Last week Darryn Lee, the outgoing Tuck Student Body President, and Caroline Wells, the incoming Student Body President, had the opportunity to attend the Graduate Business Forum’s 36th annual Graduate Business Conference (GBC) in Paris, France. The goal of the GBC is to bring together student government leaders from the world’s top business schools to share best practices, discuss solutions to common issues, engage in leadership development activities, and promote a strong network among the participating MBA students. At the conference, hosted by ESCP Europe (the oldest business school in the world), we connected with our student government counterparts at schools such as Harvard, MIT Sloan, London Business School, and INSEAD.
The theme of this year’s conference was United in Diversity, and we experienced a range of programming around that theme. We engaged in lectures from engaging speakers such as Kenneth Cukier, the Senior Editor of Digital Products at The Economist, who spoke about economic liberalism and new digital tools The Economist is deploying to engage a new generation of readers, and Philippe Houzé, the Executive President of Galeries Lafayette, who spoke about his leadership lessons and responding to disruption. We also had the opportunity to tour Station F, the largest startup incubator in the world, and hear pitches from several of the ventures that are housed there. The conference culminated in a Global Leadership Gala where three of our inspiring fellow student leaders received awards for Student Leadership and Responsible Leadership. It was an incredible celebration of the hard work and passion of our peers.
A highlight of the conference was the opportunity to engage in breakout sessions with our fellow attendees to discuss best practices and discuss solutions to common issues. It was incredibly enriching to find that from among an incredibly diverse group of schools and MBA programs we all faced very similar challenges. We were able to share some of our best practices, like how to successfully engage alumni, and discuss ideas for solutions to some of our challenges, like how to find a technology platform that can adequately serve Tuck’s various clubs.
As leaders of the Tuck Student Board, it’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day operations of the Board and feel as though our challenges are unique to Tuck. The GBC enabled us to step outside the Hanover bubble and realize that, not only are our challenges shared by many of our peer schools, but that we can leverage the knowledge and successes of our new GBC network to find solutions, develop innovative ideas, and be more strategic in our impact. We look forward to continuing to engage with this network, and are already looking forward to next year’s conference!
Darryn Lee is originally from Compton, CA, and is a second-year student. Prior to Tuck, he worked for six years at BlackRock in New York City, first in portfolio analytics with the Global Multi-Asset Solutions portfolio managers, and later in institutional sales for the U.S. Defined Contribution business. After graduation, he’ll be joining MetLife as a Director in their Global Leadership Development Program.
Caroline Wells is a first-year student and incoming Tuck Student Board President. Before coming to Tuck, Caroline spent four years working in Deloitte Consulting’s Strategy and Operations practice in Washington, DC. A native of Philadelphia, Caroline received undergraduate degrees in international relations and French from the University of Virginia.
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