New trustees take their seats

The SIS Board of Trustees welcomes two new members as we start the new academic year. Joining the board are Dan Kuzmic and Valentina Tartari. They will sit alongside seven other members charged with the governance of SIS as a school and as a not-for-profit entity. Board members give freely of their time in these unremunerated positions, making a crucial and valuable contribution to the School.

Dan is a senior leader with 25+ years of global experience at a leading strategy consulting firm, serving as both a strategic advisor and a P&L leader. He has deep expertise in the technology, telecommunications, and media sectors across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. 

Valentina Tartari holds a professorship and leads a research centre at the Stockholm School of Economics. She brings expertise as an educator and experience of governance within an academic environment.

 We spoke with Valentina about her reason for serving as an SIS trustee. She told us:

As a parent at SIS, I have seen first-hand the wonderful environment the school creates, one where children from all over the world learn together, challenge each other, and grow into genuinely global citizens. At the same time, education is not just where my child spend her days, it is actually my professional life. I have spent my career researching and teaching how knowledge is created and applied, and how institutions can build the conditions for people to thrive and innovate. Joining the Board felt like a natural way to bring those two parts of my life together in service of something I genuinely care about.

Although she is not a product of international schools herself, she recalls the profound influence an exchange year had on her as she stepped outside her familiar context to learn alongside people with entirely different backgrounds. She recognises the same happening every day for students in SIS.

Valentina has been based in Sweden for the last three years. This followed 11 years living and working in Copenhagen, so she is familiar with Scandinavian social and business culture. Does she feel international schools have an important place in Scandinavian society?

I think they do. Two reasons stand out for me. For a small country like Sweden, which contributes disproportionately to global innovation and economic performance, the need to attract international talent is particularly relevant, and the presence of excellent international schools is a big attractor for foreign professionals moving to the country with their families. The second reason is more general and in my mind it applies everywhere. The richness of the experience students have in an international school is an extraordinary asset not just for their education, but for their overall development as global citizens. 

It seems clear that Valentina is in perfect harmony with what SIS has contributed to the city in the last 75 years, and will be a steadfast champion of its role and future contribution when writing its next chapter.