Autorenprofil
Once a family becomes big enough, the statistical odds are quite high that one or more family members will leave their hometown and settle down in one of the world’s big, influential cities, such as New York City. The same applies to the family of Frankfurt School students and alumni.
I study in the Master of International Business (MIB) program at Frankfurt School and I am currently enrolled at Columbia University in the city of New York as visiting graduate student. Here I had the chance to meet some of the FS Alumni, who work and live in the heart of world finance.
Yes, sometimes we have to travel for quite some kilometers… oh, excuse me… miles to meet some family members. And this get-together was totally worth every centimenter… ehm… inch.
(Ok, enough jokes about the imperial system of units. But it is a real struggle! Believe me!)
The FS alumni meeting was held in the board room of Ziff Brothers Investments, a family owned hedge fund, where one of the alumni, who also holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, is employed. It started with Prof. Dr. Zacharias Sautner, head of the FS Finance Department, and a fascinating lecture on managerial short-termism conditioned by the executives’ payment options.
About 30 people listened closely to Prof. Sautner and his ambitious research. I was proud to see the FS logo in the upper right corner of every single slide of the presentation. It felt a bit like back home. Most of the alumni had not seen the inside of a classroom in some years and hold important positions in New York now, but I could totally see that they had not forgotten their time at Frankfurt School. Some of them even took notes, then raised their hands for further questions and challenged the Professor’s views with comments and their personal experiences. They seemed to have forgotten that there was no participation grade.
After the lecture, the buffet was opened and everyone had the possibility to talk and connect. The alumni were surprisingly interested in us students and the exciting development of Frankfurt School: the rankings, the new campus and the impressive growth of student numbers.
We concluded the evening in a relaxed atmosphere in a pub on the upper east side with some drinks.
I am very grateful that I had the opportunity to meet some of the alumni who live here Life in New York is very exciting, but can also become quite challenging and it is always an advantage to have family in a place like that.
I would particularly like to thank Dr. Elisa Antz, the responsible for alumni activities, who skillfully organized the event and Prof. Sautner, whose innovative and intensive research illustrates Frankfurt School’s striving for academic excellence.
We had a good time with you all and see you at the next alumni event in March.
Yours,
Gianmarco
Frankfurt School gGmbH
Adickesallee 32-34
60322 Frankfurt am Main
