2006-1 22.45 MB, pdf - Stockholm School of Economics in Riga

SSE Riga
NEWS
Newsletter No 1/ 2006
GRADUATION
2006
The School’s tenth Graduation Ceremony took place on
June 3rd in the Riga Congress Hall. The Commencement
Address was given by the Latvian Minister of Education
and Science, Professor Baiba Rivža.
This year 93 students received their B.Sc. degree and 11
students received their Executive MBA degree. The total
number of B.Sc. graduates has now reached 906 and the
number of Executive MBA graduates 51.
IN THIS ISSUE
SSE Riga Benefactors
1
A Word from the Latvian President
1
SSE Riga in Media
1
BICEPS Moving in
1
EVENTS
European Commission Vice-President
Margot Wallström in a Heated Debate
The Days of Opportunities 2006
3
Peak Time 2006
3
Seminar on Gender Equality Implementation
3
SSE Riga 11th Anniversary and HomeComing 2005
4
Springboards Organized
4
Lunch Seminar on Company Valuation
4
Lithuanian Evening
4
Mexican and Spanish Film Festivals
4
Singer and Civil Rights Activist Odetta Holmes
5
The 2006 Yalta Conference
5
Meeting Alumni in Tallinn
5
Estonian Week
5
RESEARCH and PUBLICATIONS
Latvia’s Entrepreneurship
Monitored for the First Time
6
The Global Competitiveness Report
6
Off the Press
7
New TeliaSonera Institute Discussion Paper
7
Inflation Report
7
Competence Centers in Latvia
7
SSE Riga LINKS LATVIA and SWEDEN
The Federation of Swedish Enterprises
8
New Chairman of the Swedish Chamber of Commerce 8
Ice Hockey Party at the Swedish Embassy
8
Swedbank Board of Directors
9
The TeliaSonera Management Academy
9
Anders Wall Scholarship 2006
9
STUDENTS
Student Charity
10
Prize to the Insider
10
Winning Students
10
PEOPLE
Donation from Epicor – Scala
11
Library News
11
Eric Rhenman Scholarship
11
INTERNATIONAL
State Visit to Israel
12
Visit to Belarus
12
The Choir in Switzerland
12
New Academic Exchanges
13
New Leonardo da Vinci Project
13
EXECUTIVE EDUCATION
New Executive MBA Intake
13
Program for Latvian Ministries
13
Newsletter No 1/ 2006
A WORD FROM THE
LATVIAN PRESIDENT
In her congratulations to the Swedish Chamber of Commerce on the occasion of its
10-year anniversary, the President of the Republic of Latvia, Vaira Vike-Freiberga,
paid tribute to SSE Riga:
“I would also like to pay tribute to the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE) in
Riga, which is one of the most successful examples of our renewed Swedish-Latvian
partnership, and which houses the offices of the Swedish Chamber of Commerce
in Latvia. The SSE has contributed greatly to the establishment of a Western-style
business education system in Latvia, and its well-qualified graduates, in turn, are
now contributing to Latvia’s growth and development.”
SSE RIGA BENEFACTORS
SSE RIGA IN MEDIA
SSE Riga gratefully acknowledges contributions from
the following individuals:
The spring 2006 has been successful in terms of media
coverage. Inflation report presented in late May was
covered by all Latvian TV stations and most of the leading newspapers. The coverage also included interviews
with the two authors, Morten Hansen and Alf Vanags.
In early June the release of the Global Entrepreneurship
Monitor generated media coverage in TV as well as in
printed media. The coverage included interviews with
Vyacheslav Dombrovsky, Alf Vanags and Karlis Kreslins.
Internationally, Finnish YLE TV broadcasted an interview on Latvia’s economy with SSE Riga’s Rector Anders
Paalzow.
Leif Mutén
Margareta and Ulf Redlund
and from the following SSE Riga Alumni:
Armands Alliks
Pavils Jurjans
Liene Kule
Marina Pavlova
Reinis Rubenis
Inese Romanovska
Svetlana Sitnikova
Moreover, more or less all of the leading Latvian newspapers have had several stories covering various activities
and events at SSE Riga. Among the persons interviewed
were SSE Riga’s Prorector Diana Pauna as well as several
SSE Riga faculty members.
Elina Veide
Aivars Vilnitis
The contributions will contribute to ensure that
the SSE Riga experience will be available to new
generations of students.
