Deans and Directors Cohort (2019)

The Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative (GRLI), a strategic partnership of EFMD, AACSB International, and the UN Global Compact, produced this 2019 invitation to deans and senior leaders in higher and management education. The document describes a pioneering cohort program designed to convene institutional leaders committed to transformative change for people, planet, and prosperity. Participants engage in facilitated co-learning across global networks, collaborating on emergent challenges in management education while developing actionable initiatives for their own organizations. The invitation details the fourth cohort meeting held in Porto, Portugal in November 2019, outlining expected outcomes including relationship-building, skill diversification, and progress on shared inquiry themes such as collective action for systemic impact and empowering students as agents of change. By joining this peer-based academic collaboratory, deans and directors position themselves as catalysts for reshaping management education to address global responsibility. The document reflects GRLI's commitment to advancing the 50+20 vision of management education fit for the world and demonstrates how senior academic leaders can drive systemic change within their institutions and across the global higher education ecosystem.