Current Alumni of the Year recipients
We would like to extend a round of applause to our CEMS Alumni of the Year Award Winners 2024. Read more about our 2024 award recipients below:
Hae-Su Kwon
Hae-Su’s is a career that has played out at leading edge of cosmetics and skincare; one that began with her cutting her teeth as a junior brand manager with beauty behemoth, L’Oréal, and that today sees her at the helm of one of the company’s business divisions in DACH. As Managing Director of L’Oréal Luxe, Hae-Su holds the reins across 20 iconic brands, that include Prada, Armani, Yves Saint Laurent and Lancôme. It is a new role as of 2024, and an opportunity to learn, to grow and to pursue greater heights of excellence in beauty. Since her return to the company in 2021, she has enjoyed two leadership positions. For her, now making the transition to luxury speaks to the commitment that the company has to its talented leaders; to ensuring that the right opportunities fan out in front of promising and ambitious professionals.
Hae-Su is passionate about leadership. As a seasoned GM, she has poured her energy and commitment into creating cultures where people love coming into work; where they feel proud of what they do, and at ease within a team spirit. This is the core of effective leadership, she believes: having a direct influence over the kind of culture and environment you want to see and leading what she calls a “virtuous spiral” where success today fuels success tomorrow. As a leader, she sets objectives and direction, but then she encourages our people to find their own way. Hae-Su has had an impactful career through numerous multinationals, and has contributed to excellence, innovation and empowerment of her team through her meaningful leadership.
Marieke Geurts
From a small town in the Netherlands, Marieke always had her eyes set on international opportunities to make the world a better place. She has been working in Kenya for 9 years now, putting all her efforts into creating opportunities in East and Southern Africa, for employment, growth, empowerment and ESG best practices. She has a unique inner energy that drove her around the world with ease, making connections across the most diverse environments and never choosing the easy path. She is now one of the leading women in investment in East Africa and has brought her expertise to many Kenyan, Ethiopian and Ugandan colleagues. At her young age she has already achieved significant milestones, such as participating in some of the first private equity investments in frontier markets in Africa, leading the largest PE exit in Mozambique and first PE exit to an international strategic company in Ethiopia, and setting up the ESG practice in the first fund she joined in Nairobi. In addition to the above, she successfully raised funds for Ascent Capital and Amethis (i.e. pension funds, high net worth individuals, impact funds) to invest in African markets, which had an everlasting effect to grow capital for small- and mid-cap companies in illiquid and capital-constrained markets.
Marieke has always demonstrated herself as an approachable and people-oriented leader, displaying a great balance between eagerness to develop herself and willingness to help others develop. She used her CEMS education and years with McKinsey as a platform to seize her dream career in Nairobi, in Venture Capital and Private Equity. Always eager to connect with people of different cultures, she combines true global citizenship with a huge impact on on society through her leading role in ESG and impact investment in East Africa. Her investments have contributed to the creation of hundreds of jobs and her work has grown the skills and potential of local talent wherever she goes. She focuses her career on development and impact rather than only financial growth and is constantly raising the bar in excellence and high standards of performance while doing so.
Leonardo Lotto
Leonardo Lotto joined the NUS MSc + CEMS program in 2022. Despite a life-altering accident in Australia, he graduated with excellence in 2023 and delivered an inspiring speech at the London ceremony. His resilience earned him the Knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic recognising his impact and dedication to freedom and empathy.
Leonardo embodies the core values of CEMS: resilience, empathy, strength, open- mindedness, and courage. Despite facing significant challenges, he has demonstrated how much one can accomplish with determination and the support of a strong community. His involvement in political actions, his advocacy for freedom, and his commitment to leaving a positive mark on society make him a role model for all CEMS students and alumni. Leonardo's life and achievements are a powerful reminder that anything is possible with hope and perseverance.