BICEPS MOVING IN
The Baltic International Centre for Economic Policy
Studies (BICEPS) has moved in to new premises on the
fourth floor in the SSE Riga main building. The School cooperates closely with BICEPS and most of its researchers
have joint appointments with SSE Riga. More information about BICEPS can be found at www.biceps.org.
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EVENTS
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
VICE-PRESIDENT
MARGOT WALLSTRÖM IN A
HEATED DEBATE
On May 22, the vice-president of the European Commission, Margot
Wallström participated in a debate organized by the SSE Riga Student
Association. Margot Wallström, together with Sandra Kalniete, former
Ambassador and form Latvian European Commissioner, and Latvian
Member of the European Parliament Valdis Dombrovkis, debated with
SSE Riga Debating Club members Martins Liberts, Jurij Romanenkov,
Priit Brus, and Boris Ginzburg. The partly heated and intensive debate,
focussed on the future of Latvia in the European Union.
Margot Wallström underlined that the European Union is not only
about free mobility of goods and services, and the EMU, but also about
increasing the standard of living in all the EU countries as well as increasing the social commitment in Europe. Her message was that the vision of
Europe should not be blocked by the many topical questions that are often
dominating the political debate in Europe. However, the EMU, the convergence criteria and the European constitution still dominated the debate.
The three highly experienced European politicians sometimes had
difficulties in debating with the engaged and in many cases EU-critical
students. After an hour of debating with rhetorics reaching high levels, the
audience in the crowded Soros Auditorium was given the chance to take
part in the debate.
After the debate, Erik Hallberg from TeliaSonera handed over a donation
to the SSE Riga Debate Club. In his speech he underlined the importance
of students taking part in the political debate. A reception at the Swedish
Embassy followed the debate. During the reception both the students
and the participating politicians stressed the necessity of meeting and
discussing the future of the European Union. During the fall, SSE Riga
plans to organize similar events inviting European policy makers.
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THE DAYS OF OPPORTUNITIES 2006
Newsletter No 1/ 2006
The 2006 Days of Opportunities organized by the SSE Riga Student Association saw a
record number of companies attending. In total 43 companies from the Baltic countries
attended and presented a wide range of career opportunities to the SSE Riga students.
Opening Speeches were given by the Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs Artis Pabriks,
and the Lithuanian Ambassador to Latvia.
VISIT BY THE LATVIAN
MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Artis Pabriks,
addressed the SSE Riga students at the Days of
Opportunities Opening ceremony. In his speech the
Minister presented the Latvian Ministry of Affairs and
the Foreign Service career opportunities.
PEAK TIME 2006
The seventh international student business competition
Peak Time took place in May. The game, entirely
organized by SSE Riga students, welcomed 84 students
representing 20 teams from 13 countries and 19 different
universities. After an Opening Address by the former
Latvian Minister of Economics, Krisjanis Karins, the
participants were given the opportunity to attend guest
lectures by Ignas Staskevicus, Ola Ahlvarsson, Kristian
Schulze-Koops and Fredrik Haren. On the second day the
actual competition started, and in five highly competitive
rounds of the computer simulated business game CESIM,
the teams had to show their managerial skills. Out of
the 20 teams, six advanced to the final day of Peak Time
and they had to solve cases prepared by Nokia and by
Alminas Zaldokas from the London School of Economics.
At the end of the day, the team from Copenhagen
Business School proved to be the best.
SEMINAR ON GENDER
EQUALITY
IMPLEMENTATION
On March 8, SSE Riga hosted a seminar on “Gender Budgeting
and Gender Equality Implementation”. The seminar was part
of the Nordic Spring events in Riga organized by the Nordic
countries. It covered various case studies from the Swedish
public health care sector and Volvo. The seminar ended by a short
lecture on “Ibsen’s Women in Family and Society”.
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EVENTS
SSE RIGA 11TH ANNIVERSARY
AND HOMECOMING 2005
On November 11-12, SSE Riga celebrated its 11th
Anniversary and the HoCo 2005. The event started with
a presentation of the 2005 SSE Riga working papers and
in the evening the annual HoCo Party took place. The
following day started with guest lectures by two of the
leading e-business gurus from Sweden: Johan Stael von
Holstein and Kristoffer Schjött-Quist. The guest lectures
were followed by presentations by the Alumni Association
and the Student Association. The day ended with the SSE
Riga Choir’s Annual Anniversary Concert in the Anglican
Church.
