According to tradition, Prof. Alexander Savchenko, IIB’s President, opened the ceremony and congratulated the graduates on successful completion of study and wished them would not stay with these achievements, but always go forward.
Dr. Andrew Gaudes, Associate Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration of the University of New Brunswick, in his welcome speech to the graduates, congratulated them on behalf of the University of New Brunswick, saying that according to tradition, established during the celebration of 225th anniversary of UNB, every graduate of IMBA program received, as a memo of this event, the commemorative coin with UNB logo, issued in 2011. He also expressed the hope that for the graduates this coin would be a symbol of the fact that "they were, they are and they will be part of a big family of UNB alumni all over the world, who work for doing our world better every day".
This year Ms Katia Chaba, on behalf of D. Caron, Ambassador of Canada to Ukraine, addressed the greetings to the graduates, also saying that she was very happy with the partnership established between IIB-Ukraine and Canadian business schools. She pointed out the important role of the Institute in development of science in our county and in building relationship between Ukraine and Canada. She wished the success in further professional development of the graduates and expressed the hope that they would properly represent the business elite of Ukraine.
Alexander Okunev, Ludmila Batenko and Natalia Pisarenko, program instructors, also addressed to the graduates with warm greetings. They wished the graduates to look ahead courageously and not to forget the Institute that may become their reliable partner in realization of new and interesting projects.
The graduation ceremony proceeded in a festive atmosphere, with laud applause. The following students - 2011 were recognized as the best: Alla Idobaeva (IMBA), Genrikh Dering (IMBA), Anatolii Strelchenko (IMBA), Anna Nalieskina (IMBA) and Anna Kotkovets (UPBA ). They were awarded with the commemorative prizes for the best study results during the program.
Then, the floor to speak was given to the graduates. On behalf of the graduands, Genrikh Dering (IMBA program) and Anna Kotkovets (UPBA) congratulated their colleagues on this achievement, thanked the teachers and staff of the program for the knowledge and support the students received during the study, and also noticed the high value of theoretical as well as practical skills they equipped.
The presentation of Alexander Poddenezhny, graduate -2008 of IMBA program, who talked about his personal experience and professional achievements after completion of IMBA program, became a pleasant surprise at the ceremony.
During the presentation of video film about the years of study the audience kept silence, recalling and reviewing two years of intensive work: business cases solving, development of individual projects for the own company and participation in creative group projects, role games, preparation of presentations, hard discussions. But this courage will be rewarded with possibility to belong to Ukrainian intellectual elite, with successful career and absolutely new thinking that would further determine all way of living.
Closing the graduation ceremony, the graduates received IIB-Ukraine’s Alumni Association membership cards. Then the informal communication continued during a reception.
The faculty and staff of the International Institute of Business express the greetings to the graduates and wish them new perspective ideas, effective and innovative solutions!!! Best wishes and hoping to see you again!!
IIB-Ukraine Team
