a paper tissue, technology hasn’t changed that yet). Colofon Update Magazine is a publication especially for the alumni of the Faculty of Economics and We value our alumni. And we still want to “keep in touch”. Monthly you will receive our online newsletter, Business Administration of alUMnieuws in your email Inbox. And the faculty has a periodic e-newsletter, Talkin’ Business, packed with Maastricht University. interesting news and stories about our faculty. And of course, you will continue to receive electronic invitations Editor Leann Poeth to our alumni circles in the cities where you live and work. Actually, it will become even easier to “keep in touch” Coordination and final editing and be informed of our latest news. We are adding “communities” (similar to LinkedIn, Facebook) to the alumni Merel van Cruchten part of the university website. It will also be easier to find former students, friends and new networks in our Leann Poeth on-line alumni database. Photographer Maurice Bastings Fotografie Maastricht University But first, a glimpse of the past. Sit back, relax and read this very last printed version of the Update magazine Faculty of Economics and Business Administration where we will take you on a stroll down memory lane. Where a blackberry was just a piece of fruit. P.O. Box 616 6200 MD Maastricht www.maastrichtuniversity.nl [email protected] Although every effort has been made to provide information that Leann Poeth-Chervenic is current and accurate, Maastricht Alumni Coordinator University cannot be held responsible for any errors, omissions, or misinter- Faculty of Economics and Business Administration pretations. Design gewoon biel. www.gewoonbiel .nl Printing p.s. Fan mail is always welcome. SCHRIJEN – LIPPERTZ Druk, print en grafische diensten Send me a postcard! P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD, Maastricht, The Netherlands www.schrijen-lippertz.nl Update Magazine | nr 3 July 2006 1 June 2009 Update The beginnings of an alumni organisation MEV M a a s t r i c h t s e In the early 1980s the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration was founded at the Rijksuniversiteit Limburg (currently: Maastricht University). E c o n o m e n It started out with less than 100 students. In the first few years, this was a Verband rather small faculty with few students. In fact, at that time, the entire university (all faculties) was housed at the Tongersestraat 53. Soon after the first students graduated at and networking activities. In the 1990s, university to them. Then there’s the Annual the faculty, a number of them decided it was several hundred alumni were members of Alumni Homecoming Day! We continue to important to “keep in touch”, so they formed the MEV and, as the numbers increased, it host our annual alumni reunion, where we the first alumni association of the faculty, became increasingly difficult to manage the invite our graduates back to Maastricht for henceforth known under the acronym MEV data and organise events. At this point, the a day of lectures, networking and fun. On a (Maastrichts Economen Verband). One of university and the faculty became directly smaller scale, our graduates are often invited the primary goals of the MEV was to help involved in organising alumni activities and back to the university as a guest lecturer, for alumni keep in touch with each other and the gradually took over activities from the MEV. student recruitment activities, career events, university, and, for a small fee, alumni were the University Dinner, the Opening of the invited to become a member. As the number The UM alumni association has evolved: Academic Year and much more. of alumni was not more than a few hundred now, all graduates automatically become students, this was not a very complicated a member and there are no fees involved. All this would not have happened had there 3 task. It is perhaps difficult to imagine now, Our goal remains the same: helping and not been this need from the MEV to “keep in but at that time personal computers were encouraging alumni to keep in touch with touch”. As UM alumni association we greatly more or less nonexistent, and on-line each other and with the faculty. Our strength appreciate this, and we are sure all our alumni information and communication were terms lies in our 21 alumni circles in the Netherlands do, too! none of us even heard of. So a booklet, the (Amsterdam, Utrecht, Rotterdam, Groningen, “Economengids”, was produced, containing etc.) and abroad (Brussels, Berlin, New York, the addresses and other details of all FEBA Beijing, Frankfurt, etc.) Our motto is: We go Author: Dr. Boudewijn Janssen (Economie 1996, alumni. After a couple of years, MEV decided places! Our alumni go places so we go places PhD 2003), former board member of MEV. to invite the alumni back to Maastricht for an too! We host meetings in cities where our Boudewijn is currently working at the Open annual reunion, including lectures, workshops alumni live and work, so that we can bring the Universiteit Reunion for students who started studying in 1984 and 1985 Recognise these students? They are the first Update Magazine | nr 1 June 2009 Update graduates from our faculty. In September 2010, we are organising a reunion especially for the first students who started at our Faculty (1984 and 1985). Are you one of our first students? Please make sure that we have your current contact details! Send an email to Leann Poeth, [email protected] We hope that you will join us for a fun reunion in Maastricht. AUpdate Magazineglimpse asked how Maastricht of the past prepared me for my current job. The withshort answer: founding more than I expected. dean Prof. Dr. Wil Albeda Over 25 years ago, Prof. Dr. Wil Albeda How it all started was asked to play an instrumental role in It all started in 1981, when Prof. Albeda was a establishing the Faculty of Economics and guest speaker at the “Limburgse Werkgevers Business Administration at Maastricht Vereniging” and was asked by the then President University, then called Rijksuniversiteit of its Executive Board, Rob van den Biggelaar, to Limburg. From 1981 to 1983, he was start up our faculty. Prof. Albeda: “It was a real esteemed dean of this faculty and after challenge to start the faculty. In the beginning, that, from 1983 to 1995, he was professor everything was small scale. I was a one-person by special appointment. Prof. Albeda faculty. The faculty was housed in its current joined us from the Erasmus University in location, Tongersestraat 53, but had to share Rotterdam. He was also Union Leader, as the building with several other faculties. In well as the Dutch Minister of Social Affairs. addition, the faculty had not yet found its place Today, Prof. Albeda is active in Maastricht, in the university, nor among the various business and he plays a role in sociocratic leadership. faculties in the Netherlands and abroad.” Together with the current dean, Prof. Dr. Jos Lemmink, Prof. Albeda looks back at the The approach history of our faculty. We started with the main question: what universities abroad were so interested in the PBL 4 do we want to teach our students? This system, as opposed to Dutch universities. In the resulted in three main areas of research: Public very beginning we could only hope that, over 25 Economics, Labour Economics and Technological years later, we would be standing where we are Development; at that time it was unique to right now, with annual top national rankings and start with defined research themes. The last a top-25 position in the Financial Times ranking. two topics have resulted in two UM research institutions: ROA (Research Centre for Education Can we learn from the past? and the Labour Market) and UNU-MERIT (United Hoping to draw on his wealth of knowledge and Nations University, and the Maastricht Economic experience, we asked Prof.