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