Rael Levitt Delivers UCLA 2015 Commencement Speech

    CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA, September 09, 2015 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Levitt and 55 fellow senior executives from over 20 countries graduated with a double Master's Degree. The graduates focused on global leadership and management through two universities being UCLA and the National University of Singapore.

The graduates had met for academic sessions in Shanghai, Bangalore, New Delhi, Singapore and Los Angeles, where they were immersed in company site visits, meetings with leading executives and projects with international companies. The program culminated with a Management Practicum, a global strategic consulting project.

The program now boasts about 450 alumni worldwide, from more than 30 countries. Levitt was the first South African to graduate and the second African student. When UCLA Anderson Professor Christopher Tang founded the program, it was one of the first dual-degree programs offered by a business school, and the first degree program ever approved between a University of California school and a foreign university.

The UCLA-NUS GEMBA program is among the world's top executive MBA programs - most recently ranked number 3 by The Economist and number 4 by The Financial Times. In addition to being a dual-degree program (unlike joint-degree programs in which graduates earn only one diploma), the program offers executives the flexibility to meet in different locations and to communicate electronically in between sessions, as well as an evolving curriculum that reflects the changing needs of the marketplace.

The degree draws executives with at least 10 years work experience in industries that range from engineering and law, to medicine and music. Many of them are looking to expand their business in specific markets and enhance their careers, and some even launch new companies with fellow graduates.

Rael Levitt's address focused on two themes: the ability to face adversity as well as lifelong learning and growth. "If there is one thing that our global journey has reminded us is that the best leaders love to learn," said Levitt "And the greatest organizations are learning enterprises - places where ideas are the currency of success."

Levitt went on to say that as the graduates travelled across the world, through multiple cities, they realized that the very act of learning something new means that they had to disrupt their way of thinking.

"To accept or even just to entertain a new concept means you must leave the safety of your former way of perceiving the world and open up to something foreign. And that means you'd have to leave the protection of your safe harbour and journey out into the unknown - and the unknown is a pretty scary place for most people. Many people get threatened there. Victims get stuck there."

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