ESADE MBA News

IESE in Barcelona, Spain With the dollar reaching a 12-year high against the euro earlier this spring, much ink has been spilled about how the time is right to head to Europe for an MBA. Indeed, pursuing a graduate management education abroad can present a range of advantages for American students—with cost savings chief among them, especially given the recent relative strength of the dollar. That said, the decision of whether or not to head to one of Europe’s top business schools is a highly personal one best made after careful consideration of many factors that extend well beyond any savings tied to currency rates. “Oh yes, I definitely did benefit from the exchange rate,” says Alexander Eldred, a Washington, DC native currently completing his MBA at France’s HEC Paris. As luck would have it, Eldred paid the bulk of HEC’s 52,000 euro tuition in March, right as the euro dipped to 1.05 to the dollar. Had he paid the entire tuition then, it would have amounted to $54,600 for a degree that just a year earlier would have run him $72,280. Add to that living expenses, which are similarly lower than they have been historically thanks to the exchange rate, and the savings stack up.   Read more

Leading business schools from the United States, Spain and Italy have united to launch a new program designed to prepare senior executives to meet the demands of organizations doing business in today’s incredibly global world. Called the Global Advanced Management Program (GAMP), the initiative brings together Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, Madrid’s ESADE and Milan’s SDA Bocconi of Management for an innovative executive education offering that will take participants to three different continents. GAMP participants will meet for three one-week modules held every two months. Read more

Spain’s ESADE Business School has formed a new international alliance with Finland’s Aalto University, a leader in the field of innovation, to expand its offerings for entrepreneurs, ESADE announced today. Aalto University President Tuula Teeri and ESADE Director General Eugenia Bieto signed an agreement outlining the new partnership this morning at ESADECREAPOLIS, the innovation center located on ESADE’s Barcelona campus. One of Europe’s newest universities, Aalto was created in 2010 by the merger of Helsinki School of Economics, Helsinki University of Technology and the University of Art and Design Helsinki and has received widespread attention for its innovative blend of management, technology and design. Read more

Spain’s ESADE will become the business school partner of Ecommerce & Tech Barcelona, an initiative bringing together leading digital companies in and around Barcelona, the school announced today. The new agreement, signed yesterday by ESADE Director General Eugenia Bieto, strengthens the school's ties to the digital business community and its support for the digital entrepreneurial ecosystem. ESADE is dedicated to “guiding digital entrepreneurs throughout the growth process and strengthening their executive and leadership skills,” Bieto said in a statement. The alliance between the business school and the Ecommerce & Tech cluster will facilitate both a study of the impact of the digital entrepreneurial initiative in Spain and the development of academic case studies featuring projects undertaken by the cluster’s entrepreneurs. Read more

More MBAs than ever are heading into consulting roles upon graduation, thanks in part to increasing demand for internal strategy consultants among corporations, Business Because reports. Management consulting firms have long drawn large percentages of MBA grads, and now, as banks, healthcare companies, retailers and others shift toward hiring internal consultants, consulting as a function is more popular than ever, according to an article this week in Business Because. Citing employment statistics from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, Spain’s ESADE Business School and France’s HEC Paris, among others, the recent article suggested that the trend is a global one. At Tuck, 40 percent of the MBA Class of 2014 went into consulting and strategy functions, higher than any other. At ESADE, consulting drew 26 percent of the class, the highest, and at HEC Paris, consulting and finance functions tied for first, each drawing 21 percent.  Read more

Leading European business school ESADE has signed a new partnership with China’s Guanghua School of Management to offer a two-year dual MBA program beginning next fall, the school announced today. Participants will spend the first year of the new program studying on ESADE’s Barcelona campus and the second taking classes at Guanghua’s Peking University campus in Beijing. The two institutions have been collaborating on academic projects for several years, including exchange programs for undergraduate and MBA students, international training programs for MSc students and a jointly organized conference featuring faculty from both schools. The new dual program “confirms ESADE’s commitment to internationalization” and will help strengthen its programs for “executives who aspire to lead the global economy,” ESADE Director General Dr. Eugenia Bieto said in a statement. The institutions share similar program portfolios, similar faculty size and a commitment to innovation, he added. Read more

