Aalto Executive Summit
Aalto Executive Summit is an annual highlight that offers participants a unique opportunity to study with highly renowned international guest speakers and faculty and dozens of executives and leaders from around the world.
During the Summit, you get to develop your understanding of compelling current topics related to leadership and strategy, to experience new state-of-the-art learning methods, and to network with an international group of participants. The networking is further supported by evening social events throughout the week.
The Summit location alternates between Helsinki and Singapore. It was last held in Helsinki in 2021 (in a hybrid mode) with the theme Perspectives for Unknown Futures.
The Aalto Executive Summit is open to current Aalto Executive MBA, Aalto MBA, Aalto-Esade MBA for Executives, Aalto Executive DBA, and Global Leader program participants and alumni, as well as selected participants from our international partner universities.
Examples of Previous Summit Faculty and Speakers
Emily Esfahani Smith
Emily Esfahani Smith is a writer in Washington DC.
Her book The Power of Meaning was an international bestseller. Smith's articles about psychology and culture have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic. In 2017, she delivered a talk on the mainstage of TED that's been viewed 11 million times.
Smith received her master’s degree in positive psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and is currently a doctoral student in clinical psychology at Catholic University.
Nathan Furr
Nathan Furr is Professor of Strategy and Innovation at INSEAD in Paris and a recognized expert in the fields of innovation and technology strategy.
His bestselling books include The Innovator’s Method (Harvard Business School Press, 2014); Leading Transformation (Harvard Business School Press, 2018); and Innovation Capital (Harvard Business School Press, 2019). He has published broadly in Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, Forbes, Inc, and academic journals. He is an Innosight Fellow, has been nominated for the Thinkers 50 Innovation Award, and works with leading companies such as Google, Microsoft, Citi, ING, Philips, Solvay and others.
Professor Furr earned his Ph.D. from Stanford University where he studied how innovators commercialize their ideas.
Kishore Mahbubani
Kishore Mahbubani is Senior Advisor and Professor in the Practice of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, where he also served as the Founding Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy from 2004 to 2017.
Before that, he served in the Singapore Foreign Service for 33 years, notably as Singapore’s Ambassador to the UN and twice as President of the UN Security Council in January 2001 and May 2002. He has had postings in Cambodia, Malaysia, Washington DC, and New York. He was Permanent Secretary at the Singapore Foreign Ministry from 1993 to 1998.
Professor Mahbubani has spoken and published globally. Global recognised as an expert on Asian and world affairs with his seven books, including “Can Asians Think?”, “Has the West Lost It?” and “The Great Convergence”, selected by the Financial Times as one of the best books of 2013.
He was selected as one of Prospect magazine’s top 50 world thinkers in 2014 and as one of Foreign Policy’s Top Global Thinkers in 2010 and 2011. In March 2009, he was listed by the Financial Times among the Top 50 individuals who would shape the debate on the future of capitalism, and in 2011 was described by Foreign Policy as “the muse of the Asian century”.
Donna Hicks
Donna Hicks is Associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University.
Donna Hicks is the pioneering mind behind the Dignity Model, a signature approach that she has applied to the most divisive and deep-seated conflicts around the world. With her landmark book, Leading with Dignity: How to Create a Culture That Brings Out the Best in People, Dr. Hicks is empowering leaders in business, health care, government and other fields to create cultures of dignity as the key to fostering innovation, productive relationships and successful outcomes.
During more than two decades at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Dr. Hicks has focused on the world’s most extreme conflicts. Dr. Hicks was the Deputy Director of the Program on International Conflict Analysis and Resolution (PICAR) at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and is now an Associate at the Center. Dr. Hicks’ experiences resolving world conflict are now being implemented to transform workplace cultures. She connects the essential human need for dignity to the challenges facing corporations, healthcare, and human services organizations.
Feedback from Our Participants
"New network, new friends, new knowledge. I will definitely participate next year in the Summit!"
"Great topic, teacher, and simulation. Great way to stimulate the team.“
"Excellent experience, both on a personal level and referring to the program of the Summit."
"Great balance of science, experience, exercises, and humor."
"I really loved it! A great variety of topics discussed during the Summit. It was like a buffet – you could choose those topics which are the most interesting for you and deepen your knowledge in this field."
"World class speaker and very important themes – could have spent another day listening."
"Excellent topic [Politics of Business] for the Summit. An area that is not widely discussed during the regular program in Finland, so it made the trip worthwhile! The particular focus of Asian perspective was much appreciated and interesting! Great and enthusiastic speakers all around."
“Excellent content, magical presenter – almost meditative."
"The Summit all in all was super. A lovely atmosphere, unique information provided, really great."
For detailed information on the Aalto Executive Summit, please contact your local program team.