SPRINGBOARDS
ORGANIZED
As part of the TeliaSonera Institute’s activities in supporting
entrepreneurship in Latvia, the Institute, in cooperation
with Connect Latvia, organized a number of Springboards
during the spring. During a Springboard an entrepreneur
presents his business or business idea to a panel of experts
willing to give advice and to identify business opportunities
etc. SSE Riga, through its TeliaSonera Institute is one of
the members of Connect Latvia. More information about
Connect Latvia can be found at www.connectlatvia.lv.
LUNCH SEMINAR ON
COMPANY VALUATION
The TeliaSonera Institute at SSE Riga and the Baltic
International Centre for Economic Policy Studies organized
a lunch seminar for Latvian journalists on Company
Valuation. The seminar was organized in cooperation with
Lõhmus Haavel & Viisemann, Latvia.
4
LITHUANIAN
EVENING
MEXICAN AND SPANISH
FILM FESTIVALS
On December 14, the Lithuanian student body in cooperation with the Lithuanian Embassy in Riga, and the
Lithuanian Chamber of Commerce in Riga organized a
Lithuanian evening at SSE Riga. The Evening, which is an
annual event, saw a record number of participants and
gave the Lithuanian business community an opportunity
to learn more about SSE Riga, its programs and its students.
In November the Mexican Film Festival was organized at SSE
Riga. During the festival, which was organized in cooperation
with Culture Academy and the Honorary Consulate of Mexico,
a number of Mexican films where shown.
In May followed the Spanish Film Festival organized in
cooperation with Culture Academy and the Embassy of Spain
in Riga.
Newsletter No 1/ 2006
SINGER AND CIVIL RIGHTS
ACTIVIST ODETTA HOLMES
The U.S. singer and civil rights activist Odetta Holmes
visited SSE Riga on February 22, to take part in a discussion led by Ojars Kalnins from the Latvian Institute.
Active in the Civil Rights Movement, Odetta participated in the march on Selma, performed at the 1963 March
on Washington, and played for President Kennedy and
his cabinet. As a musician Odetta has had a significant
influence on modern music, providing inspiration for
such performers as Janis Joplin and Bob Dylan, and
has performed with such partners as Count Basie and
Bob Dylan. The event which was organized by the U.S.
Embassy in Riga was part of the National African American
History Month.
THE 2006 YALTA
CONFERENCE
In April, SSE Riga’s Executive Education Department,
in cooperation with the Baltic International Centre for
Economic Policy Studies (BICEPS), arranged a conference that took place in Yalta on the Ukrainian peninsula
of Crimea. The three-day conference was organized as
workshop on the political and economic development in
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. To ensure interaction and
an active sharing of knowledge the maximum number
of participants was set to ten. Among the speakers were
leading policy makers and analysts from Russia and
Ukraine as well as academicians from Germany, SSE Riga
and BICEPS.
The Conference also included a trip to Livadia, where the
“real” Yalta Conference took place 61 years earlier with
Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill.
MEETING ALUMNI IN
TALLINN
ESTONIAN
WEEK
To strengthen the and further develop relationships with
the Estonian alumni, SSE Riga faculty and staff members
visited Tallinn at event organized by the Estonian alumni
on December 1. The meeting with alumni was successful
and close to all Estonian alumni attended.
On February 24th Estonia’s 88th Independence Day was
celebrated. To make the Day even more noticeable, the
Estonian student community organized a week full of information, activities and entertainment. The evening of
February 23rd was devoted to meeting the local Estonian
business community.
The visit to also included visit to three of the leading
employers of SSE Riga graduates; Lõhmus Haavel &
Viisemann, Ernst and Young, and Hansapank. To
further promote the School SSE Riga took part in the
annual Youth Information Fair “Teevit 2005”.
This event was organized in cooperation with the Estonian Embassy in Riga and comprised an economic forum
and a student life presentation followed by a banquet and
entertainment.
5
RESEARCH AND
PUBLICATIONS
LATVIA’S ENTREPRENEURSHIP
MONITORED FOR
THE FIRST TIME
For the first time Latvia is participating in Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. GEM is a major international research
project aimed at describing and analyzing entrepreneurial
processes across a wide range of countries. There are two
reports: the international report summarizing the findings for
the 35 participating countries and the country report analyzing entrepreneurship in Latvia in depth.
