Global Alumni Board on campus for memorable final meeting
From around the world, members of LSE’s Global Alumni Board convened on campus this month for the annual in person Board meeting. With a packed agenda sharing positive School updates and key LSE alumni engagement insights and successes, the moment was also bittersweet. This was the last in person meeting of this Board who have served alumni and the School so well over their three-year term.
LSE alumni as partners
Our 240,000 strong global alumni community is one of one of LSE’s greatest strengths and the Global Alumni Board (GAB) plays a critical role in keeping this extraordinary network connected, engaged and empowered. In the words of current Chair of the Board and LSE Association, Thomas Kern (MSc Public Policy and Administration 1979), it is the bridge between LSE alumni and the School.
I believe alumni are partners with the School. We stand alongside students, faculty, and staff in the LSE community. We are equal citizens of that community and can both contribute to and benefit from that relationship.
Over two full days the Board met with a range of colleagues across LSE and the conversation ranged from the future direction of LSE with Professor Larry Kramer, LSE President and Vice Chancellor, and Professor Emma McCoy, Pro-Vice Chancellor (Education); to the changing landscape our alumni are navigating in their careers and learning; and to some of the innovative programmes taking place across LSE, including the work of the newly launched LSE Legal Advice Centre, run by LSE alumna Diana Kirsch, which not only aims to improve public access justice but also offers students the opportunity to gain practical experience.
Given the scale of the challenges the world is facing today, we are so fortunate that our alumni are actively engaged with LSE, and grateful to the Global Alumni Board for representing the community and ensuring that their expertise enriches the School, supports our students and faculty, and strengthens the ties that bind our global community together.
Exploring campus development
One of Professor Larry Kramer’s mantras is, ‘space is programme.’ With today’s programmes calling for new ways of working, new technologies and new ways of collaboration, our Director of Estates, Julian Robinson, presented to the GAB on future plans for the ‘university quarter’ and took them on a tour leading to the School’s latest acquisition – 61 Aldwych. He outlined the ambition to overhaul it into a pioneering academic hub which will also serve as a new ‘front door' to LSE with plans to create a corridor from 61 Aldwych into the entranceway of the Old Building.
Global Alumni Board campus tour
Thanking our senior volunteers
What stood out most was the Board’s commitment to shaping programmes that genuinely meet those changes — and keep our global community connected and supported.
From ushering in greater on campus engagement through the Alumni Centre, to launching professional and inclusion networks, to overseeing constitutional changes to the Board itself, this Board’s term has helped to engage, champion and connect alumni with the School and with each other.
As befits the collegiality and vision they have displayed across their entire term, the assembled Board members used a final session together to reflect on their term and provide wisdom to the incoming Board:
Our different experiences and perspectives made us stronger. Some of the best ideas started with someone caring deeply about one small thing. Listen to each other. That’s how good ideas grow.
Kerrie Holland, Executive Director of Alumni Engagement and Individual Giving, movingly shared their thoughts back to them as she gave a final thank you for their commitment.
How lucky we are at LSE that as an institution, and as individuals, we have been able to benefit from the wisdom, insights and energy of this Global Alumni Board. This is volunteering at the highest level and thanks to you, our alumni around the world can know that there are fellow alumni who are representing their voices, their value and the vision for the better world we are shaping together.
The Global Alumni Board volunteer members for the 2023-2026 term are:
- Chair: Tom Kern (MSc Public Policy and Administration 1979)
- Vice Chair: Katja Knoechelmann (MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies 2013)
- Vice Chair: Pablo Trevisan (LLM 2001)
- Priscilla Abishegam (LLB 2011)
- Derek Choi (BSc Statistics 2007)
- Felipe de Gamboa (Diploma Industrial Relations 1995)
- Lauren Maffeo (MSc Gender and the Media 2012)
- Fongtien Miao (MSc Media and Communications 2005)
- Daniel Ndung'u (MSc Development Studies 2010)
- Ria Sen (MSc Media and Communications 2012)
- Brian Walker (MSc Psychological and Behavioural Science 2019)
- Bahar Yarmohammad (BSc Engineering/Business Finance 2010)
Thank you to all Global Alumni Board members for your dedication, perspective and vision. Our alumni community is strengthened by your volunteerism.
The 2026-2029 Global Alumni Board members complete their term on 31 August. The new Board members will be announced in the coming months and commence their term on 1 September.
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