• The DCT Abu Dhabi Chairman, His Excellency Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, attended the completion ceremony at the NYU Abu Dhabi campus

Abu Dhabi, UAE: The Office of Executive Education at NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) hosted a Capstone presentation ceremony to conclude its Rising Stronger leadership development program for 20 graduates from the Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi). His Excellency Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, DCT Abu Dhabi Chairman, and His Excellency Saood Abdulaziz Al Hosani, Undersecretary of DCT Abu Dhabi, attended the commencement.

HE Al Hosani said: “It has been an exciting opportunity to collaborate with NYU Abu Dhabi on the Rising Stronger leadership development program. Our participants are the future leaders of DCT Abu Dhabi, who will use the skills they have learned to continue to drive the culture and tourism industries forward with vision, embracing new ways of thinking and leading transformation across sectors. I look forward to seeing their impact in the coming years as we enrich lives through sharing Abu Dhabi with the world.”

Senior Advisor, Professional and Executive Programs at NYU Abu Dhabi, Renee Dugan, added: “In a rapidly changing business world, executives and managers must be able to adapt and lead diverse teams and agile organizations. NYU Abu Dhabi, located at a new crossroads of the world, is uniquely positioned to support the development of organizations to meet these challenges. Our world class curriculum is both local and global, providing a unique and relevant professional development education and experience for top talent at our partner organizations.”

The Rising Stronger Leadership Development Program is a nine-month program to enhance the leadership competencies of 21 managers from across DCT Abu Dhabi, while embedding core values and skills. This unique learning journey contains psychometric assessments, four individual and group coaching sessions, instructional modules, and projects to inspire self-awareness, collaboration, strategic thinking and operational effectiveness, and to support team and organizational development.

The project saw five teams progress through a three-stage format – a business challenge, implementation plan, and presentation day – that allowed participants to practice their learnings from the live sessions as well as leverage their peer network and mentor support to isolate a potential business challenge.

Capstone topics included streaming for the new era of Abu Dhabi’s film industry, effective methods to improve employee mental health in the workplace and using artificial intelligence to validate third-party data. 

The presentation day featured an NYUAD senior leadership discussion on the DCT Abu Dhabi-NYUAD partnership, along with a speech from His Excellency Al Hosani the DCT Abu Dhabi Undersecretary. Team presentations were followed by a certificate ceremony hosted by HE Al Mubarak and Fatma Abdulla, Senior Associate Vice Chancellor and Senior Vice Provost for Strategy and Planning at NYUAD.

NYUAD’s Office of Executive Education advances and enhances the careers of executives and managers across the region, with a focus on further Emirati professional development. DCT Abu Dhabi has signed on for another batch of the Rising Stronger internal training program in 2023.

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About NYU Abu Dhabi

www.nyuad.nyu.edu

NYU Abu Dhabi is the first comprehensive liberal arts and research campus in the Middle East to be operated abroad by a major American research university. NYU Abu Dhabi has integrated a highly selective program with majors in the sciences, engineering, social sciences, arts, and humanities with a world center for advanced research. Its campus enables students to succeed in an increasingly interdependent world, and to advance cooperation and progress on humanity’s shared challenges. NYU Abu Dhabi’s high-achieving students have come from some 120 countries and speak over 115 languages. Together, NYU's campuses in New York, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai form the backbone of a unique global university, giving faculty and students opportunities to experience varied learning environments and immersion in other cultures at one or more of the numerous study-abroad sites NYU maintains on six continents.