University of Pennsylvania Wharton School
PENN LAUNCHES CENTER ON MEDIA, TECHNOLOGY & DEMOCRACY
The University of Pennsylvania is launching its new Center for Media, Technology, and Democracy, a partnership between six Penn schools including The Wharton School. It will be housed in the Penn School of Engineering and Applied Science.
The Center is launching with $5 million investment from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation as well as $5 million in combined resources from Penn Engineering, Penn Arts & Sciences, the Annenberg School for Communication, the Wharton School, Penn Carey Law, and the School of Social Policy & Practice.
“There is a critical societal need to better understand—and respond to—the way media and information technologies mediate and even influence global conversations,” said J. Larry Jameson, Penn’s Interim President. “Championing truth and upholding democracy are important elements of Penn’s strategic framework, In Principle and Practice. We are uniquely positioned to lead on this great challenge through our accomplished faculty in AI and data science who work across disciplines. We are deeply grateful to the Knight Foundation for partnering with us on this critical endeavor.”
At the outset, the Center will propel research involving media, technology, and democracy within Penn. The hope is for the Center to become a global hub for researchers, private sector leaders, and for policymakers by sharing research findings and creating near real-time dashboards that provide a clear view of the current media landscape, informed by empirical research. Over the long term, the Center also aims to serve as a central repository for data sharing with the broader research community.
The Center will operate around four programmatic pillars, including an annual flagship conference for media leaders industry-wide, an internal grants program to support research among Penn faculty and students, a research infrastructure to facilitate data sharing and collaboration, and a cohort of doctoral and post-doctoral researchers.
IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland. IMD photo
IMD WINS FIVE BRANDON HALL GROUP HUMAN CAPITAL MANAGEMENT AWARDS
Five custom executive education programs at IMD won awards at the Brandon Hall Group Human Capital Management Excellence Awards co-created with HEINEKEN, SAP, Bayer, and Securitas.
The Heineken-IMD WIN (Women Interactive Network) received gold for Best Leadership Development for Women. With their commitment to fill 30% of their senior management roles with women by 2025, Heineken launched WIN to empower and support emerging women leaders by fostering a more equitable and inclusive environment. After two successful editions where 40% of participants were promoted, they collaborated with IMD Professor of Organizational Behavior and Leadership Ginka Toegel to expand the program to include 100 participants from 36 nationalities.
IMD also won gold in Best Corporate Culture Transformation for its entry Lead SAP into the Future – SAP/IMD Leadership OS, led by Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior Shlomo Ben-Hur.
The Heineken International Management Course (HIMAC) earned silver for Best Learning Program Supporting a Change Transformation Business Strategy. Together with IMD Professor of Strategy and International Business Niccolò Pisani, Heineken worked on refreshing the HIMAC course for senior managers, integrating it into the leadership development curriculum. HIMAC focuses on accelerating the implementation of the company’s EverGreen Strategy.
The Bayer Sprint and Securitas learning journeys earned bronze awards for Best Unique or Innovative Leadership Development Program and Best Learning Program Supporting a Change Transformation Business Strategy, respectively. IMD and Bayer co-created and launched 29 weekly Sprints over 10 months, resulting in the development of 12,826 leaders.
PONCE HEALTH LAUNCHES FIRST PROFESSIONAL MBA DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM IN U.S.
Ponce Health Sciences University (PHSU), a medical school with campuses in St. Louis and Puerto Rico, has launched a unique continuing education pipeline with the University of Cambridge Judge Business School (CJBS) in Cambridge, England.
This arrangement will provide PHSU’s administrators who are accepted into CJBS’ Executive MBA program with new abilities to help them enhance the school’s student experience and academic offerings. It will also allow the administrators to develop international awareness and relationships that will support PHSU’s efforts to address global issues in medical education.
The relationship between PHSU and CJBS represents the first and only such higher education collaboration of its kind in the U.S. and the U.K.
“To meet the expanding wellness needs of the world’s populations, medical schools must increase the scope of, quality of, and access to the healthcare education that they offer,” says Dr. David Lenihan, President of PHSU. “To achieve this, our administrators and executives who come from medical backgrounds are diversifying their outlooks and amplifying their skill sets with CJBS’ MBA degree.
“The MBA education will give them essential entrepreneurship and business knowledge to make the best outcomes possible for our programs and students. It will also help to amplify PHSU’s delivery of top-tier, forward-thinking medical education in the United States.”
To date, two PHSU administrators, including Dr. Thompson, have earned their MBAs from CJBS. Two additional administrators are currently completing the program. PHSU will send a total of ten of its team members to CJBS for the school’s MBA program.
SDA BOCCONI UNVEILS A NEW BRAND IDENTITY
SDA Bocconi School of Management in Italy has launched a new brand identity based on a renewed strategy aligned with the School’s commitment to driving change through research and education. 
The identity is built around three pillars – Research, Rethink, Reimagine – that underline the value of research and scientific rigor, integrated into management education aimed at preparing participants to face the major challenges of the future by encouraging a continuous reconsideration of existing paradigms.
The school’s evolution includes the development of a creative and dynamic approach that makes the SDA Bocconi logo unique, yet unchanged, transforming it into a window to the world, symbolizing its global vision; the use of yellow, paired with the institutional blue, represents the creativity that defines the School’s approach, while the five-tone palette reflects the wide variety and differentiation of the educational offerings.
The brand transformation is supported by SDA Bocconi’s global branding campaign, “Let’s Make the Future”, which highlights how the School of Management’s classes go beyond theory, promoting an approach that turns knowledge into real impact.
“The new identity embodies our philosophy of transforming knowledge into tangible action and social impact. Additionally, the identity is adapted for the diverse functions of the School, highlighting the contribution each one makes to our educational mission,” says dean Stefano Caselli/
DON’T MISS: THE TENURE PROJECT: INCREASING THE NUMBER OF BLACK, HISPANIC & INDIGENOUS B-SCHOOL FACULTY AND THE SUSTAINABILITY CHAMPION: ISABELA DEL ALCÁZAR
