Sri Sri Ravi Shankar receives Honorary Doctorate from Nyenrode Business Universiteit

Breukelen, Netherlands, June 4, 2012 – In honor of its 65th anniversary, Nyenrode Business University has granted an honorary doctorate to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is generally recognized as one of the most influential spiritual leaders of the present day. With his spiritual techniques, interventions and advice, he reaches a large section of the population – from students to world leaders. Thanks to his open and practical approach to spirituality, the subject is now more firmly on the agenda of businesses both large and small throughout the whole world. 
 

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (born 1956 in India) is the founder of the Art of Living Foundation, the International Association of Human Values and the World Forum for Ethics and Business. He has also established hundreds of schools and he is currently working to set up a Sri Sri university. Via his organizations, he tries to create a harmonious and more human world in which people everywhere go through life as one family. To achieve this, he utilizes the intelligence and wisdom that everyone has within them. He also devotes his attention to the world of business. Ethical dealing and spiritual techniques are becoming increasingly important in businesses and to reinforce this development, Sri Sri regularly shares his vision with top managers and world leaders, for example during the annual World Economic Forum in Davos. 
 

Prof. Dr. Maurits van Rooijen, Rector Magnificus and CEO of Nyenrode Business Universiteit: “We are pleased to grant an honorary doctorate to Sri Sri because he uniquely represents Nyenrode’s core values in his person, in his work and in his actions. In a practical and tangible way, he connects ethics and spirituality with entrepreneurship and leadership. Among other things, he does this by educating future leaders and guiding the current leaders. His interpretation of stewardship, with a focus on sustainable, responsible, ethical and spiritual dealing, also fits in well with the core values that we want to convey to our students.”

 
On the subject of the honorary doctorate, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says: “Businesses are surrounded by great uncertainty at present. Now that businesses are more dependent on social and political values, spirituality can give them the strength and enthusiasm to deal more effectively with this. Intuition is important to every aspect of doing business and spirituality nourishes alertness, perception and the ability to observe. In turn, these aspects help to strengthen intuition. Businesses benefit from patience and good relationships with suppliers and customers. Spirituality strengthens these skills and thereby contributes to commercial success.”
 

About Nyenrode Business Universiteit
Nyenrode Business Universiteit is the only private university in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1946 by leading Dutch companies. The motto 'by and for the business community' still applies today. Nyenrode Business Universiteit educates ambitious, creative and talented students to be global citizens and become sustainable leaders and entrepreneurs, and robust accountants and controllers in a future world with problems yet unknown. Nyenrode incorporates the core values of Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Stewardship.
 
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Note for the editors (not for publication):
For more information about the contents of this press release, please contact:
Nyenrode Business Universiteit, Helm Horsten, Corporate Communications Department, telephone number: +31 346 291 709. e-mail: h.horsten@nyenrode.nl, website: www.nyenrode.nl