On Thursday 6 November, the faculty celebrated the 35th and 15th anniversaries of the Master Public Management and Master Risk Management post-initial programmes together with 250 alumni, (former) lecturers and other interested parties. The entire PLD team had organised a wonderful conference with the theme 'Focusing on safety'. In the morning, the initiators of both MPM and MRM were honoured.
Former commander of the Dutch Armed Forces, retired General Mart de Kruif, gave an impressive speech about vision, leadership and organising resilience. 'Leadership is about taking responsibility and making decisions; you are also responsible if you do nothing'. 'In the Netherlands, we are champions at conducting evaluations and learning lessons, but actually implementing those lessons is another story'.
Mayor Roelof Bleker also gave an inspiring speech about the importance of resilience. What do we do when we are faced with a power outage lasting three days or longer? How do shops, healthcare institutions and schools respond? Do they remain open, even when the sewage system is no longer working? These are pressing questions that panel chair René Torenvlied also put to the panel.
With 28 parallel sessions in the afternoon, the theme was explored in depth. There were plenty of networking opportunities during the lunch and coffee breaks and during the walking dinner in the U-Park. Lecturer Jan Peter Bergen received the Caroline Regtuit Award for his contribution during the parallel session and in recognition of his substantive contribution to MPM's recovery process. Chairperson Jan de Leede was incredibly satisfied: PLD, BMS and the UT have been put on the map with this wonderful anniversary event!
