In this issue:
Alumni
Marketer Oskars Stucis'04 and investor Gerri Kodres’00 (read in English)
Ričards Križanovskis’17, Erko Risthein’13, Paulius Senūta’00 (listen in their mother tongues)
One of Us - Margarita Vasiliauskaitė’02: Seven ICRC missions (text + photos)
Association
- Impressions from May events: chess contest, discussion of agile, ethics judgement
- Māra Aļeksējeva’12, Rainers Vilāns’06 and Gediminas Velicka’05 win in Contributors' lottery
School
- Students boosted sales for 11 alumni companies
- SOLD OUT: Morten’s tea is being drunk in the entire SSE Riga target region
- BSc Admissions: even more applicants from Estonia
- WANTED: second hand furniture and electronics for dormitories
Feature by Aleksandra Klein’10
- How to Foster Team Creativity? (text or podcast)
|
|
|
|
MORE THAN A SOCIAL MEDIA POST |
|
|
|
While Latvia got its first Unicorn (congrats to 15+ alumni working there), some of us raged about being robbed of the opportunity to witness Latvia's hockey team victory against Canada in Riga in person or not 'winning the Eurovision', we've collected and packaged an overview of what's happened in our community, as usual for the fourth Thursday of the month.
cheers, Marta Metuzāle’20, Sorina Solonaru'20, Katya Firyan'03, Akmis Lomsargis’00
|
|
|
|
|
|
Oskars Stucis'04:
|
|
Deep reflections on what makes a great brand, why should a marketeer think beyond statistics and what are the benefits of harnessing curiosity.
|
|
|
Gerri Kodres’00:
|
|
The Investor of the Year 2019 shares what sectors are on the radar, what being a “good investor” is, and what startups should do to attract one.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Guntars Logins’15 - from selling books in the USA to becoming one of leading sales experts in Baltics (in Latvian)
|
|
|
|
Ilze Spīgule-Buijtenweg’97 on how to remain patriotic and in touch with your roots while living abroad
|
|
|
|
|
|
Megija Mīlberga’17 reviews the exhibition of Italian radical architecture and houses without roofs (in Latvian)
|
|
|
|
Saulius Damulevičius'04 reports on his week-long skiing & camping trip in Swedish winter in spring (video)
|
|
|
|
|
One of us: Margarita Vasiliauskaitė’02 |
|
|
|
Margarita worked in startups, earned her Master's in London and devoted nine years to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Now she's open for the next challenge. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Seven ICRC missions - from Myanmar to South Sudan |
|
It all started from a glimpse of freedom that I had during the three-month-long backpacking trip in India. The less I had in my backpack, the lighter I felt. And this was such a freeing experience — that you can travel around without a car, without a big amount of money, and it doesn’t matter if you sleep in a terrible hostel. The dreams and the plans we had after SSE were so much within a comfort zone, and this comfort zone was very defined. But when I left this comfort zone, I felt freedom. And it felt so good...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
SSE Riga Chess Blitz Tournament |
|
May 4. To mark the restoration of Latvia's independence the first SSE Riga student & alumni online blitz tournament took place. 14 participants played 7 matches each, and all top 5 spots were taken by alumni from just two graduating classes (2009 and 2020): Marius Raugalas'09 took the first place, followed by Pauls Raimonds Sīlis'20, Harlis Velk'09, Ernests Pulks'20, and Aleksandrs Graholskis'09. All chess-loving alumni are welcome to join the SSE Riga Chess Whatsapp group to be informed about future tournaments.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Discussion Club with Krists Avots'14: a not that short journey to shorten the time-to-market |
|
May 6. Krists Avots'14 sparked a conversation on transforming enterprises into agile with Andrejs Strods EMBA'10, Zemgus Žagata'11, Aisma Linda Ķiesnere'13, Edgars Lapiņš'16 and Andris Gribusts EMBA'19. Most discussants evangelized agile approach but agreed that organizations won't master it just by running a training.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Limits of Ethics?
