WHU Shows Its Spirit at Homecoming

It was all hugs and smiles at this year’s Homecoming celebration at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, with some 300 alumni reuniting at their alma mater. Guests gathered at the school’s campus in Vallendar for a diverse program perfect for the late-summer weather, with food and drink at the brunch buffet, a coffee cart, and an ice cream stand. 

Campus tours allowed alumni to visit their old haunts and visit new spaces opened since their time at the school. Many of the school’s student clubs—including the WHU Campus for Finance, WHU Campus for Supply Chain Management, confluentes – The Student Consultancy of WHU, WHU Euromasters, IdeaLab! – WHU Founders’ Conference, WHU Saidia Consulting, SmartUp – The WHU Entrepreneurship Network,TED×WHU, and the WHU Family Business Club—organized the subsequent Burgplatzfest, during which they presented their latest projects. The school’s former students used this time to ask the current enrollees about what life on campus is like today.

Looking ahead to the future

Later that day, Professor Christian Andres, Dean of WHU, noted how the school has developed into one of Europe’s leading business schools, and Dr. Marco Vietor (D 2004), Chairman of In Praxi – WHU Alumni Association, underscored in his speech the strength of their alumni community: over 250 graduate events every year, with over 7,500 members who have collectively donated an impressive €6.6M. Professor Dries Faems, Academic Director of the WHU Entrepreneurship Center and the school’s Global Online MBA Program, also highlighted the alumni’s achievements over the past ten years, including the more than 2,000 new companies founded, the resultant 60,000 new jobs generated, and the US$7B in venture capital raised.

Many of those present at this year’s WHU Homecoming contributed to these successes, and their attendance once again reaffirmed their strong ties to the school, across generations and disciplines—even forty years after the school’s founding.