Shaping LSE’s future with our alumni

From academic lectures to campus tours, from alumni strategy sessions to the LSE Summer Ball, the 2025 Alumni Leadership Forum was a truly engaging, informative and collaborative LSE experience.

Every two years we are delighted to welcome back to campus alumni volunteers from around the world for our Alumni Leadership Forum - a two-day event series where alumni leaders and staff learn, share and network. This year we hosted over 100 alumni from 40 countries including Colombia, Kenya, Italy, Myanmar and the USA. From Dr Stuart Camella (BSc Economics 1968), Treasurer of the Midlands Friends of LSE, to Emmanuel Valery (MSc Information Systems 2023) the breadth of LSE experience and insights, spanning seven decades, was on display. 

This year’s Forum was also special as it coincided with our annual flagship event series - LSE Festival Week – and with LSE’s inaugural student Summer Ball. Campus was buzzing with stimulating discussions and debates, and celebrations as students marked the end of their exams.

A global network

This Forum was the first since Professor Larry Kramer became LSE President and Vice Chancellor, enabling him to meet in person more of our global network of alumni advocates. They also had the opportunity to hear directly from him about the School’s priorities for research, teaching and engagement. He stressed how critical our alumni are to tackling these priorities because “at the end of the day, the foundation on which all this rests is actually the alumni community”. 

We know it is our diverse but tight-knit global community of students, faculty and alumni that makes LSE unique. But maintaining a sense of community when we are spread out over 146 countries isn’t easy, and Larry recognised and paid tribute to the work of our alumni who are integral to building and maintaining our global alumni community.  

A School to be proud of

While the Forum has been running for two decades for some attendees this was their first time back on campus for many years. They could see how the School’s vision of creating a university quarter and establishing a series of world-class buildings to match its academic reputation had come to fruition. As one alumnus said “I'd love to be a student now as the campus is so much more rounded.”

Throughout their visit to campus they could see the impact – large and small - that alumni have had, and are continuing to have on the School:

• Professor Giles Atkinson, Acting Director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, shared a presentation about the work of the Global School of Sustainability (GSoS). GSoS was launched earlier this year thanks to a transformational gift from LSE alumnus Lei Zhang (MSc Operational Research 2002)
• A visit to The Legacy Terrace Garden on the sixth floor terrace of the Centre Building was included in campus tours. The Garden recognises how vital legacy gifts are to bolstering our ability to stay true to our founding mission and become the leading social science institution with the greatest global impact. 
• The Forum closing reception took place on the LSE Square against the backdrop of the stunning five-storey-high art installation, Spectra by artist Tod Hansen, which was inspired by the Booth Poverty Map. This installation was made possible by a gift from LSE alumnus and Emeritus Governor, Mario Francescotti (BSc Economics 1981). 

The future

While there were plenty of moments of laughter and nostalgia with personal trips down memory lane, as a group the Alumni Association was very much focused on the future and the key role alumni play in supporting the School’s mission to place LSE and the social sciences at the forefront of addressing the major challenges and opportunities the world is facing.

Our alumni, as graduates of this world-leading social university, are the practitioners on the front line tackling many of these challenges from sustainability to new technologies, inequalities, democracy and political economy. Their education did not stop once they graduated – learning today is lifelong.

We are so fortunate to have a brilliant Alumni Association with over 130 groups and networks worldwide. Our engaged alumni are fantastic advocates for LSE and are supporting us in widening our reach so we can connect with even more of our global community, ensuring LSE continues to be the world-leading global university that it is today. 

The last word goes to Tom Kern (MSc Public Policy and Administration 1979), Chair of our Global Alumni Board who paid tribute to the strength and vibrancy of the alumni community:  

Thank you to all our past, present and future alumni.