News

Academic Dean opens the New Academic Year 2008/2009

WELCOME ON BOARD: WE ARE READY FOR THE CHECK IN.

Friday, September 26, 2008 celebrated the official opening of the academic year.
Bert Wolfs, Ph.D., Academic Dean of SBS, gave a warm welcome to our students from all over the world.

Coming from Switzerland, Germany, USA, Russia, France, Serbia, Nigeria, India and other nations, the students will enjoy their classes in a truly international and multicultural environment.

Now the students should be ready to start their classes.
We wish our students the very best for the upcoming year and we hope that their year at SBS will be an unforgettable experience.

Extract of Bert Wolfs’ speech:

OPENING OF THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2008-2009

Dear Students,

Dear Faculty and Staff Members,

I welcome you to the opening session of the Academic Year 2008-2009.

This is a very special academic year, since we are celebrating the 10 years of existence of SBS this year. Thanks to the great work of our faculty, thanks to the wonderful reputation we were able to build with our alumni, SBS became a great family of which you can be proud to be associated with.

In the middle of a global financial crisis, it is interesting to see how the world reacts. Models of banking, in existence for over 256 years, investment banking, can disappear within months and jobs and tons of millions of dollars or Euro’s or Swiss francs are lost within minutes.

It is amazing to see how in times of economic prosperity, people want to privatize economic benefits and profits to the maximum extend. In bad times, socialist ideas are returning and losses should be carried by the normal citizen. For a business school, which was the first one in Switzerland to have courses on Business Values and Ethics, this is not a correct behavior. All over the world, people are paying for higher food prices and oil prices, why do we not subsidize this. During the coming winter, people will die from cold temperatures and lack of shelter, but unfortunately these people will not make it to the front page of the newspapers or TV evening news.

I want you to learn all the necessary skills and to obtain the best possible knowledge to be successful in your professional career. But I want you as well to extend your personality and know that greed and egoism will not help the society, neither yourself.

I wish you all a fantastic academic year with a lot of knowledge and joy. Keep on having learning fun!

Bert Wolfs, Ph.D.

Academic Dean

SBS Graduation 2008

There are many special SBS occasions and events that occur throughout the academic year.
Last Saturday, 20 September, 2008, SBS Swiss Business School has celebrated the Graduation 2008 of it's students from 54 different countries at the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute in Rueschlikon (Zurich).
The ceremony featured many speakers like Dr. Wolfs - the Academic Dean, Dr. Mercieca - the Honorary President and Mr. Wettstein - the Vise President. The special guest speaker at the ceremony was Dr. Goekmen - Director of the Private Banking Sector at Credit Suisse.

To see pictures from the Graduation 2008, please click on the following link:

http://www.sbs.edu/index.php?option=com_expose&Itemid=61

Zurich best for doing business in Europe

Zurich is the most attractive region for conducting business in all of Europe, according to the Swiss research institute BAK Economics.

The BAK Economic Attractiveness Index placed Zurich at the top of nearly 200 regions thanks to its low taxes, ability to foster innovation and good accessibility. Geneva came fourth.

Published for the first time, the Attractiveness Index ranks regions according to their appeal for both people and companies. In none of the 192 European regions is the effective tax burden for employees as low as in Zurich, BAK said in its study.

Beat Rhyner of canton Zurich's Economic Development Department told swissinfo that taxes and accessibility were important, but said another decisive factor was Zurich's high standard of living.

The Swiss financial capital was named in June the city in the world with the best quality of life for the seventh year in a row by the Mercer consulting company.