Bruno Busacca, a Dean Who Takes Alumni to Heart

Bocconi University has a beating heart in Milan, but a hundred thousand veins running around the world forming a vast alumni network. Bruno Busacca, who was appointed Dean to oversee the development of relations with alumni on November 1, has picked up the challenge to sustain the development of such a large community in concert with the Bocconi Alumni Association (BAA).

"Alums are key for the University," says the new Dean without preamble. "They are human resources which, if properly solicited, always respond proactively." He also makes immediately clear what the strategic directives are going to be at his new post. "First of all, I plan to invest in benchmarking analysis: we need to understand what the best international practices are, with particular focus on the valorization of alumni communities. On that basis, we can best express what our specific advantages are." "Also," he explains, "I intend to work along three lines in particular: value transfers from the university and to the university, alumni engagement, and deep knowledge of the alumni community."

Regarding the first of the three priorities, "I want to make even more visible and accessible the many opportunities that Bocconi already offers alumni in terms of continuous education and learning, also thanks to network technologies. It's about following conferences or meetings from a remote location, but also about promoting access to Bocconi's executive courses among alums," says the Dean. "It is also important that our alumni share and support the major projects undertaken by the Alma Mater, from the development of human capital to the promotion of social mobility, from the construction of new high-quality learning spaces to scientific research on frontier issues, while offering advanced, multi-dimensional educational programs."

In terms of alumni engagement, a key aspect is increasing involvement on the part of the faculty: "We have to strengthen relations between professors and alumni across the world, also because this is an opportunity the latter are very sensitive about. Academics should increase their engagement with BAA Topic Areas and we need to better leverage the international visibility of our faculty. Our aspiration is to make sure that whenever a faculty member moves abroad, he or she is able to enter into and maintain contact with the Bocconi alumni community there, which in turn should positively interact with the local business community, thereby creating a virtuous feedback loop."

Last but not least, the University must deepen the knowledge of individual Bocconi alumni, in terms of their career paths, training and professional experiences, interests and expectations. "We need to further invest in this direction," Dean Busacca says, "in order to construct specific proposals addressed at relevant targets to be determined through rigorous segmentation of the alumni base".

The strategy outlined by Bruno Busacca is thus very clearly defined. Following the thread common to alumni engagement activities over the last few years, it looks at the values ​​that the University is able to transmit. "It is about cementing the pride alumni take in being part of this community and making them feel they want to be part of it not only for the tangible benefits, which do exist, but because they share Bocconi's values ​​and its high-profile projects representing a contribution to society."