The Protection of Personal Information Bill (the Bill), which deals with data privacy and information protection, is expected to become law later this

This weekend the 10th graduating class of Latin American global business leaders will graduate from Thunderbird School of Global Management’s Global Masters of Business Administration (Global MBA) for Latin American Managers. The Global MBA degree is offered jointly with Latin America’s leading management school, Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico.

Since it began in 1998, more than 1,150 students have graduated from the 21-month Global MBA program. Those graduates hold leadership positions in business and government throughout the region. This year’s graduating class includes 146 citizens of 16 countries, including Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Italy, Mexico, Peru, South Korea, Trinidad & Tobago, United States and Venezuela.

The joint Global MBA degree combines the prestige of the world’s top-ranked global management school (Thunderbird) and Latin America’s No. 1 MBA program (Tecnológico de Monterrey). World-renowned faculty at Thunderbird and Tecnologico de Monterrey offer courses on basic and advanced global business topics, cross-cultural negotiation and communications, and a wide variety of case studies focused on Latin America. Students earn their Global MBA degree through a combination of local class facilitation, distance-learning technology and live state-of-the-art satellite broadcasting from Thunderbird’s Glendale and Tecnológico de Monterrey’s Mexico City and Monterrey campuses as well as other locations throughout Latin America.

“We are delighted to see the 10th graduating class of this joint degree program with the Tec de Monterrey,” said Bert Valencia, Thunderbird’s vice president for distance learning and executive director of the Global MBA program. “Our students participate in the program from six sites in Mexico, as well as sites in Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Peru and the U.S. The graduation ceremony will be broadcast via satellite back to those sites so the families and friends of students can share in the event. We congratulate our soon-to-be graduates for this major accomplishment."

The convocation will be held at 9 a.m. June 6 at the Carefree Resort & Villas in Carefree, Ariz. Prior to graduation, students will be on the Glendale campus from May 31 to June 5 for their final classroom instruction. Joining the celebration will be Thunderbird President Dr. Ángel Cabrera and Tecnológico de Monterrey Chancellor Dr. Rafael Rangel Sostmann. Dr. Salvador Trevino Martinez, director of the Institute for the Development of Business Education, vice-president of Relationships & Development.at Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico, will serve as the convocation speaker.

A live stream of the convocation will be available during the ceremony at Once you are on the Web site, click on “Universidad Virtual TV” and select either Canal one for Spanish or Canal two for English.

Thunderbird offers a wide range of degree and nondegree programs for companies, working professionals and full-time students, including executive education, traditional and accelerated MBAs in Global Management, Executive MBAs (in the U.S. and Europe), Evening MBA, Global MBA On-Demand, the Global MBA for Latin American Managers, the Master of Science in Global Management and the Master of Arts in Global Affairs and Management.

Recent Articles - Item [100624]: News Release Data protection - a glimpse of what lies ahead for employers

The Protection of Personal Information Bill (the Bill), which deals with data privacy and information protection, is expected to become law later this year. This Bill has significant implications for South African business.

The object of the Bill is to give effect to the constitutional right to privacy in a way that balances the other rights contained in the Bill of Rights by protecting a person's personal information when it is processed by public and private bodies, subject to reasonable limitations.

The Bill defines 'Personal Information' as including information about an identifiable, natural person, and where applicable, an identifiable, juristic person, relating to a person's race, gender, sex, financial status and the like.

The Bill incorporates eight principles relating to the protection of data:

• The first principle deals with processing limitations. Personal Information may only be processed in line with the law and in a way that does not intrude on the privacy of persons.

• The second principle focuses on the purpose for which Personal Information is collected.

• The third principle is aimed at limiting the use of Personal Information to the purpose for which it was collected.

• Principle four requires that Personal Information be kept complete, up to date and it must not be misleading.

• The Information Protection Commission (the Commission) is to be created and will, in terms of Principle five, require an employer to notify the Commission that it has collected Personal Information of its employees.

• Through principle six, the Bill requires employers to take the necessary measures to ensure that Personal Information is protected from loss, damage and destruction by identifying possible threats and implementing safeguards to protect against such threats.

• Employers now have an obligation in terms of principle seven to inform employees about other parties who have accessed their information and employees have the right to correct their Personal Information.

• Finally, principle eight places a measure of accountability on employer's shoulders by ensuring that the provisions of the Bill are complied with.

Employers will be obliged to treat Personal Information as confidential and they may not process such information without the consent of the employee concerned. Where an employer has compromised the security and safe keeping of an employee's Personal Information, the employer is now under an obligation to immediately alert the Commission and the employee in writing within a reasonable time.

Banking institutions who publish the names of employees dismissed for misconduct may run into some difficulty with this practice because the Bill requires employers to obtain the consent of an employee before publishing Personal Information. Employers are further placed under an obligation to notify employees of the purpose of processing Personal Information and that an employer would not use this information for further processing, unless such information is obtained from a public record.

Where an employee has been involved in criminal behaviour or unlawful or objectionable conduct connected with a ban imposed with regard to such conduct, the employer may process the information where it will be used for assessing the employee in order to make a decision about them.

Notwithstanding these limitations, employers may take some comfort in knowing that the general principles of the Bill will, in due course, be supplemented by codes of conduct which will provide more detailed and practical guidelines on how to use Personal Information. However, it is clear that in terms of this Bill employers should now take a closer look at their policies and procedures.

MSU International Business Center (CIBER)

Knowledge development centers on conducting research that produces leading-edge knowledge. IBC develops innovative international business knowledge via a programmatic research agenda. The focus is on how to improve the international competitiveness of corporations and non-profit organizations. Our broad skill-set allows us to tackle research by qualitative and quantitative solutions. We focus on originality and managerial relevance. Our expertise centers on the globalization potential of corporations, global supply chains, what makes small and medium enterprises thrive globally, opportunities in emerging markets, and global product development. Published since 1996, IBC maintains the annual index of Market Potential Indicators for Emerging Markets.

Some of these topics are investigated by IBC, while others are researched in collaboration with a worldwide network of researchers. MSU has a world-leading international business research faculty (Management International Review, 2004) and influence (Journal of International Business Studies, 2005). At MSU, IBC draws on more than 150 interdisciplinary colleagues throughout some 25 international units to conduct cutting-edge research and to mentor doctoral candidates. MSU has produced the 6^th most Ph.D.'s in business since 1960 (METF, 2003), and our doctoral students rank #5 in the world in total citations (Academic Assessment Services, 2004).