The Latvian Country Report paints a quite bright picture of
entrepreneurship in Latvia:
• Latvia scores higher than any of the other new
EU countries participating in the study.
• Vidzeme is the most entrepreneurial region in
Latvia followed by Riga.
• The least entrepreneurial region is Kurzeme.
• A majority of the newly established businesses
are active in the consumer sector.
• 40 per cent of the entrepreneurs are women
– the highest number of all countries participating in the study.
• 35 per cent of the new entrepreneurs are from
families where at least one family member already is an entrepreneur.
The report was presented at a seminar at SSE Riga in
the beginning of June. The report got substantial media
coverage and was the top news in Panorama, Latvia’s leading
TV newscast.
THE GLOBAL
COMPETITIVENESS REPORT
SSE Riga has for the fourth time been one of the partner institutes for the World Economic Forum’s Global
Competitiveness Report (GCR), which compiles the
Growth Competitiveness Index. The SSE Riga team
which interviewed business leaders in Estonia, Latvia
and Lithuania, was lead by Assistant Professor Karlis
Kreslins. Out of the Baltic countries Estonia was ranked
20, Lithuania 43 and Latvia 44.
An executive summary of the GCR is available at
www.weforum.org/gcr.
6
Latvia’s participation in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor
was made possible through the TeliaSonera donation to the
TeliaSonera Institute at SSE Riga. The report can be ordered
from SSE Riga, office@sseriga.edu.lv.
COMPETENCE CENTERS IN
LATVIA
On behalf of the Latvian Ministry of Economics, SSE Riga
researchers undertook a study on the development of competence centers in Latvia. The study, carried out by Diana
Pauna, Arnis Sauka and Alf Vanags, focussed on the current
state and the future development of Latvian competence
centers.
Newsletter No 1/ 2006
INFLATION REPORT
The high Latvian inflation is currently the number one topic on
the Latvian political agenda and during the last months it has
completely dominated the political debate. In the end of May,
SSE Riga together with BICEPS released a report on the Latvian
inflation, its causes and consequences. In connection with the
release, SSE Riga organized a seminar. The more than 100
seminar participants were given the opportunity to listen to a
presentation of the report “Inflation in Latvia – is there a
Mystery to Unravel?”, by the report’s two authors Morten
Hansen and Alf Vanags. The presentation was followed by a
discussion with participants from the Bank of Latvia, the Economics Ministry, the Finance Ministry and Hansbank.
The report showed that the prices on the property market, the
credit boom and overheating on the labour market, are the most
important reasons for the galloping inflation. After the seminar,
a press conference, where more then 30 journalists and six network channels were present, was held.
The report topped the radio and TV newscasts and was headline news in printed media. The report spurred further public debate on the topic, which in turn resulted in the Latvian
Government putting together a working group that should
come up with suggestions on what can be done.
The report can be ordered from office@sseriga.edu.lv.
OFF THE PRESS
Enterprising Women in Transition Economies, edited by
Friederike Welter, David Smallbone and Nina Isakova,
Ashgate, 2006.
NEW TELIASONERA
INSTITUTE DISCUSSION
PAPER
The third Discussion Paper from the TeliaSonera
Institute at SSE Riga, Challenges of the EU New Regulatory Framework (NRF) in Electronic Communications:
An Economist’s Perspective has now been published The
Paper is authored by Alf Vanags and can be ordered from
office@sseriga.edu.lv.
The SSE Riga TeliaSonera Professor Friederike has co-edited
as well as contributed to this book which provides an analysis
of the nature and extent of female entrepreneurship in
European economies that until 1990 were operating
under central planning. The Elgar Companion to Public
Economics: Empirical Public Economics, edited by Attiat
F. Ott and Richard J. Cebula, Edward Elgar, 2006.
SSE Riga Assistant Professor Vyacheslav Dombrovsky has
contributed with one chapter, What Kept the Russian
Federation Intact? Testing the Internal Exit Model of
Buchanan and Faith, to this book which add resses a
wealth of topics common to the study of both public economics and public choice.
7
SSE RIGA LINKS
LATVIA & SWEDEN
THE FEDERATION OF
SWEDISH ENTERPRISES
In February, the Federation of Swedish Enterprises
visit Latvia. The program of the was arranged by SSE
Riga. Among the participants were the director Tommy
Hellström, the head of communications Ulla Hamilton,
and the chief editor of the magazine Entrepreneur, Nicklas Mattsson.
