Shalini Bhatia, UNICON Board Chair 2025-26, looks back on twelve months of record participation, six new member schools, four research reports and a first for UNICON's finances.
Shalini Bhatia shares the annual review from the MIT campus, following the 2026 Annual Workshop.
"Hi everyone. This is Shalini Bhatia from Stanford University, coming to you from the beautiful MIT campus where we just had the Annual Workshop."
With those words, Shalini Bhatia opened UNICON's annual review. Having served her term as Board Chair, and six years on the UNICON Board, she now hands over to incoming Board Chair Aldemir Drummond.
The year was built around three strategic priorities. Below are the highlights from her review - watch the full video above for the whole picture.
The year in numbers
What the community achieved together
Strategic priorities
Three commitments, one community
One UNICON
Bringing the global membership together in the same rooms, and the numbers show it working.
- 55% of our member schools attended the Directors' Conference
- 71% attended the Team Development Conference
- 80 universities and more than 400 members took part in Coffee Break groups
Membership engagement
Two sides of the same coin: welcoming new members, and adding real value for those already here.
- Six new members joined the consortium
- Five schools were awarded full membership
- The Voice of the Customer survey shaped a new professional development series
- Four research reports plus two pulse surveys on geopolitical and business conditions
Financial stewardship
A quiet milestone, and an important one.
- For the first time in its history, UNICON has funded its reserve accounts, with a formal policy now in place to govern them
- Two new sponsors, XED and Emeritus, joined to support innovation across the consortium, and met members in person at the Team Development Conference
Membership
Six new members, five full memberships
The consortium welcomed six new associate members across the year, and awarded full membership to five schools that had grown their executive education operations since joining. Together they span Finland, the United States, Canada, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates, France, Ireland, Mexico, Turkiye and Portugal.
Aalto and Indiana University
Two new associate members, with full membership awarded to the University of Miami Herbert and SFU Beedie.
Read the announcement →
NTU SEED and MBZUAI
Two associate members from Taipei and Abu Dhabi, with full membership for ESCP, Trinity College Dublin and IPADE.
Read the announcement →
Koç University and Iscte
Associate members joining from Istanbul and Lisbon, bringing new perspectives from two dynamic markets.
Read the announcement →What comes next
The Accelerator Series launches in September
As Shalini notes in the review, one of the clearest asks from the Voice of the Customer survey was for more professional development that members could actually attend. The answer is the Accelerator Series - short, focused programs delivered live online so teams anywhere in the world can join.
The first is the Business Development Accelerator, running across five live sessions from September 2026 to January 2027, each co-led by a pair of experienced executive education leaders from across the UNICON community.
Thank you, Shalini
Six years of service to the consortium
Having completed her term, Shalini Bhatia steps down from the UNICON Board after six years, the last as Board Chair. Our thanks for her leadership, her steady hand on the consortium's strategy, and her belief in what this community can be for one another. She continues as Program Co-Director of the Business Development Accelerator, so members will be seeing plenty more of her.
"As we learned this year at the Annual Workshop, it's all about social connection in the age of AI. So let's continue to socially connect and be there for each other."
Shalini BhatiaUNICON Board Chair 2025-26; Director, Program and Business Development, Stanford GSB Executive Education
A new UNICON year is already underway
The new financial year began in August and the calendar is already filling. Next up: the Team Development Conference, hosted by Arizona State University, November 18-20. Early-bird pricing runs until August 31.
See the TDC 2026 Agenda and Register