Finally launched: the IE Brown Executive MBA program which combines IE Business School‘s strength in interdisciplinary management education and Brown University‘s excellence in the humanities, social, biological, and physical sciences.
The institutions have been have been collaborating for two years and this Spring marks the beginning of their first joint program, which has been created specifically for the entrepreneurially-minded, globally aware, and inquisitive executive.
“We’re living at a time of intense global change and upheaval, which presents great opportunity and also requires innovation and entrepreneurship for the well being of our global society,” said Craig Cogut, Brown University alumnus (’75) and Founder and Managing Partner of Pegasus Capital Advisors, L.P. “The advantage of studying liberal arts is the ability to speak and understand different languages, and I don’t just I just don’t mean English, Spanish, or Mandarin. Music, art, and literature are also languages that help you know the world. They teach you to listen, to hear, to see, to be flexible and creative, and most importantly, to learn from one another.” The Cogut Center for the Humanities at Brown University, named in recognition of the generous support from Craig and Deborah Cogut, supports collaborative research in the humanities, focusing on interdisciplinary and comparative work across cultural and linguistic boundaries, and supports fellowship and grant programs, Brown’s distinguished visitors program, and regular campus events.During the 15-month program, IE Brown Executive MBAs participate in 300 sessions via both IE’s proven online methodology and five face-to-face sessions on the two schools’ campuses in Madrid and Providence. The curriculum delivers training in all functional areas of management, which goes beyond business to include wider perspectives from the humanities, social sciences, engineering, and life sciences. Graduates will hold a degree from IE Business School.
The group of 24 students who arrived on the Brown campus this week for their first face-to-face module illustrate the program’s diversity. The average IE Brown EMBA participant is 36 years old with 14 years work experience. Fifty five percent of hold senior management positions, 45 percent are middle managers, and the remainder are C-level executives. Forty percent of the class are women.
IE Brown EMBA participants work in a variety of industries including banking, construction, cosmetics, education, finance, insurance, legal services, pharmaceutical, real estate, recruitment, technology, and tourism. Twenty percent are actively involved in social projects outside the workplace and they hail or do business from locations around the world, including Australia, China, Germany, India, Peru, Slovenia, the UAE, the United Kingdom, as well as Spain and the United States.
“The content of this Executive MBA is truly one of a kind; it has been newly developed by both faculties and thus it attracts a different type of student, someone who wants cutting-edge management training but who also wants to go beyond business to cultivate new perspectives that enhance their understanding of business in a rapidly changing world,” said Professor David Bach, Dean of Programs at IE Business School. “The IE Brown participants form a unique group of globally minded, inquisitive individuals with a wide range of skills who will undoubtedly add just as much to the classroom and online experience as will our faculty and course content.”
The IE Brown Executive MBA is a careful blend two main areas: the Core MBA and the Beyond Business curriculum. For example, a Liberal Arts and Critical Studies module draws on disciplines such as history, philosophy, legal studies, and psychology to uncover the underpinnings of society – from the dialogue between religion and secularization to capitalism and its hidden economies. Other modules look at the political and social forces shaping Emerging Markets as well as the leadership and corporate innovation processes associated with Entrepreneurial Management and Innovation. The program is highly interactive and relies on the case method, role-playing, and other participant-centered learning techniques and much of the work is undertaken in teams that are specially formed to maximize diversity.
“Today, business people need to know about topics like health care, religion, youth movements, and citizenship like never before, and you will be learning, analyzing, and applying this knowledge to business decisions through the Brown IE program,” said Matthew Gutmann, Brown’s vice president for international affairs. “New kinds of collaborations and new kinds of partnerships require new kinds of education. Brown could not be more pleased with our partnership with IE business School.”
“The integration of the study of management and humanities deepens the transformational nature of business education – and the IE Brown Executive MBA is a revolutionary program that marks a new beginning in academia,” said Santiago Iñiguez, Dean of IE Business School. “Through our unique collaboration, IE and Brown bring executives to the intersection of management and the humanities, where they gain a deep appreciation of today’s issues, such as economic uncertainty and emerging markets, and become cosmopolitan managers focused on value creation and sustainability.”
More details about the program, including faculty and curriculum details can be found here: http://www.iebrown.com
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