Singapore Management University held a grand farewell dinner in appreciation of Professor Arnoud De Meyer’s eight stellar years of visionary leadership. Prior to joining SMU, Prof De Meyer spent over two decades in INSEAD and served as founding Dean of INSEAD’s Asia Campus in Singapore. Gracing the ceremony were Singapore’s President and SMU Patron Madam Halimah Yacob, SMU’s Honorary Patron and Distinguished Senior Fellow Dr Tony Tan, Minister for Education Mr Ong Ye Kung, SMU Chancellor Mr J Y Pillay, and SMU Chairman Mr Ho Kwon Ping. They were joined by about 300 guests including SMU Board of Trustees, faculty, staff, students and alumni.
Professor Arnoud De Meyer, SMU’s fourth and longest serving President, was also conferred the University’s highest honour – SMU University Professorship. He is the first in SMU to be conferred this title.
The SMU University Professorship is the highest appointment bestowed on a very select number of faculty to recognise significant accomplishments in research, eminent careers, and outstanding contributions to the University, the profession and the community. Congratulations Prof!
In his citation speech, SMU Chairman Mr Ho Kwon Ping said “Under Prof De Meyer’s leadership, SMU has continued to deliver a transformative education experience to produce confident, versatile and well-rounded graduates who are highly sought after – as attested by the continued success of SMU graduates in landing meaningful global careers and securing competitive starting salaries”.
Under Arnoud’s watch, SMU has continued to deliver a transformative education to produce well-rounded graduates. The continued success of our graduates in finding meaningful careers and remuneration is well reflected in the yearly graduate employment survey. It is testament of a promise that we uphold proudly. SMU’s postgraduate professional programmes have also seen encouraging growth. In addition, Arnoud has created a dynamic research culture at SMU that emphasises inter-disciplinary research needed to solve the world’s complexities.
He has also paved the way to internationalise the institution’s brand and enhance its reputation with significant inroads made in China, India and Europe. For his contributions to both SMU and to Singapore, Prof Arnoud De Meyer was conferred the Public Administration Medal (Gold) in the National Day Awards 2018. Let’s all toast in celebration!
In his speech, Professor De Meyer shared, amongst other things, the success factors of SMU. “One of the most important success factors of SMU is its governance system. The combination of the concept of an autonomous university with an excellent system of a demanding Board of Trustees and set of committees that always understood very well the distinction between governance and management, has determined the success of SMU.”
Other contributory factors to SMU’s success are: the willingness to innovate through its research and the continuous development of its educational concept; the openness to learn from others, teamwork in building the university, a clear focus which has increased its pace of development.
There was also a very special gift for Prof De Meyer – a compilation of notes of well wishes from the SMU Community collected and compiled into a coffee table book. This book also includes iconic photos of SMU and Prof De Meyer at several significant milestones during his tenure, which serves as a tangible memory of the impact he has made on the lives of those at SMU.
The best was saved for the last, where Prof De Meyer showcased his finesse in waltz and tango in front of a very impressed audience. It was only when we spoke to him after the event that we found out he practiced for it merely days before!
At the start of the semester, our President, Xin Hao, had the humble opportunity to join Prof De Meyer for a round of his favorite breakfast at Starbucks – Croissant and Black Coffee. In his own words, “Many people have come to me and asked for advice on how to be successful in life. Well, the first and most important advice that I have always given was to find a good mentor. You definitely need a good mentor to succeed in life!”. Clearly, Prof De Meyer has been a very supportive figure behind TMC’s success thus far and we will always be appreciative of it.
While a solid academic foundation and developing cognitive skills are important, it is the non-cognitive skills that will enable workers to learn and adapt such basic knowledge and skills to different contexts, and he stresses that mentorship will essentially be crucial in fostering these capabilities within our undergraduates. Furthermore, he pointed out that various interaction with SMU’s undergraduates were the most enriching experience in his life, as they provided him with energy and power for continuous learning. Prof De Meyer ended the conversation by emphasising that “The best mentor a student can get is another student”. After stepping down as SMU President, Prof De Meyer says he will continue to contribute part of his time teaching business courses in SMU.
Once again, The Mentoring Circle would like to thank Professor Arnoud De Meyer for his immense contributions to SMU as a visionary leader and a pragmatic academic. We wish him all the best in his future endeavors and welcome him to grace our subsequent events.
Partial quotes, content and photos were adapted from Singapore Management University and condensed for readability.
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