Thunderbird In D.C

Thunderbird Goes to Washington

Thunderbird’s new Executive Master of Arts in Global Affairs and Management (EMAGAM) brings a much-needed Thunderbird presence to Washington, DC. What makes Washington, DC the perfect setting for Thunderbird’s new mid-career executive program? Washington is where business intersects with the policy worlds of governments, inter-governmental organizations, and NGOs. As the global agenda grows, the business sector faces demands to go far beyond regulatory compliance and serve the public interest, while still turning a profit. Governments turn to business to help solve “wicked complex problems” and to join large-scale, longterm, public-private partnerships. Civil society organizations are shifting from campaigning against business and government to working with both sectors to achieve their goals. At the same time, businesses are increasing collaboration with civil society in order to support their social license to operate.

For everyone, uncertainty is the order of the day. Businesses, governments, and civil society groups now operate amidst political and financial volatility, natural resource constraints, the rapidly accumulating impacts of climate change, and growing social inequity. At the same time, constant innovations in technology are accelerating a Fourth Industrial Revolution that empowers new forms of management, collaboration, and sustainability.

Traditional international relations programs in America’s capital city talk about what is happening in the world. Thunderbird’s EMAGAM provides future-ready, interdisciplinary skills for the globally-minded who want to manage in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. In this state-of-the-art program, established professionals take their careers to new levels by learning to improve global management strategies and tactics through mastery of cutting-edge principles and practices.

To build businesses and societies capable of flourishing in environments that are complex, unstable, and never static, the global economy requires new leaders who can manage through extreme uncertainty and work together far more closely than ever before. The truly effective leaders of the future will cross the boundaries between the public, private, and people sectors, and between nations and cultures, with careers that can move from one to another. Dean Khagram chose Dr. Ann Florini to direct Thunderbird’s programs based in DC. She is a Clinical Professor at Thunderbird and serves as faculty lead for the EMAGAM. Professor Florini’s research, teaching, and consulting address innovations in the governance of both the public and private sectors. “This program is truly innovative, cross-sectoral, and global,” said Professor Florini. “Through an unparalleled focus on interdisciplinary leadership development, analytics, and strategic decision-making, Thunderbird’s elite EMAGAM empowers you to advance your career as an agile leader in a world driven by technological advancements and innovation. This program will equip you to do more than just keep pace with the competition in a rapidly changing world. You will set the pace.”

The EMAGAM’s extraordinary faculty combines rich practical experience with deep scholarly knowledge, often in the same individual. Thunderbird

Distinguished Professor of Practice Anne-Marie Slaughter, for example, taught at Harvard Law School, then served as Dean at Princeton and as head of Policy Planning in the US Department of State before taking her current position heading up the New America think-tank. Professor of Practice Roland Kupers spent 20 years in major multinational corporations such as Royal Dutch Shell, then turned to writing cutting-edge books on complexity, business, and public policy. They will be joined by other world-renowned experts, including Dr. Landry Signé of the Brookings Institution and Jeff Cunningham, former publisher of Forbes magazine. Such scholar-practitioners provide unparalleled insights into how to understand the world, and how to achieve goals despite today’s complexity and volatility. With a first cohort averaging 15 years of experience and coming from corporations, international organizations, NGOs, and Washington’s diplomatic community, the EMAGAM has already proven itself attractive to exceptional mid-career students. As they move through the one-year program’s flexible but rigorous schedule, they will be empowered with knowledge and skills to lead change, manage sophisticated systems, and cut through the silos that divide business, government, and civil society.