IE & Asia-Pacific

The IE Consulting Project (IECP) is offered during the elective period and ends with a presentation to senior management at a Fortune 100 company. During the International MBA program students have the opportunity to participate in several real consulting projects. Watch the video below to learn more!

In recent years the need to close the gap between developed and developing countries has become increasingly urgent, particularly in the shadow of the current economic crisis. The corporate world is aware of its growing role in socio-economic development and increasingly the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) movement enables it to assume this role in a highly effective manner.

This Virtual Conference introduce the practical aspects of Microfinance through a case study looking at Financieros sin Fronteras (FSF – Financiers without Borders). FSF is a non-profit association and joint collaboration between IE educators and students, that promotes the integration of the most disadvantaged people into the financial circuit. FSF’s mission is to conduct research and develop innovative and practical formulae to strengthen microfinance institutions (MFIs) that promote the eradication of poverty by encouraging entrepreneurship.

About the Event:
Speaker: Maria Luque, Executive Manager of Financieros sin Fronteras
Date: January 18th 2012
Time: 15.00 hrs Madrid local time (GMT+1), 22.00 hrs Singapore time)
Registration: IE Event Page

About the Speaker:
Maria Luque is the Executive Manager of FSF. A proven entrepreneur, Maria has also worked in the business creation department for the Australia & New Zealand Migration Bureau in Amsterdam, helping entrepreneurs develop their business projects. Maria brings extensive knowledge of microfinance, economic development and CSR policies in the private sector. Maria graduated in European Business Administration from the Hogeschool voor Economische Studies in Rotterdam and holds a Master of International Relations from IE.

IE University’s Bachelor in Business Administration has been accredited by AACSB International (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business), the US-based international accrediting agency for business programs. IE University’s Bachelor in Business Administration thus joins the list of IE Business School programs that have been accredited since 2001.

This means that IE University’s Business Administration Degree now forms part of a select list of programs run by 643 business schools in 43 countries accredited by AACSB in recognition of their faculty’s commitment to academic excellence, continuous improvement, and close ties to global business realities.

“The recognition of the quality of our program by a prestigious international organization like AACSB is a major step forward for our project, aimed at equipping students with the competences they need to map a career in a constantly changing global environment”, said Isabel Sánchez, Vice Rector of IE University and Director of IE’s Bachelor in Business Administration.

IE University’s Bachelor in Business Administration was launched in 2009 and it has a student body comprised of some 200 students from 52 countries.

On January 10th, the IE Venture Day competition kicked-off very early in the morning at Fudan University in Shanghai, where aspiring IE entrepreneurs presented their business plans to a world-renowned panel of VC and Angel investors. This was the first time the IE Venture Day takes a step further delivering its entrepreneurial spirit abroad by launching the project in the Asian “hub”. The Venture Day is part of the IE Venture Lab which is the vehicle for preparing IE Business School student and alumni startups for pitches in different VC and Angel investor locations.

The Business Plan presentations included projects in micro finance, renewable energy, tourism, electric cars, theme parks, medical devices, biotechnology, agriculture, education, internet platforms and social media. The winner of this edition was the team of Medsynch, a new concept for health monitoring system. Some investors highlighted that all the Business Plans from the IE students were truly representative of the IE Business School approach to entrepreneurship and of its commitment to supporting new and disruptive ideas among the investors. In fact, during the event, one of the teams, XXBB (a social platform for Chinese mothers) has received a proposal from one the investors in the panel!

The IE Venture Day included as well a presentation from a local Angel Investor: The guest speaker, as well as a Jury member for the event was Mr. James Tan, a well-known Angel investor based in Beijing and Singapore who addressed the group on Startup Activity in China. Mr. Tan is Co- Founder of 55tuan and Managing Partner of QuestVC. QuestVC is a venture capital firm with offices in Beijing and Singapore that invests and incubates companies at the seed and angel stage. James is co-founder and former COO of 55Tuan, the largest social e-commerce site in China with 5,000 employees across 200 cities. Prior to this, James was in the technology and financial sectors with companies in the Singapore Technologies group and JPMorgan Chase.

Meet some of IE University’s students as they talk about settling in and their impressions during the first few days at IE’s campus in Segovia. Video produced by IE University’s Media Lab.

By Eliran Drucker, IE International MBA 2011 graduate

You don’t value your freedom when you are a student. Any deliverable seems like a major issue that intervenes with any minute of awakens during your day, you are full with guilt and your conscious works extra hours. On the other hand, can you imagine having at least one week off every three months and whole August free when you are a full time employee? It just hit me while I was seating in my graduation ceremony of IE’s International MBA program – this year is over and although I was appreciating my time as a student during the program, I’ll probably value it more when I get back to work. It’s not only about the freedom, is about having an exceptional opportunity to live in an amazing city with a group of excellent people always around you.

