Graduation ceremony for 24 communications professionals - MScom awards its top new graduates the Burson-Marsteller and SPRI Awards

24 communications professionals will receive their diplomas on Saturday 19 November, at 4.00pm in the Auditorium of the Lugano Campus, graduating from the Executive Master of Science in Communications Management within the Faculty of Communication Sciences at USI. The twelfth edition of the degree program comprised nine week-long sessions held in Lugano and a two-week Advanced Strategic Management Session at the UCLA Anderson School of Management in Los Angeles, one of the leading business schools in the US, with which the University has had a long-standing co-operation.

The participants have acquired the technical and theoretical tools needed to handle communications for their respective organizations in terms of identity, image and overall strategic planning, and working in close cooperation with their managements. For their final projects, an essential part of the diploma program, the participants must provide a real consultancy project to companies and institutions. This year the beneficiaries were: Canton of Zug, Greenpeace, Stryker, Syngenta, Volvo.

After the diplomas were awarded by the Dean of the Faculty of Communication Sciences, Prof. Lorenzo Cantoni and MScom Academic Director Prof. Francesco Lurati, the best graduates received two important distinctions: the Burson-Marsteller and the SPRI Award.

Dr. Toula Stoffel, EMEA Healthcare & Science Communications Practice Chair of Burson-Marsteller and deputy CEO of Burson-Marsteller Switzerland, has awarded the Burson-Marsteller Award for Academic Excellence,a recognition consisting of 10,000 Swiss Francs, granted to the best consulting project, which this year was attributed to the work conducted for Greenpeace. The authors of the project are Samuel Eckstein (Zurich, Switzerland), Christine Griese (Berlin, Germany), Börs Brita Westelius (Linköping, Sweden) and Matthias Wüthrich (Zurich, Switzerland).

Greenpeace International has asked the team to develop a communication strategy targeted at the global financial market to establish the notion that significant risk is attached to current carbon-intensive investments. The team has mastered this highly complex project, by analyzing the communication dynamics of the market regarding this particular issue and by delivering compelling recommendations that have the potential to make a significant difference to Greenpeace's ability to combat climate change through the forces of the market.

The SPRI Award for the best grade average encompassing the entire program has been granted to Samuel Eckstein (Sulzer AG) by Marion Starck, President of the SPRI (Swiss Public Relations Institute).

Finally, the scholarships offered by Global Alliance were delivered to three students who will start the MScom program next January. 

Photos of the graduation ceremony will be available for download at the following link after the event (6.30 pm): http://www.foto.usi.ch/plogger/?level=album&id=63

List of graduates with respective nationality, position, and place of work

Contacts

Nina Volles, Managing Director Executive MScom Program
USI Università della Svizzera italiana
Via Giuseppe Buffi 13, CH - 6900 Lugano
Tel +41 58 666 46 02 (direct: 42 08)
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.mscom.usi.ch

The USI's Executive MScom Program in brief

The Executive Master of Science in Communications Management (MScom, www.mscom.usi.ch) is a part-time program designed for experienced communication professionals. The program cooperates with the UCLA Anderson School of Management and is held in conjunction with Singapore Management University giving participants a unique opportunity to study side by side with Asian colleagues. MScom’s professors are recognized experts at leading universities around the world. Sessions take place every other month and are easily combined with the demands of a career.