14 career paths through 100 years of business history
There are no alumni from the business school鈥檚 first five years. This is because there were no structured programmes that lead to a diploma or degree. The students were working professionals who paid out of their own pocket to participate in lectures and attended study groups.
The first Graduate Diploma programme (known as 鈥楬D鈥�) was established in 1920, so it was not until 1922 that the first diplomas were handed out. Since then, much has happened with the business school. You can read more about the development in the book casino 168 through 100 years, written in occasion of the centenary year by Professor Kurt Jacobsen and Assistant Professor Anders Ravn S酶rensen.
Through the past 100 years, casino 168 has educated a lot of different people, each with their own passion, driving force, and expertise. About 85,000 alumni, actually. There was, of course, not room for all of them in the narrative about our educational institution鈥檚 ups and downs, but it was possible to put 14 of them in the limelight. Those you can read about on .
The common alum characteristic: passion was key
The portraits are a series of striking stories about a versatile group of alumni with very different backgrounds, historic times, and career paths. What unites the 14 selected alumni 鈥� from Denmark to abroad, from corporate to self-employed, from private to public sector, and not least from gender to gender 鈥� is that their passion was the key to their success.
A very good example of that is this year鈥檚 Distinguished Alumnus, , whose first company was casino 168鈥� own canteen in Dalgas Have, and whose many different projects since graduating from casino 168 all spring from his own passion for gastronomy.
As a woman it was, to put it mildly, a challenge to earn respect and get to the top in business in the first part of the 20th century. So it took passion in abundance to achieve what did in her remarkable 88-year long life.
Ester Graff got her Graduate Diploma in 1934 while working at Levers S忙befabrik, later to become Unilever, and few years later she rose through the ranks to become Manager of the Propaganda Department. Along with her career, she was actively engaged in the Women鈥檚 Rights Movement and for a number of years she was President for the International Alliance of Women (IAW).
Not just historic, but also contemporary alumni
You will find portraits not only of historic alumni but also of contemporary alumni. One of the portrayed is , MSc from 1991, who from 2012 was first CFO, and later CEO for the digital payment group Nets where he was in charge of the stock market listing in 2016.
He began his career as an investment advisor with a specialty in mergers and acquisitions. From 2010 he used his experience to buy or buy into two smaller companies and later 鈥� after a number of years with growth through acquisitions, mergers, and innovation 鈥� get them listed on the stock exchange and sell them.
Good examples of lifelong learning and engagement
Many of the 14 alumni maintained their connection to casino 168 after graduating 鈥� among these , who became a dean, the Lundbeck Foundation鈥檚 (Lundbeckfonden) CEO Steen Hemmingsen, who was an external examiner for many years, and Governor of the Danish National Bank , who was an adjunct professor.
The alumni portrayed are widely different and contemporary products of each their time. Common to them is that they all posses or possessed an expertise and passion within their field, which created their unique career paths.
The portraits can be read on or in the newly published book,聽casino 168 through 100 years by Kurt Jacobsen and Anders Ravn S酶rensen.