Strobe Talbott delivers keynote at Olin EMBA graduation

International executives meet in St. Louis for ceremony

Strobe Talbott, president of the Brookings Institution will deliver the keynote address at the Olin Business School Executive MBA graduation ceremony Friday, Dec. 11 at Washington University in St. Louis.

The ceremony will take place in Graham Chapel on the Danforth Campus at 4:00 p.m.

Talbott, whose career spans journalism, government service, and academe, is an expert on U.S. foreign policy, with specialties on Europe, Russia, South Asia, and nuclear arms control. As deputy secretary of state in the Clinton administration, Talbott was deeply involved in both the conduct of U.S. policy abroad and the management of executive branch relations with Congress. In 2009, he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

The Olin Executive MBA program will bestow 96 diplomas at Friday’s ceremony to members of its St. Louis and Shanghai-based programs. 60 students have traveled from China for the final two-weeks of the intensive program offered in conjunction with Fudan University.

Launched in 2002, the Olin-Fudan EMBA program was one of the world’s first joint U.S.-China executive master of business administration programs. The Financial Times 2008 rankings for global EMBA programs rated the Olin-Fudan program first in mainland China and eighth world-wide.

EMBA students are typically mid-career or senior executives who attend classes on an intensive weekend schedule over a two-year period while continuing to work full-time. Many participants in the EMBA program ‘commute’ to school from their corporate bases. In this year’s graduating class, executives from Australia, Canada and Korea have commuted from various locations in Asia to the Shanghai program.

During his visit to Washington University, Strobe Talbott will also address the Olin Century Club meeting on the topic: A Partnership of Minds: China, America & The Intellectual Challenges of the 21st Century.

Washington University and the Brookings Institution formed an academic partnership earlier this year that includes internships, lectures and other educational activities. The Olin Business School leads management of the Brookings Center for Executive Education in Washington, D.C.

For information on the nine business degree programs offered by Olin Business School, got to:

http://www.olin.wustl.edu/academicprograms/Pages/default.aspx