The graduation ceremony of the Class of 2011 of the Bucerius/WHU Master of Law and Business – Joachim Herz (MLB) Program took place in the Bucerius Law School auditorium on Tuesday, August 30, 2011. For the first time, the commencement address was delivered by an MLB Program 2008 alumna, Georgiana Ianus. Ms. Ianus is currently a lawyer at the European Commission and her speech focused on the importance of being passionate about one’s work and sharing one’s passion and knowledge with colleagues and business acquaintances.
The 45 graduates were dressed in the traditional black caps and gowns with blue and red sashes representing the colors of the two degree granting institutions – Bucerius Law School and the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management.
Class representative Maria José Rojas was honored with the “DAAD Prize for Foreign Students” for her excellent academic results and her continuous dedication to representing the interests of her class throughout the duration of the MLB program.
Furthermore, this year’s “Best Teacher Awards” were given to Bucerius Law School’s own Professor Dr. Dres. h.c. Karsten Schmidt and Dr. Carsten Jungmann for their course on “Business Entities”, and to WHU’s Professor Dr. Jürgen Weigand for his course on “Microeconomics”.
Another first was the awarding of the WHU Medal of Honor to Rainer Heydenreich, Vice-Chairman of UBS Deutschland AG for his outstanding and continuous support of the program since its inception.
In their speech, the MLB class representatives, Maria José Rojas and Torben Teichler, called upon their classmates to keep in touch and to, above all, value their Bucerius/WHU education as a privilege and to “give back” to society and to those who are less fortunate. The importance of keeping in touch both with classmates and with the alma maters was also emphasized by the representatives of the Bucerius and WHU alumni associations.
A musical interlude was provided by Rosa von Gleichen and Carolin Zur, both members of the graduating class, who performed the song “Memory” from the musical “Cats” by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
The graduation ceremony of the MLB Class of 2011 not only commemorated the five-year anniversary of the program, an occasion which was celebrated with a custom-made 20 pound mixed berry cream cake. It also marked the beginning of the exciting and challenging year that now lies ahead of the MLB Class of 2012. The 48 new MLBs come from 33 different countries, speak over 30 languages and have a wide variety of academic and personal interests. The MLB team is looking forward to getting to know this diverse group and having a very interesting year with them.
- The MLB Class of 2012