ESADE Alumni Around the World: Clive K. Thomas, Member of the Executive Board of the ESADE Alumni New York Chapter

"ESADE-Georgetown GEMBA programme is unique, in the sense that it’s a truly global programme."

Clive K. Thomas (ESADE-Georgetown GEMBA, 2013) is a member of the Executive Board of the ESADE Alumni New York Chapter. He is based in Connecticut and owns his own consulting firm. ESADE interviews him at one of the chapter’s meetings in New York City.

Where were you before the GEMBA and where are you now?
I’ve been with my own consulting firm as an independent consultant for the last 20 years and I’m still doing that. The difference between before and after is really the nature of the projects I’m undertaking. I’m now starting to get involved in different types of projects – “Internet of Things” kinds of projects – and collaborating with other graduates from the GEMBA programme on a global basis.

How did you become involved with the ESADE Alumni chapter?
As a graduate of the GEMBA programme, the ESADE Alumni organisation is very distinctive compared to American alumni organisations, in the sense that it’s an organisation very focused on the alumni. Its primary mission is serving the alumni, as opposed to serving the school. This is a big difference. In the US and the UK, alumni organisations are primarily fundraisers for the schools, whereas the ESADE alumni network is all about the graduates. So it was a simple and easy choice to become involved.

What is your vision of the chapter?
We have a very large chapter here. I think we have around 600 or 700 graduates in the New York City area. We had one of the first global meetings in New York last June, which was very well attended. We had people coming in from the West Coast, here in the US. We had people coming in from South America. It had a broad audience. I think we can grow this organisation here. Clearly there are a lot of very high-level executives in this area who are Spanish, and they have come out of ESADE and other business schools in Spain. So there’s a very big draw to this particular chapter, and to ESADE in particular. And the other thing we can do, obviously, is act as a focal point in this area for Spanish executives. You’d be surprised how many Americans I know who graduated from ESADE. It’s a school that’s developing its reputation, and the number of people in this area is growing. We also have the Spain-US Chamber of Commerce – it’s active in New York City and in Washington DC – and we organise events jointly with them.

What made you choose the GEMBA programme?
I think the ESADE-Georgetown GEMBA programme is unique, in the sense that it’s a truly global programme. It runs over 13 months – a very hectic and intense 13 months. And it offers a very interesting perspective of both the Georgetown point of view and the ESADE point of view and the ESADE connections. About the programme: We started in DC, and then we spent a week at the ESADE campus in Barcelona and a week in Madrid. Then we went to South America, again with a module that was run primarily by ESADE – a week in Rio and a week in Buenos Aires. Then we went to India for two weeks in Bangalore, and then we went to China for one week in Shanghai and one week in Beijing. We finished up with a week in New York City and one week in DC. So it is a truly global programme, unlike other programmes that would like to think that they are global but really just go back and forth between two campuses.

And why ESADE/Georgetown?
ESADE is very highly ranked in Europe and has a global reputation. This was a draw for me. And even though I’m located in Connecticut, I applied and was admitted through the Barcelona campus.

What advice would you give to future GEMBA students at ESADE?
I think the number-one thing for all GEMBA students is to immerse themselves in the ESADE Alumni experience, from the careers point of view and the networking point of view, as well as all the programmes they have. It’s a great organisation and it has chapters all over the world: London, New York, Washington, San Francisco, South America, and Asia. And then there are subject-matter chapters, which are very strong: entrepreneurial, technology and so on. It’s a great programme. You join the GEMBA in order to be global, and ESADE has a very global alumni network.

What is your most memorable experience at ESADE or in the GEMBA?
There are many memorable experiences, because it was a very unique programme. Above all else, there’s the network of people – the family of people that I graduated with. We were 35 people, and we are a family. We’ve done “modules” after the GEMBA programme, so we’ve spent time together in Tuscany in 2014; we’ve been to St. Vincent in the Caribbean in 2015; and we’re now looking at organising another module, as we call it – a reunion – somewhere next year. So, the highlight of highlights is the network of people, and then the people that I meet through the ESADE Alumni chapter here in New York City, and the connections I have in Barcelona and building up to the rest of Europe.

Do you have a life motto or an inspirational quote you try to live by?
That’s a good one… I think Marcus Aurelius, in one of his writings, said something along the lines of “the only thing to fear is not death but rather never beginning to live”. I take from that the idea that every day is special, and you live it and you achieve everything you can today, and you move on, and you do the same thing tomorrow.

Could you describe ESADE in three words?
Progressive, innovative, inclusive.