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About 30 Aalto alumni, mostly representing the field of business but also a few from the field of technology, gathered in the Citi office in London on November 16. The event was the second of its kind organised in London, the previous one having been held in 2015. The evening was kindly hosted by Ari Mäkelä, the Managing Director of Nordic Investment Banking at Citi and a School of Business alumnus.

The Dean of the School of Business, Professor Ingmar Björkman (in the picture below) presented the latest news of Aalto University and the School of Business. As in the previous Aalto alumni meet-and-greets abroad, the alumni were happy to hear that they can be proud of their alma mater thanks to the many positive developments that have taken place in Aalto recently.

Professor of Practice Pekka Mattila, who is also the Group Managing Director of Aalto University Executive Education, presented interesting findings on the leadership of successful companies, including key attributes of winning cultures and the effect of organisational health on financial performance. The argument that leaders need to be able to manifest both empathy and toughness in order to create high performance cultures stimulated a lively discussion with the audience.

The discussion continued long after the official programme of the evening, and the alumni were very active in mingling and making new connections.

The London alumni event followed Dean Björkman’s similar gatherings held in , , London in 2015, , and Moscow.

The purpose of these events is to create an Aalto alumni community also outside of Finland, which will hopefully keep the alumni engaged with the University in a number of ways.

There are already over 40 000 alumni from over 80 countries in the Aalto University alumni network. You can join the network free of charge at . 

Further information:
Jonna Söderholm, Head of External Relations, School of Business
jonna.soderholm@aalto.fi