The reason for the trip was the increased interest in the
Baltic countries among Swedish Industry. This is partly
an effect of the “Laval Affair” and also the new directive
from the European Union. After a seminar on SSE Riga
the group met with the Latvian Employers Association,
the Latvian Trade Union Confederation, the Ministry of
Economics, and the economics advisor to Latvian Prime
Minister Aigars Kalvitis.
ICE HOCKEY PARTY AT THE
SWEDISH EMBASSY
On May 4th, the eve of the Ice Hockey World Championships, the Swedish Embassy of Latvia together
with TeliaSonera and SSE Riga arranged a party to
celebrate the World Championships of Hockey in
Latvia. The more than 100 guests enjoyed the food
as well as the performance by the Swedish “Electric
Banana Band” and not to mention the hot dogs served
in the Embassy’s garden. In their toasts both the
Swedish Ambassador to Latvia, HE Göran Håkansson,
and Kenneth Karlberg, President of TeliaSonera, Norway,
Denmark and the Baltic countries, praised the
Latvian initiative to host the Ice Hockey World Championships and wished the Latvian and Swedish teams the best
of luck. Two weeks later the Swedes became the World
Champions…
NEW CHAIRMAN OF THE
SWEDISH CHAMBER
OF COMMERCE IN LATVIA
SSE Riga Senior Vice President Gunnar Ljungdahl has been elected Chairman of the Swedish Chamber
Commerce in Latvia. The Chamber, whose activities started 10 years ago, will have its office at
SSE Riga. The office is run by the Chamber’s Executive Director Kaija Siljara. Information about
the Chamber’s activities can be found at www.scc.lv.
8
SWEDBANK BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Newsletter No 1/ 2006
The Board of Directors of Swedbank (the owners of Hansabank) visited the Baltic countries on a
study trip organized by SSE Riga in cooperation with BICEPS. With the merger of the Swedish
Föreningssparbanken and Hansabank (the leading bank in the three Baltic countries) there is a
need to further strengthen the knowledge of the Board when it comes to the Baltic countries. The
trip comprised visits to banks, meetings with politicians and experts, and seminars.
The first day was devoted to a seminar at SSE Riga. It started with a general overview covering
the political, social and economic developments in the Baltic region. Then followed discussions
on the development of the Baltic financial markets and the
differences in management between Sweden, Estonia,
Latvia, and Lithuania.
After the seminars in Riga, the Board went to Tallinn to
meet the Estonian prime-minister Andrus Ansip and the
Swedish ambassador in Estonia, Dag Hartelius. In Vilnius,
there were seminar activities focussing on the political
situation in Lithuania and on the economical and political
development in the Russian Federation.
THE TELIASONERA
MANAGEMENT ACADEMY
This spring TeliaSonera Norway, Denmark and the Baltic
states, in cooperation with SSE Riga’s Executive Education, launched a new program for their top talents. The
program, addressing the demands facing TeliaSonera
from its customers as well as from technology now and in
the future, was organized around a number of themes:
• How to foster and develop an entrepreneurial
spirit within the organization
• Future perspectives
• Communication as a strategically tool
Among the lecturers were: Sean Gaffney on company culture and intrapreneurship, Larry Stout on management
in international organizations, Jan Zander on the future
of wireless communication system, Jonas Ridderstråle on
future perspectives built around “Karaoke Capitalism”,
Juris Kaza on the “Future Shock”, Erik Strendzenieks
on communication for change, and Jouni Heinonen on
reputation management as a strategic tool for future
communication.
ANDERS WALL
SCHOLARSHIP 2006
Andrius Minicius, SSE Riga Class of 2006, was awarded the 2006 Anders Wall Scholarship for SSE Riga students at the
annual Anders Wall Foundation Award Ceremony on March 10, in Stockholm. The Scholarship is awarded to entrepreneurial SSE Riga students. Andrius was the 15th SSE Riga student to be awarded. In parallel with his studies at SSE Riga
Andrius has established a London-based company, Wood Empire, that imports hard wood furniture manufactured in
Lithuania. The company was established three years ago and has more than 200 employees and the forecasted turnover
for 2006 is 4.5 million euro.
