E27: "Okay, that's a message of hope for the future.‪"‬ Republic of INSEAD

Top recommendations for Dean Veloso from the '03Ds:

"Just make sure that your education is raising the bar on future management, not only in terms of technical knowledge, but in terms of values."

"The university has a great asset, it's the Alumni Network - invest more and with the expectation to get more out of it."

"Keep up the education of your alumni and give them the opportunity to get back together, because at the level of the class is where you have the strongest bonds."

Our 20Y reunion in a nutshell: Excitement, fun, connections.

"It's the life in your years that counts, even more than that it is the people in your life. To me INSEAD has brought a lot of important people and reunion was all about meeting the ones that we see often, the ones that we see less often and finding that old energy is still there, which is amazing." Sofia Marimba

"When I think about the 4 reunions we've had - all of them a lot of fun. The 5 year was very much around what job have you got, what have you achieved in that period work-wise, where are you in your career. 10 years was a bit more like what's your family situation, have you had 5 kids yet, that kind of thing. 15 in Singapore was just a bit insane, people just wanted to be students again and largely behaved like that. This time, lots and lots of fun, but I found people in more reflective mood. I had more conversations about looking around what the next phase of life might look like." Sophie Kent

"It was exciting to get back together with people and realize how much I enjoyed their company and being around them." Jeff Clay

"The mood was different - there was no competitiveness anymore for sure, there was a lot more looking for cooperation." Milena Ivanova

Favorite moments: the things that bind us together

"Life can be as fun as you make it up as long as you're blessed with health."

"The feeling of the first hug that you give to people that you have not seen in a long time, this physical connection, the smiles and the happiness of just seeing again face-to- face people that you have not seen in a while." Sofia Marimba

The fact that we can all get back into the Chateau and dance together in the way that we always did, that's definitely the first image that comes to mind.

I loved seeing the much older vintages also dancing with us and I was like "Okay, that's a message of hope for the future."

"Fun and joy absolutely have no age. I actually took videos of our older colleagues on the dance floor jumping and dancing like they were teenagers and I basically shared those videos with friends back home and I said this is how I want to grow old." Sofia Marimba

"Just being on the lawn and having a beer right outside there was reminiscent of those conversations that you had that were kind of impromptu and ended up going for hours." Jeff Clay

"Team work makes dream work and I think our class is best practice in that sense"