The first edition of the Aspen Executive Seminar organized in the Republic of Moldova, took place on May 21 – 24, in a picturesque area close to Chișinău. The Seminar was conducted entirely in English.

The Aspen Executive Seminar in Moldova is building on the Aspen Institute Romania’s 19 years of experience in organizing leadership programs and draws its inspiration from one of the oldest and most beloved programs of the Aspen Institute US. Using the 75-year-old Aspen Method, the Seminar gathers each edition around 20 senior leaders from the public, private, academic and non-governmental sectors to explore questions related to leadership and values, in an informal and critical dialogue based on a collection of readings sent beforehand. 

The seminar curriculum is an expertly curated mix of stimulating readings from historical and contemporary thinkers, in the fields of philosophy, literature, economic theory, history, and social sciences. The texts are carefully chosen to spark discussions and interest in exploring various topics such as liberty, equality or responsibility, stimulating participants to find their own answers to the enduring questions of societal, organizational, and personal leadership. These debates will contribute to enhancing participants’ ability to analyze and tackle increasingly challenging contemporary societal issues and global situations. 

The moderators of the Seminar challenged participants to expand their perspectives and explore the value conflicts inherent in all leadership decisions, using the readings as a foundation for discussion.

While the Seminar offers no ready-made solutions, it creates a space for dialogue, which we find fundamental for a world that has to deal with conflicting interests, values and cultures on a daily basis. The purpose of the Seminar is not to find unanimous responses, but to highlight the complexity of today’s societies and to stimulate that cultural understanding from which values and universal ideals are born. We like to think of the Aspen Seminar for Leaders as a journey of reflection and of self-discovery.

The participation to the Seminar was fee-based.