The first Schwarzman-Rhodes Symposium took place at Rhodes House on 26-28 October 2018 to explore the topic of ‘Public Leadership in the 21st Century: Ethical, Global, Local, Connected’. This event brought together Schwarzman Scholars and Rhodes Scholars to engage on the meaning of values-based and ethical leadership, and to develop skills and build connections between the two programmes. The Schwarzman Scholars is a scholarship programme modelled after the Rhodes Scholarships which supports up to 200 scholars annually from the US, China and around the world for a one-year Master’s Degree at Tsinghua University in Beijing. The programme is designed to help future leaders in business, public service, science, technology, engineering, law and the non-profit space to better understand China and to meet the challenges of the 21st Century and beyond.
Schwarzman and Rhodes Scholars at Symposium
Sunday 28 October Questions from audience
Over the weekend, the programme examined the challenges that public leaders face today, and allowed Scholars to benefit from cross-generational mentoring, workshops with the Blavatnik School of Government and the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy as well as interacting with leaders from all walks of life. Some of our key speakers were Dr Eboo Patel, Founder and President of Interfaith America, Suzanna Fritzberg, Deputy Chief of Staff and Policy Director to Mayor Pete Buttigieg in South Bend Indiana, Dr Anne Makena, Program Coordinator at the Africa Oxford Initiative and Claus Kao-Chu Soong, Director of Cooperation, CGG Hong Kong Council, Centre for China and Globalisation. There were many other fantastic contributors available to read about on our event page. The key themes about what leadership means today which emerged from the symposium were: knowing yourself and your values was
critical in order to lead others, showing humility, being deliberate with spending time with the right people and understanding their lives and, compromise and listening. A special thanks for the Boston Consulting Group for sponsoring the event and all the symposium commentary is available on #PublicLeadership2018.
Opening Plenary