9
STUDENTS
STUDENT CHARITY
On January 14th, the Annual SSE Riga Charity Group
Meeting with children from the orphanage Ziluks took
place. The children are invited to visit Riga and the
School. This year 15 children participated and during
the visit at SSE Riga they were served pizza and received
presents donated by students, faculty and staff. The
Charity Group has been working with the Ziluks orphanage for six years. The Charity Group can be reached at
charity@sseriga.edu.lv.
PRIZE TO THE INSIDER
The SSE Riga student paper, The Insider, won the award
for the best cover page. The cover titled “The Beauty of
Power” appeared on the 2005 elections issue. The designer
of the winning cover was Povilas Redko. The competition student newspaper competition, 5K, was organized
by the Latvian newspaper Diena.
WINNING STUDENTS
Debating 1: Several SSE Riga teams participated in the
Vilnius International Rotary 2005 in November – the winners were SSE Riga students Boris Ginzburg and Aleksej
Vlasov.
Debating 2: In April the Tartu Debate Tournament took
place at Tartu University with participants from all over
Central and Eastern Europe – the winners were Jurij
Romanenkov and Martins Liberts.
10
PEOPLE
Newsletter No 1/ 2006
Jurgita Baltrusaityte-Axelson has been appointed Assistant Professor in Marketing and Entrepreneurship at SSE Riga. Jurgita has Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago. During her Ph.D. studies Jurgita specialized in
marketing and entrepreneurship and her thesis was on “The Opportunity
Recognition Process, New Venture Start-Up Motivators and Outcomes: The
Real Options Approach”. At SSE Riga Jurgita will mainly teach marketing at
the intermediate and specialization levels. In terms of research she will be affiliated with the TeliaSonera Institute at SSE Riga.
Martins Kazaks joined the SSE Riga resident faculty as assistant professor in
economics in late 2005. Martins holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Queen Mary,
University of London. Martins will combine a part time position at SSE Riga
with research at the Baltic International Centre for Economics Policy Studies
(BICEPS) and a position as Chief Economist at Hansabanka Latvia. At SSE
Riga Martins will teach Managerial Economics and Econometrics.
Karlis Kreslins has been appointed Executive MBA Program Director.
Karlis has been with SSE Riga since 1997 and has previously served Director for SSE Riga International Affairs and as Faculty Advisor for the
B.Sc. thesis writing process.
Morten Hansen has been appointed Head of
the Department of Economics at SSE Riga.
Inese Slokenberga, Head of Administration at
SSE Riga since the School started its activities in
1994, has left SSE Riga for a managing position
in the tourism industry.
DONATION FROM EPICOR – SCALA
On June 19, at the seminar “The 21st Century – an Era for Business Intelligence” organized by Epicor, SSE Riga was
presented with a new iScala licence. The new iScala is an ERP (enterprise resource planning) system that enables companies
to automate and manage their standard business processes, and get a complete e-business infrastructure as well. Scala has
supported SSE Riga with software since 1994.
LIBRARY
NEWS
ERIC RHENMAN
SCHOLARSHIP
The SSE Riga Library has within the program Lightnet
received 5 PC workstations from the Latvian State Agency
for Culture Information Systems. The acquisition will
considerably improve the library working environment,
offering library users additional access points to online
databases and internet.
The Eric Rhenman Memorial Foundation has awarded
SSE Riga researcher Arnis Sauka a scholarship. The
scholarship will make it possible for Arnis Sauka to visit
Jönköping International Business School in Sweden to
undertake research in entrepreneurship.
11
INTERNATIONAL
STATE VISIT
TO ISRAEL
THE CHOIR IN
SWITZERLAND
On February 19-22 the President of Latvia, Vaira VikeFreiberga made a state visit to Israel on the invitation
of the Israeli President Moshe Katsav. SSE Riga was
represented in the accompanying delegation by Prorector
Diana Pauna and Senior Vice President Gunnar
Ljungdahl.
The SSE Riga Choir went on a 10-day trip to Switzerland.
During the trip the Choir gave six concerts in different
churches throughout Switzerland. In addition there were
some outdoor concerts as well. And not to forget the
singing in the airport, on board of the plane, in the bus, at
lunch time, through sleep…
During the visit the SSE Riga representatives met with
representatives at the Recanti Graduate School of
Business Administration in Tel Aviv and signed an agreement on student and faculty exchange. The agreement will
give B.Sc. students at SSE Riga an opportunity to study at
Recanti for a semester.
