•Interstate Programme

•Center for International Business

•Global View

Interstate Programme focuses on business relations between E.U. and U.S.

Just down the block from the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, a team of Tuck students squeezed in some extra learning—and networking—before their summer internships began.

The subject of their visit was the Interstate Programme, a conference held on June 4-7, 2007, co-sponsored by the Center for International Business at the Tuck School of Business. The conference attracts students from top business schools throughout Europe and North America and teaches them about the transatlantic business relationship, the European Union itself, and about doing business in the E.U. through exploring key issues facing policymakers and businesspeople on both sides of the Atlantic.

"The Interstate Programme arises from our belief that the capacity of North American and European businesspeople to misunderstand each other is much greater than people think," explains Keith Dobson, the former director of the British Council's European operations, who currently runs the program. "Our aim is to deliver a small group of future business leaders with a program of information and understanding about what is happening in Europe and what it means for the transatlantic relationship."

For the four Tuck students who traveled to Belgium this year, the conference was a chance to gain additional exposure to global issues and to supplement their classes with discussions of key current issues.

The week was also a chance to hear from the sorts of visiting executives that visit the Tuck campus, but specifically about doing business in the E.U. and from a decidedly European perspective. Alasdair Munro T'08, a student from the U.K. interning in London with a top management consulting firm this summer, said the highpoint was a surprisingly candid discussion with Dalia Grybauskaite, one of the 27 commissioners of the E.U.

"It was fascinating to hear about her background in politics in Lithuania and in the E.U., and to hear frank discussion about how life really works in the E.U. itself," said Munro. "My employer in London this summer has a significant focus on government work, so it was really helpful to get this inside perspective."

For Cristina Henrik T'08, a student from Romania interning at a major bank in Madrid this summer, the chance to interact with E.U. officials also left a lasting impression. But her primary subject of interest was not a government official, but instead the chairman of Microsoft Europe, Jan Muehlfeit, who spoke with students after dinner one night and explained how he has found his own work/life balance while navigating different cultures across Europe while working for an American corporation.

The days in Brussels were marked with a number of lively discussions. On the second day, Secretary General of the European Trade Union Council John Monks was quoted in the Financial Times warning against the dangers of "promiscuous, one-night-stand capitalists" in the private equity industry, and that very morning the students at Interstate had a spirited discussion with him about the role of private equity in the modern economy. Even more heated was the exchange on day four, when a panel featuring the top European lobbyists for Greenpeace and a major global industrial supplies manufacturer debated the future of disclosure requirements for lobbying activities at the E.U.

Of course, like any good business school event, the conference was as much about learning from peers as the educational sessions themselves. The Tuck team spent the week networking with fellow students from Instituto de Empresa in Madrid; HEC in Paris; WHU in Germany; Leeds, Cass, Durham and LBS in the U.K.; Rotman in Candada; RSM Erasmus in the Netherlands; and Columbia, UCLA, and Georgetown in the U.S.