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UBS Leadership Excellence Program 2012/2013

For four days this past April, twenty managing directors from Legal & Compliance at UBS convened once again in Hamburg for the second part of the UBS Leadership Excellence Program, designed and delivered by Bucerius Executive Education. The first part of this program took place in October, 2012.

The participants again were offered a full, diverse program. Prof. Niels Van Quaquebeke, fellow of Leadership and Organizational Behavior at Bucerius Center on the Legal Profession, and Dr. Tilman Eckloff, director of re|spic|ere, opened the program by continuing to explore the themes first introduced in October, including self-motivation and the basics of teamwork. They also offered peer supervision sessions for participants to talk about their own cases.

Andrew Williams, global head of compliance for UBS, and Markus Ronner, head of Group Regulatory Relations and Strategic Initiatives at UBS, then took the floor to share new internal developments within the firm. Participants had a chance to discuss future projects and challenges within UBS’ Compliance and Regulatory divisions.

Dr. Jo Beatrix Aschenbrenner, deputy director of the Bucerius Center on the Legal Profession, followed with a lecture on the basics of conflict management. She led the participants in a number of practical exercises to illustrate how to best address difficult situations and find constructive solutions.

The program continued with several lectures by Prof. Ashish Nanda, the Robert Braucher Professor of Practice and Faculty Director of Executive Education of Harvard Law School, who presented six case studies on organizational culture and its leadership challenges. In this lecture, he talked with the participants about their role as internal service providers, interaction with the Board and the CEO and how to nurture high perfor­mance and strong values culture among working teams, even when confronted with complex projects. Prof. Nanda illustrated the lessons learned with a case study on leading through turbulence.

For a change of pace, the participants closed out the program with a samba workshop led by professional percussionist Jeff Alpert. As they learned to drum Brazilian rhythms, the participants experienced leadership and teamwork in a different context.  By following Alpert’s lead and playing together, they were able to produce a solid piece of music at the end of the workshop.

The program included activities outside the classroom to round out the experience. Participants and lecturers cooked together, went on a guided bus tour through Hamburg and had dinner together at some of the city’s best restaurants.

The second session concluded the inaugural run of the UBS Leadership Excellence Program. According to participant feedback, it was a big success. Participants said they appreciated the practical relevance of the program’s topics and the opportunities built within the program to strengthen networks.  Plans are already underway to stage another UBS program in the coming year.