May 12. On a sunny evening Xavier Landes, a lecturer and the author of SSE Riga ethics guidelines, has reviewed the case of Akmis Lomsargis’00 for a potential breach of ethics in the presence of the only witness Mārtiņš Zvejnieks’12.
As some key facts were not available neither to the judge nor the accused the review was over with the tentative conclusion that Akmis intent to safeguard our shared asset — the reputation of SSE Riga alumni — was (over)cautious.
|
|
|
|
Anniversary books for three Contributing Members |
|
|
|
The winners of the February, March and April rounds of the Contributing Members lottery of SSE Riga'25 anniversary book are: Māra Aļeksējeva’12, Rainers Vilāns’06 and Gediminas Velicka’05. Kindly claim your book (ignore the invoice).
|
|
|
|
Students boosted sales for 11 alumni companies |
|
|
|
Y1 students just completed the Marketing course led by Marius Raugalas'09 during which they created and launched real ads on Facebook and Instagram platforms for 16 companies suggested by the alumni and students. In total 32 student teams achieved a nearly 2 million unique reach across the world, 3.4 million impressions and attracted over 40,000 website visits as well as generated some actual sales with EUR 3200 funding provided by the school and the Alumni Association.
A big thank you goes to all the volunteers who let students promote their companies, alumni: Viesturs Šilovs'98, Anna Gaile'01, Jelena Žovnikova'01, Aigars Zelmenis'03, Gediminas Velicka'05, Ignas Vaitkunskas'08, Deniss Aksjonovs'09, Paulius Lingys'12, Sintija Elste'13, Mārtiņš Ražuks-Ebels'15, Alex Astapchyk'16 and students: Nikita Stepanovs (Y3), Artūrs Fleišmans (Y2), Povilas Šatkus (Y2), Cătălina Popescu (Y2) and Matīss Kokins (Y3). The current plan is to turn this into an annual project.
|
|
|
|
SOLD OUT: Morten’s tea is being drunk in the entire SSE Riga region |
|
|
|
The non-compulsory online meeting with Morten Hansen on the Friday evening of April 30 was attended by over 100 students. Pleased by the launch of his personal ‘Long-run Equilibrium’ brand tea (the name and the taste selected by the man himself), the all time favourite lecturer revealed some of his private life (such as his passion for the former crime scenes or admitting that sometimes he makes very serious online appearances with Adidas cloth as the lower half of his suite), passed a tricky test by the host Teodors Muzis (Y1), frankly answered all kinds of questions (from limits of the cryptocurrencies to his personal preferences for colleagues who can be silent for a while) and commented the memes prepared by the students.
The author of these lines has jumped to the meeting just to make a few screenshots for you but it was so much fun that he ended up canceling his plans and staying till the end. The tea was for sale to the school community only and was delivered even to those residing outside Latvia. Morten Hansen has admitted that he could also consider having his own beer brand. Hopefully next year this annual event jointly organized by the SA Education and Marketing teams will be open to all alumni as well.
|
|
|
|
|
BSc Admissions: even more applicants from Estonia |
|
This year the number of BSc applicants from Estonia has increased by 23% which is likely the result of the systematic efforts by the Estonian alumni who, for a few years already, not only offer scholarships to all Y1 from Estonia but also tour the schools with their offer. The admissions officer, Daiga Brakmane, declined to reveal the absolute numbers of the applicants but added that ⅔ are from Latvia while the rest from 23 other countries.
|
|
WANTED: Second hand furniture and electronics for dormitories |
|
Have some furniture or electronics you don't need?
Contact Jānis Meija, SSE Riga Property Manager & Lawyer, and donate soft office chairs, TVs, couches, or other furniture for the SSE Riga dormitories.
You can reach him via +371 67015855 or janis.meija@sseriga.edu.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Graduation 2021 & 2020 |
|
On June 12, both Covid-19 generation graduates of 2020 and 2021 will finally receive their diplomas. The 2021 and 2020 graduates who still have not picked up their diplomas will have the opportunity to individually shake Anders’s hand and take a few professional photos in the school yard. Each person will have around 3-5 minutes per meeting and the event will be broadcasted online for friends and family to watch.
|
|
Viktoria Pilinko’14 in next Insider |
|
The last issue of this semester’s student Insider is foreseen for June 11. Viktoria Pilinko’14 is actually being interviewed for it today. We’ll certainly report on it in June's issue of Alumni Insider and even earlier on alumni social media channels.
