Roland began his career with CEMS as a MIM Programme Development Assistant where he formalized student and university guides, as well as curriculum management and decision-making through the creation of Committee statutes. Following this experience, Roland worked for 5 years as a Programme Manager where he co-developed several systems like an online survey system, peer review systems, and the cems.org back office. He also conceptualised and supported the implementation of a major curricular reform leading to the creation of the Core and Exclusive Courses as well as their corresponding annual awards.
In 2011, Roland served as the CEMS Deputy Director and moved up to the Executive Director position a few years later. In these roles, he brought in 17 new Academic Members, co-authored the CEMS MIM Learning Outcomes and successfully convinced The Economist to create a Master in Management ranking, among many other achievements.
“The CEMS MIM Programme arguably is the most complex study programme in the world, across all subjects of higher education. Any individual contribution to its success must therefore be understood as part of a diverse team effort across nationalities, institutions and functions. I would, therefore, like to dedicate this award to the numerous outstanding members of the member school administrations and the Global Office who work tirelessly to make the CEMS MIM programme the jewel it is today, but whose light is often outshone by the professoral stars gleaming on the firmament of the CEMS cosmos.” - Roland Siegers, former CEMS Executive Director
CEMS would also like to recognise runners up John Shields and Scott Neilson for their contribution and commitment to CEMS:
John served as a CEMS Executive Board member from 2012-19, Chair of the Globalisation and Membership Committee from 2015-16, Chair of the Academic Committee from 2017-18, Co-organiser of the CEMS Annual Events in Sydney in 2017 and currently serves on the General Assembly since 2020. In these roles, John supported partner schools through peer reviews, as well as preparing the way for new schools like KUBS, AUC, UCT and Cornell to become members of CEMS, and built an atmosphere of trust and confidence in every aspect of his work through active listening, inclusive decision-making and distributed leadership.
Scott was responsible for bringing in one of the early Corporate Partners in 1992, a partnership that lasted for 25 years, as well as one other CP. He also served on the CEMS Language Committee and participated in a voice of the customer discussion on programme design with Academic Directors as well as becoming involved in Responsible Global Leadership Seminars within 10 CEMS Academic Member schools .In early 2007, he also developed a leadership model that was leveraged in 30 skill seminars over 6 years.
"On behalf of the whole CEMS community, warm congratulations to Roland, John and Scott! CEMS is very special because it is made of passionate and generous people who are so keen to contribute to education and dialogue in an open world!" -Nicole de Fontaines, CEMS Executive Director