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<span style="font-size: 15px;" class="">Dear MBA (yes now you are!),</span>
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<div style="font-size: 15px;" class="">Most of you have discussed the final thesis in these last weeks (few more will need to do it in the next weeks). I am now writing this quick message to congratulate with you all for this important and life-changing achievement.
What an incredible and intense year we have spent together. I still have vivid images in my mind of our first day with Eugenio Sidoli in September 2019, it was also my first Live moment as newly nominated Global MBA Director. I was excited but scared, sure
of my engagement and the value of the team, but not sure if my engagement and the one of the team could have been enough to match the level of your expectations.</div>
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<div style="font-size: 15px;" class="">Then, we had just start to know each other and have great classes when Covid-19 made the appearance in our lives changing completely them and the entire world. Who could have expected that. This has been a turning point
in our history that is still creating sufferance and pain in our countries but we now all look at the future with more optimism due to vaccination. You have demonstrated an enormous flexibility and adjustment capacity and that made our job much easier. I am
still very grateful to you all for that.</div>
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<div style="font-size: 15px;" class="">I have been pleased today in the session that I have participated to hear about your stories, your achievements during the interns, the projects you have led creating great values for your companies, your future plans
now, some wants to remain in Bologna and Italy, some are packing to return to their home countries dreaming to contribute in their development. I know that not for everybody it turned out as expected and I am truly sorry for those who encountered much difficulty
in getting a job/intern but, I am sure about it, how can we look back at the last year with regret?</div>
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<div style="font-size: 15px;" class="">You must be proud of what you have done. We have had in class a dynamism in terms of new ideas, talks, business projects, entrepreneurial spirit, enthusiasm, and events managed by you (the sharing class has been a beautiful
and irreplaceable experience) that has never been seen before at the school. The echos of our Global MBA has raised significantly in the school and thanks to you, the programme’s image and reputation shifted for the best as also the recent achievement that
I have announced yesterday on my LinkedIn profile shows. </div>
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<div style="font-size: 15px;" class="">Apart from our professional moments, we had new relationships, new bonds formed, new babies coming, other babies growing, you relocating in Italy and then moving in other countries for work...in few words, we had life,
with all the good and bad that it can bring to us.</div>
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<div style="font-size: 15px;" class="">Let me say now that I am very proud of you all and I will never forget you being the first class I had the honour to serve.</div>
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<div style="font-size: 15px;" class="">Welcome in the BBS Alumni Community now! I am sure you will honour the name of the school wherever you will go and do in your life.</div>
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<div style="font-size: 15px;" class="">Warm Regards,</div>
<div style="font-size: 15px;" class="">Marcello</div>
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<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><b class=""><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; color: rgb(68, 114, 196);" class="">MARCELLO RUSSO, PhD</span></b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;" class=""><br class="">
</span><span style="font-size: 9pt;" class="">Director of the Global MBA<br class="">
Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at University of Bologna<br class="">
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<a href="http://www.bbs.unibo.it/hp/global-mba/" class="">http://www.bbs.unibo.it/hp/global-mba/</a></span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;" class=""> </span></p>
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