Moreover, if you'd like to share with students and/or suggest a friend for future interviews, email Kristers Šavalgins (Y1), Editor-in-Chief of The Insider (ksavalgins@sseriga.edu).
|
|
|
|
|
- May 29 SSE Riga Open’2021 - an annual debate tournament organized by the Debate Society will be held online for the first time. Watch here.
- June 10?, 18:00 Career Advice session: Marketing with Anna Marija Ķiesnere’16, Kristiāna Sālzirne’15
- June 12 Graduation of 2021.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Feature by Aleksandra Klein’10 |
|
|
|
Dr. Aleksandra Klein'10 (née Jakušenko) is an Assistant Professor at the Institute for Strategy and Managerial Accounting, WU Vienna and in her free time is working on her Austrian Kaiserschmarren cooking skills for her 4-yo. |
|
|
|
|
|
Regardless of industry, geography, or organizational characteristics, work is more and more structured in teams that face complex problems requiring creative solutions. In a modern economy, it is a no-brainer that creativity is an integral part of innovation and the driving force behind economic prosperity; however, figuring out how to manage creativity is not. In fact, while an overwhelming majority (82%) of managers agree that unlocking creative potential of their employees is key for commercial success, very few of them (6%) are satisfied with the innovative performance of their company...
|
|
|
|
Starting from the left side: Aleksandra Klein, Margarita Jevsignejeva, Karina Kazanovska, and Jelena Hörpel (née Dmitrijeva), all class of 2010 (aka Bugaga girls), during their first weeks at SSE Riga.
|
|
|
|
Postscript by the Editors |
|
|
|
Thanks for reading until the end. Let's finish with a piece from SSE Riga art collection.
|
|
|
|
The Angel by Aija Zariņa, 1995
What is it? It is a symbolic image of an angel engraved on glass located in the stairwell between the 5th and 6th floors of the SSE Riga building.
What's the meaning of it? Try connecting the seemingly aloof figure of the Angel to the artist’s suggested theme — advocating for a life of a society where the ideal model is following one’s own unique spiritual practice that also could be art. Did it become more clear?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Source: Elizabete Fleišmane'??, 2017, "What even is this?" — The SSE Riga contemporary art collection, Insider #150.
|
|
|
|
Alumni Insider insider@alumni.lv
This newsletter aims to provide you with quality time by consolidating all you need to know about fellow alumni and our future generations in a single email, published monthly every fourth Thursday.
You can contribute by sharing relevant news (question, photo, idea) or an article to the alumni group and/or emailing to the editors. We will publish your news in the next (if received by the fourth Monday) or the following newsletter.
Bypass spam: you could stop this newsletter ending up in your spam folder by white listing our email address. How to do it, depends on your email provider - ask google or your tech support staff.
Editorial Board (in formation from Insider Chiefs): Sergey Nizheborsky'96, Dmitriy Medvedjko'00, Irina Harlampjeva'01, Jonas Jokstys'03, Lina Banyte-Surpliene'05, Tomas Sudnius'06, Edgars Cerps'07, Marius Zemaitis'08, Vaidotas Lasas'09, Karolis Liaudinskas'10, Ginvile Ramanauskaite'11, Jekaterina Kolbina'12, Tatiana Arventi'13, Viktoria Pilinko'14, Valeria Gavrilan'16, Maksis Gauja'18, Elizabete Fleišmane'??, Marta Metuzāle'20, Daniela Gerda Baranova (Y3), Una Narnicka (Y2), Kristers Šavalgins (Y1).
Old issues Jan, 2021 (#1); Feb, 2021 (#2); Mar, 2021 (#3); April, 2021 (#4).
|
|
|
|
Erratum If you've noticed any mistakes or omissions in this issue, kindly hit reply.
|
|
|
|
|