My friends – the next generation of global senior executives were walking on stage getting the applauses they deserve, the spirit of our intake was preserved even at that moments, such a great people, it is hard to believe we won’t have the opportunity to sit in the same classroom again. We finish by saying the Spanish traditional “viva el Rey!” and went to meet our beloved ones.

Then, for the first time in this year, I managed to come back from a party at 7am like a real Madrileño. The key is efficient use of the open bar and huge amounts of goodbyes… we are so  used to seeing each other frequently on different venues and occasions and it feels strange that starting tomorrow, we might be thousand miles away. Why can’t we all work at the same company?

The OCSC and IE are partnering in order to offer candidates who participate in the 2012 OCSC International Education EXPO the opportunity to study at a top tier academic institution in the European Union, and do so with access to an OCSC-specific scholarship program. Only participants who participate in the fair and who register with the IE representative will be elegible to apply. The available scholarships are as listed below, and to learn more about the 2012 OCSC International Education EXPO see there web site at www.ocscexpo.net.

Scholarships for IE Business School Programs
One (1) scholarship of 8.500€ for a Master in Management
One (1) scholarship of 15.000€ for a International MBA

Scholarships for IE Law School Programs
One (1) scholarship of 8.500€ for a Master in International Legal Practice (LLM)

Scholarships for IE School of Arts and Humanities Programs
One (1) scholarship of 8.500€ for a Master in International Relations

Scholarships for IE School of Communication Programs
One (1) scholarship of 7.500€ for either the Master in Corporate Communication, Master in Digital Journalism, Master in Political Communication, or the Master in Visual Media Communication

Scholarships for IE School of Social & Behavioral Science Programs
One (1) scholarship of 7.500€ for either the Master in Marketing Research and Consumer Behavior or the Master in Environmental Management

To learn more about the scholarships and study opportunities at IE contact singapore@ie.edu, or see the Asia Pacific Blog at http://asiapacific.blogs.ie.edu/.

Also, check out the OCSC Expo Facebook page (OCSC EXPO).

Luis de Guindos, an economist at IE Business School and director of the PwC and IE Business School Center for the Finance Sector, has been appointed Spain’s new Minister of Finance and Competitiveness.

“IE Business School is very proud that one of our prominent experts has been appointed Finance Minister for Spain’s new government”, says Santiago Íñiguez de Onzoño, Dean of IE Business School.

Luis de Guindos has taught economy on IE’s senior management programs and served as director of the PwC & IE Business School Center for the Finance Sector since February of 2010. The Center, unique in Spain and independent of banks, examines the future challenges facing the Spanish and international finance sector, including new regulations and monitoring mechanisms.

Luis de Guindos has extensive experience in Spanish and international economy in both the public and private sector. His previous positions include Secretary of State for Economy under José María Aznar,  partner of AB Asesores, and president of Lehman Brothers for Spain and Portugal. De Guindos holds a degree in economic and business studies and belongs to Spain’s prestigious Cuerpo de Técnicos Comerciales y Economistas del Estado (National Association for Trade Experts and State Economists).

By Fernando Fernandez, professor at IE Business School

Forget about short cuts and soft measures: Europe’s problem is that it has lost the market’s confidence, and in order to get it back it will have to take some hard measures.It’s a well worn phrase which is why I have permitted myself a certain amount of poetic license, because it seems to go perfectly with the confusion that is rife among markets and analysts following recent events. The feeling of insecurity is such that we are desperately seeking a lifeline to cling to. Someone is always up for the job of throwing said lifeline and public opinion seems to have honed in on two specific groups: governments comprised of technocrats and the European Central Bank (ECB). The former are expected to bring the required level of sanity and the ECB is supposed to start buying up debt with no thought for expenses. But once again it’s the wrong diagnosis.

The European Commission, according to its vice president Olli Rehn, has decided that the key lies in restoring confidence in fiscal sustainability and the financial system, and in speeding up reforms that stimulate growth potential. Hence we have to change our tune or we have to take notice of the Commission, but either way we should not be looking for short cuts.

The European problem is a simple one. Investors have lost confidence in the Euro, not just in Italy. Let’s not confuse the symptoms of this particular illness. They have done it for a series of institutional reasons – the well-known design faults of the Monetary Union – and mistakes made in the way the crisis has been managed. In my opinion they include two particularly big mistakes. The first was to declare that European sovereign debt is restructurable – albeit only Greek debt, but who on earth believes that at this stage – without having the necessary financial resources or legal instruments to effect an immediate exchange, and the second was to punish banks for their sovereign debt holdings without having the necessary resources to fill the hole created. Both decisions have had consequences that were impossible to recover from in the short-term: they have made sovereign debt a credit asset, a financial instrument that competes with emerging debt, and have eroded the credibility of the European banking system, which has been forced to divest its sovereign debt.  Read more…