Spain’s ESADE Business School today announced several new appointments among its top leadership team. Professor Josep Franch will be the school’s new dean, Professor Jonathan Wareham will serve as the new dean of faculty and research and Professor Francisco Longo will assume the newly created role of associate director general, the school announced. Eugenio Bieto, who was recently re-appointed as ESADE’s director general, made the new appointments among the leadership team, saying that he hopes the shifts will position the school to continue to prioritize the excellence and quality of its programs. Read more

A United Kingdom charity focused on helping children with cancer in developing countries will receive an infusion of expertise and energy this summer as more than 40 students from top business schools in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas develop plans to tackle business problems faced by the organization. The students, working in teams as part of the Financial Times MBA Challenge, will assist the FT’s seasonal appeal partner, which this year is World Child Cancer (WCC). Seven teams of students – who hail from schools including Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, Oxford Saïd Business School, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, London Business School, ESADE and IE Business School, among others – will each be partnered with a mentor and required to submit a business plan in September on a set topic. Read more

Beginning in September 2014, students at Spain’s ESADE Business School will now be able to take all classes to complete a full-time MBA program in Spanish. The new program is aimed primarily at prospective applicants from Latin America, the school reports. The Spanish section of the ESADE full-time program features the same MBA curriculum as the school’s English section, just with more opportunities geared specifically toward Spanish speakers. Students in the Spanish section will have expanded opportunities to specialize by taking optional subjects from both the MBA and Executive Education programs. They can also take part in business labs providing for specialization in finance, entrepreneurship and innovation, family business or marketing. Read more

Financing a full-time MBA program is no small feat, especially when you take into consideration the income you’ll forgo as you devote yourself to studies. Fortunately for prospective applicants to Spain’s ESADE Business School, the school offers a wide range of scholarship opportunities to outstanding full-time MBA candidates. If you’re a young Asian professional who wants to influence the shape of business in Asian-Pacific countries, there’s a scholarship for you. If you’re a North American candidate with foreign language proficiency and proven international experience in either working or studying abroad, there’s a scholarship for you. If you’re a candidate with significant work experience in the sustainable energies industry and an interest in a global energy industry career…yep, there’s a scholarship for you, too. Read more

As part of a strategy for growth in the Americas, Spain’s ESADE last week launched a new website showcasing all that it has to offer in Latin America. Since September 2013, the school has increased its direct presence in the region through the appointment of regional directors in each Mexico, Colombia, Lima, Brazil and Argentina. The new website, which launched on January 7th, shares details about the five directors: José Miguel Hartasánchez in Mexico City, Emilio del Castillo in Bogotá, Andrea Asencios in Lima, Xavier Sánchez Casademunt in São Paulo and Alejandro Bernhardt in Buenos Aires, as well as programs ESADE offers in Read more

In growing numbers, Latin Americans are turning to top business schools in Spain – notably ESADE, IE and IESE – to obtain their MBAs before returning to careers in Latin America, the New York Times reports. Spain’s own economy is still faltering, but business schools there say they are attracting more and more Latin Americans, many with international career experience, who plan to return to Latin America when they graduate, according to the Times report. They are drawn to Spanish MBA programs, according to the report, because the classrooms are more diverse than at schools in the United States and the business culture is a more familiar one.  Read more

Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, together with Spain’s ESADE Business School and Brazilian Business School EBAPE/Fundação Getulio Vargas, has launched a new year-long master’s program with an international focus for experienced business executives. The new Corporate International Master’s (CIM) Program welcomed its inaugural class of 27 students to McDonough’s Washington, DC, campus earlier this month. Designed for experienced professionals and executives who want to obtain a master’s degree while continuing to work, the CIM program includes four in-person sessions at locations around the globe augmented by online classes in between. The internationally focused curriculum was created to help students expand their understanding of business practices in the United States, Europe, Latin America and China. Read more