CEO’s welcome message for the academic year 2024/25

Welcome, everyone. It’s a real pleasure to be here with all of you.

We are all here to work with you and ensure that your learning experience is as fantastic as possible. This is an important moment for me and for the entire team. I see some of our professors, staff, and students from previous years, and it’s so exciting to kick off a new academic year. It is my joy and honor to welcome the undergraduate class of 2027 and the postgraduate class of 2025. You’re starting a journey that will hopefully transform you and impact society.

I’m sure you’ve arrived here full of energy. If not, make sure to recharge because you’ll need it in the coming weeks. You’re also probably filled with curiosity, and that will be key to finding your way during your time at H-FARM College.

Now, let me introduce someone who’s not me but someone who will soon appear on the screen.

Many of you will recognize Nelson Mandela. As you may know, 30 years ago, Mandela became the leader of South Africa after spending 27 years in prison. Mandela provides us with many lessons and endless inspiration. One thing I’d like to share is what he did during those 27 years in prison. He dedicated himself to studying, starting with very little formal education. Over time, he learned about politics, economics, international business, and global affairs, all to prepare himself for the moment when he would be called upon to change the world. And he did just that.

Here at H-FARM College, you’ll see various inspirational quotes around the campus, including one from Mandela that speaks to the power of education. As Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world,” and he did just that. We hope that through your education here, you’ll also be empowered to make a difference. Our goal is for our students to make the world a better place.

I am the Chief Executive Officer of H-FARM Education, but most importantly, I’m the father of Tommaso, a three-year-old, and Sofia, who is eleven, and the husband of Cristina. For the past three years, I’ve been working with a team of 300 professionals, all here for you. Our mission, every day when we wake up, is to focus on making this community as vibrant and enriching as possible.

Before joining H-FARM, I was in Switzerland, working in Geneva. Over the years, I’ve had a varied career across companies like McKinsey and institutions like New York University and The Graduate Institute Geneva. I’ve worked in the private sector, non-profit organizations, and charitable foundations, collaborating with leaders from around the world—people like Bill Gates in the U.S., Ratan Tata in India, and Patrice Motsepe in South Africa.

The reason I’m telling you this is that curiosity and preparation allowed me to seize these opportunities. We aim to prepare you to be ready for any future that comes your way. Whatever you want to achieve can happen, and it will depend on you.

Here in H-FARM, our mission is to empower you, our graduates, to transform innovation into human progress for a better society.

During the next year or three years, depending on your program, you will walk through this beautiful campus, meet people from 51 different nationalities, and be part of a diverse, vibrant community. You’ll join a group of 750 students and over 80 faculty members. Why are these numbers important? They show the strength of this community, where everyone matters. Here, students and professors collaborate as colleagues, and you have the opportunity to connect with entrepreneurs, innovators, and CEOs. It’s a powerful experience, but it’s up to you to take advantage of it. You can stay in your corner, or you can engage and explore the experiential learning opportunities available to you.

We have a mission here, and if you’re in this room today, I hope you’ll join us in that mission. Our goal is to empower you to transform innovation into human progress and to build a better society. We’re not just here to teach you. We’re here to empower you. Whether you dive deep or choose to stay on the surface is up to you. But if we want to change the world for the better, we need people who are willing to leverage innovation and transform it into progress. Our society needs that now more than ever.

You’ll see in the next chart some of the mega trends shaping the world today. These trends are transformational, and they will influence every subject you study, from math to economics. We are living in a world of limited resources, and understanding how to adapt and thrive in such an environment is crucial.

There are real risks, like natural resource shortages, food security issues, and energy crises. The world as we know it is changing, and you’ll need to address these challenges. Environmental risks, for instance, are particularly dramatic. In 2024, we’re approaching a point of no return regarding biodiversity loss and extreme weather events. Droughts in Southern Africa and devastating floods in Greece and Libya are just examples of this. There’s also geopolitical instability, which is evident in places like Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Eight successful military coups have occurred in recent years in countries across Africa. These are important issues for your generation to understand and address.

But there are also opportunities. This year, the world’s largest democracies—India, the U.S., Indonesia, South Korea, South Africa, Mexico, and the European Union—will hold elections, involving four billion people. Imagine the impact this could have. To continue, on the positive side, we now have a powerful ally in artificial intelligence. This technology is advancing at a rapid pace and is helping us solve problems that were previously unsolvable, from curing diseases to creating new business models.

Do not forget you’ll also learn about the space economy and projects like NUWA, which explore human habitation on Mars. Innovations from space exploration have already had a significant impact on Earth, and they will continue to open new frontiers. All of this gives us hope. While there are significant risks, there are also incredible opportunities that you can seize.

In the early 1990s, when I began my career, the world was booming. The stock market was thriving, and the U.S. economy was leading the way. It was a time of optimism. Today, the situation can appear similar hence many of you can expect a boom economy again. But the underlying economic conditions have changed, and you’ll need to learn how to navigate this new reality. You’ll be sailing against the wind, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. You’ll need to learn how to sail well.

Rarely has a generation faced a time like today, with so much promise and uncertainty. The next 10 to 15 years will be significantly different, and that’s why you’ve chosen H-FARM College. The old rules won’t work, and we are here to help you navigate these rapid changes.

What will you need? Many things, but most importantly, you’ll need judgment and wisdom. If you can master these two qualities, you will make a significant impact.

Employers will ask you a variety of questions: Do you know how to build and analyze a business model? Can you lead a team through mergers and acquisitions? Do you understand how customer demographics are changing? These are the kinds of challenges you’ll face, and they make the future both exciting and challenging. That’s why we have 300 colleagues working with you every day—because the world needs talents like yours. We need people with the courage to challenge the norms and create a new vision for the future.

Here, you’ll see us constantly investing in human development and knowledge. Your professors will be working alongside you on new ideas, innovative teaching methods, and solutions for the future.

You have a choice: you can either breeze through your time here, or you can study, learn, exchange ideas, and make this period an inclusive moment of growth.

The 300 people who work with me all share one common belief: we believe in you. We are here to support you in building a more just, sustainable, and joyful future.

This is just the start of your journey. I hope it will be rewarding and exciting, and that it will bring you here every day with a smile, knowing that you have the power to change the world for the better. 

Welcome to H-FARM.

Antonello Barbaro

CEO H-FARM Education