SSE Riga has also expressed an interest in joining the
Global Consulting Program which Recanti has developed
together with Wharton Business School at the University
of Pennsylvania. The intention is to bring together EMBA
students at SSE Riga with MBA students from Recanti
in working groups that would assist companies from
Israel who wants to invest in the Baltic countries and
vice versa. During its more than 25 years of existence the
Program has proven successful in giving students valuable
experience as well as in generating new cross-border
businesses.
BARCELONA
VISIT TO BELARUS
From the February 12 to 16, ten leading Latvian journalists
participated in a study trip to Barcelona organized by
SSE Riga and the Baltic International Centre for Economic
Policy Studies (BICEPS) within the TeliaSonera Institute
framework.
In December, SSE Riga, represented by the Rector
Anders Paalzow, Prorector Diana Pauna and the Head of the
Department of Economics Morten Hansen visited Minsk.
The visit, which was organized in cooperation with the
Latvian Embassy in Minsk, included visits to the Ministry
of Education, universities, and NGOs. The purpose of
the visit was to explore the opportunities for further
contacts and student exchangesgiving Belarusian
students an opportunity to study at SSE Riga. “Given
Latvia’s geographical position and the trade between
Latvia and Belarus, it is natural to establish contacts with
Belarus and I hope that we will have some exchange students in our programs next year”, Anders Paalzow said.
The journalists visited 3GSM, which is the largest trade
fair for using mobile phones in the world. Furthermore,
the journalists participated in a seminar, which was coorganized with the Regulatory Authority of Spain. The
seminar focussed on the need for further privatization of
the telecom industry, in particular on how the Latvian
regulator should work to reach the goals that the European Union has set up for regulatory activity. One of the
speakers at the seminar was Sergio Ramos, EMBA graduate of SSE Riga.
This study trip was the second one in a long-term program aiming at fostering a discussion of the completion
of privatisation in Latvia. The first study trip was to
London and included a number of seminars at the University College London and EBRD.
12
Newsletter No 1/ 2006
NEW ACADEMIC EXCHANGES
The School’s network of academic partners expands. Within the Erasmus framework
a new agreement has been signed with University of Siegen, Germany. Outside the
EU agreements have been signed with the Higher Economic School in Moscow, the
Recanti School of Business at Tel Aviv University, and Adnan Menderes University
in Turkey. The new agreements give SSE Riga students and faculty an opportunity to
spend up to a semester abroad at one of the partner universities.
During 2005/2006 a total of 29 SSE Riga students were on exchange for one semester.
Furthermore, three SSE Riga faculty members went on shorter visits to partner institutions in Belgium, Greece and Spain, respectively. During the academic year the
School welcomed 34 exchange students coming from Austria, Belgium, France, Italy,
Kazakhstan, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Turkmenistan.
NEW LEONARDO DA VINCI PROJECT
SSE Riga is one of the partners in the project “Interactive System of Vocational Training”
funded by the Leonardo da Vinci program. The lead partner is the Business School at
National Louis University, Nowy Sacz, Poland. The other partners are ABB Training
Center in Germany, University of Molise in Italy and Dennis Gabor College in Budapest.
Within the project that lasts for 24 months, the partner institutions will develop and test
a business simulator which will consist of four different modules. In October 2006, SSE
Riga will host a project workshop.
EXECUTIVE EDUCATION
NEW EXECUTIVE MBA INTAKE
This year’s admissions process to the SSE Riga Executive MBA is about to come to
an end. The program which will run in modules during a period of two years will
have around 20 participants representing different industries including production,
trade and banking as well as the public sector. Like previous years, the group is
international. This year’s group has participants from Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and
the Netherlands.
When ask why they applied to SSE Riga, the participants cite the high quality of the
program and the small group size. Many of the participants have been encouraged by
former EMBA students to apply.
For more information about the SSE Riga EMBA program, please contact the Program
Director, Karlis Kreslins, karlisk@sseriga.edu.lv.
PROGRAM FOR LATVIAN MINISTRIES
During the spring, SSE Riga’s Executive Education Department has developed a
program for managers in Latvian ministries (the Ministry of Welfare and the Ministry
of Education and Science). The Program consists of nine modules, each of them
designed to train managers in areas that would increase their capacity. A broad range
of topics were addressed, e.g., strategy, policy development, implementation and
monitoring, cost-benefit analysis of investment projects, EU budgeting, professional
ethics, leadership. The Program will continue during the fall.
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