Conferment of Doctoral Degrees
The ceremonial conferment (¨doktorspromotion¨ in Swedish¨) is an academic celebration, where doctors and honorary doctors are being conferred. The Swedish word for conferment, promotion, is derived from the Latin verb promovere: to promote, to move forward. The conferment of doctoral degrees is one of the most traditional academic ceremonies. All who received their post-doctoral degrees in the past five years will an invitation to accept their traditional doctoral hat and diploma and to attend the following gala dinner.
The ceremonial tradition dates back to the Middle Ages. The first conferment ceremony in Finland took place in 1643 at the former Royal Academy of Åbo. For Hanken School of Economics, the next conferment ceremony in 2024 will be the 13th conferment ceremony.
The first conferment ceremony at Hanken took place in 1953 in connection with the inauguration of the building at Arkadiankatu 22. During that ceremony, the school’s first doctoral degree was conferred on Axel Grandell, as well as five honorary doctoral degrees. Between 1953 and 2019 the school has conferred 312 doctoral and 64 honorary doctoral degrees.
Honorary doctors 2024
The next conferment of doctoral degrees at Hanken will take place on 1 November 2024. At the event, honorary doctors are conferred in recognition of their outstanding academic achievements or cultural and societal achievements.
The Board has decided to appoint nine new honorary doctors at Hanken.
Honorary doctors, academic
Roderick Brodie
Professor
University of Auckland, New Zealand
Rochelle Dreyfuss
Professor
New York University, USA
Lisa Ellram
Professor
Miami University, USA
Thomas Gehrig
Professor
University of Vienna, Austria
Dean Shepherd
Professor
Notre Dame University, USA
Honorary doctors, societal merits
Philip Aminoff
Chairman at Helvar Merca and Helectron
Henrik Andersin
Chairman Evli Plc
Nicola Clase
Swedish Ambassador to Finland
Marianne Stenius
Professor and Rector Emerita, Hanken School of Economics
The conferment ceremony 2019
A brief trailer of what the festivities look like can be found here.
At the conferment ceremony Honorary Doctorates are being conferred in recognition of their outstanding academic achievements or cultural and societal activities.
At the conferment ceremony in 2019 honorary doctorates in recognition of academic achievements were conferred upon:
Mary Jo Bitner
Professor Emeritus of Marketing
Arizona State University
Tore Ellingsen
Professor of Economics
Stockholm School of Economics
Martha S. Feldman
Professor of Social Ecology, Political Science, Business, and Sociology
University of California, Irvine
Bjørn Nybo Jørgensen
Professor of Accounting and Financial Management
London School of Economics
Seppo Pynnönen
Professor of Statistics
University of Vaasa
At the conferment ceremony in 2019 honorary doctorates in recognition of succesful and long-lasting careers in business and society were conferred upon:
Ilkka Brotherus
Chairperson
Sinituote
Jannica Fagerholm
Managing Director
The Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation
Kersti Kaljulaid
President of the Republic of Estonia
Kalle Löövi
Director of International Operations
The Finnish Red Cross
Jan Vapaavuori
Mayor City of Helsinki
Ceremony and video
The complete conferment ceremony of 25 October 2019 can be viewed here:
Honorary doctor President of the Republic of Estonia Kersti Kaljulaid was conferred in abstentia on 25 October 2019.
On 6 February 2020 the President visited Hanken to accept her doctoral hat and diploma in connection to a high profile Partner assembly.
The conferment of the President on 6 February 2020 can be seen here: