On 20 July 2017, the ILF Class of 2017 comprising 41 students from the LL.M. Finance program and 15 students from the LL.M. International Finance program celebrated their graduation day with their families and friends, the Board members, faculty members, staff and alumni of the ILF.
At the graduation ceremony of the 56 ILF graduates coming from a total of 21 nations held at 6 pm at the House of Finance, Prof. Dr. Andreas Cahn, ILF Director welcomed more than 220 guests in the foyer. He referred to the outstanding achievements of the graduates for successfully completing the course program after spending the past 10 months studying hard in classes and having fun in good company at the ILF. It is now time for them to celebrate this special event with their families and friends. He wished them every success in their future careers. Further, he thanked the sponsors, lecturers and staff for their ongoing commitment and support of the ILF since the establishment of the ILF 15 years ago.
During the speech of Prof. Dr. Ute Sacksofsky, Dean of the Law Faculty, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, she highlighted the impressive diversity and internationality of the ILF graduates. She emphasized that this reflect the internationality and openness of the city of Frankfurt which is now a global market player in the legal and financial world and which is experiencing an increase of European institutions being set up here. For all these reasons, she is happy that our graduates have chosen to do the Master of Laws programs at the ILF. She extended her heartiest congratulations to the Class of 2017 and invited them to be strong alumni of the ILF and of Goethe University.
Our guest-of-honor Dr. Johannes Beermann, Member of the Executive Board, Deutsche Bundesbank, held the commencement speech for our graduates. He complimented both LL.M. programs at the ILF for combining the teaching of law and finance/economics as well as theory and practice as it is important to be able to look at problems from both perspectives. The Deutsche Bundesbank, being a founding member of the ILF, has always been its strong supporter, whether in terms of the Deutsche Bundesbank providing lecturers, internships or conference speakers. He noted how many things have changed since he graduated in 1985 when the world was much less international and less connected. He spoke about the benefits of globalization, free trade and mobile labor and how we could reduce the possible disadvantages resulting thereof by letting citizens participate and enjoy the rewards of globalization and that ILF graduates can, based on their training at the ILF, help in this regard in their future careers. He also raised the point that cultural diversity of employees often lead to better performance of everyone in the team. He is sure that our graduates are well prepared for their future careers and he wish them the best of luck in handling all the new and exciting tasks that are awaiting them upon their graduation.
The LL.M. Finance Class President Ms. Anna Stentella from Italy and LL.M. International Finance Class President Ms. Xinsun Qiang from China then respectively held their speeches. In view of current developments, it is indeed a very exciting time to learn more about law and finance. They related the experiences of studying for their classes and how well their classmates got to know each other during their year of studies at the ILF whether through learning together or during the out-of-classroom activities. It was definitely a year full of good memories for all of them!
Subsequently, both Class Vice-Presidents, Mr. Alexander Bueno-Edwards from the USA/Columbia and Mr. Antonius Setianto from Indonesia honored the following lecturers from both the winter and the summer semesters with the Lecturer of the Year 2017 Award. They have been nominated by each group of students at the end of each semester.
Lecturer of the Year 2017 Award
Winter Semester:
LL.M. Finance: Dr. Klaus-Albert Bauer
LL.M. International Finance: Mr. Frank Herring
Summer Semester:
LL.M. Finance: Dr. Philipp Paech
LL.M. International Finance: Prof. Dr. Andreas Cahn
The official ceremony ended with Prof. Dr. Sacksofsky and Dr. Beermann presenting each student of the Class of 2017 with his/her certificate and personally congratulating them.
This extraordinary event concluded with a festive dinner and dance held at the Festsaal of the Casino Building on Campus Westend for all guests.
Congratulations to the Class of 2017!
More photos.
