2020-06-18
BMI Alumni Achievers Honoured at Post-Quarantine 2020 Gala

Graduates of the BMI International EMBA programme from the past 20 years were in a great mood yesterday as they met to interact and honour recent achievers at the 2020 BMI Alumni Awards & Gala Party – an event delayed since March due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Live events again! This membership is a great story, indeed.”

That’s what one of the executives in attendance wrote in a social network post from the warm summer-evening celebration on the terrace of the National Gallery of Art in Vilnius.

A total of almost 100 members of the BMI family of high-level managers were present at the event held on the very first day of “freedom” after the quarantine ended in Lithuania. In fact, quite a few more wanted to join, but the size of the group had to be limited this time.

Participants were keen to congratulate Jurga Bendikaite-Ursavas, a graduate of BMI EMBA cohort II and long-time director of the programme, for having recently become the new Director General of BMI. Jurga herself sincerely thanked the alumni for their tremendous support and urged them to engage with BMI’s current ambitious goals in recruiting a first cohort for the new UCLouvain BMI International Executive MBA programme in Brussels.

The highlight of the evening was no doubt the presentation of awards, based on voting by BMI alumni themselves, for achievements in three categories:

  • The CAREER OF THE YEAR award went to Antanas Bubnelis (EMBA X) for becoming Spokesperson and Adviser to the President of Lithuania. (In accepting, he noted that his wife Sonata, also a BMI graduate, was among the nominees for the same award too, for becoming Head of Baltic Retail at SEB.)
  • The award for ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR went to Kotryna Uleckaitė (EMBA XI), for leading a bold move by dairy powder maker Litamilk’s into the sophisticated production of high-value-added innovative dairy products and formulas.
  • And, last but not least, the PROJECT OF THE YEAR award went to Vidas Petraitis (EMBA X) and Paulius Motiejūnas (EMBA XXI) for the very successful implementation of LEAN management practices at Basketball Club Žalgiris.

As BMI Co-Chairman Rolandas Valiunas (EMBA I) told the gathering, while there is a lot of uncertainty in the world today and in every market, one thing remains very certain: the solidity and dynamism of the BMI Alumni family of management leaders.

Gallery awaits your attention here.

Great thanks to the sponsors of the 2020 BMI Alumni Gala: 

Rėmėjai