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1919 — A good year for the WU Executive Academy
February 19, 2016
Fact of the Month
You may wonder why our Fact of the Month series features an event of almost 100 years ago. The reason is simple:
In 1919, only 21 years after WU Vienna had been established in 1898, the WU Executive Academy's prestigious partner university, the Carlson School of Management (CSOM) was founded at the University of Minnesota. At this time the WU Vienna was known as k.k. Exportakademie - the Imperial Export Academy.
The Minnesota-based CSOM, originally called University of Minnesota School of Business, has made the U.S. top 20 for many years, and members of its faculty regularly rank among the world's leading researchers. Its outstanding quality is also illustrated by the fact that, in the year following its inception, it was one of the very first business schools to be accredited by AACSB. Additionally, as many as seven Nobel laureates are CSOM graduates. Another 13 Nobel Prize winners were CSOM professors at the time of the award.
In 1999, the Carlson School of Management was instrumental in enabling the WU Executive Academy to set new standards in executive education both in Austria and internationally; together, the two education providers launched one of Austria's first MBA programs, the Global Executive MBA.
An Austrian-American success story
Only a century and a half later, the Global Executive MBA is one of the world's top 50 MBA programs and holds the three most important international accreditations: AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS.
Since its launch in 1999, 450 national and international students (including 110 female and 330 male executives) from 45 countries have successfully completed the program.
Prof. Bodo B. Schlegelmilch, Academic Director of the Global Executive MBA and Founding Dean of the WU Executive Academy, expresses his appreciation of the long-standing partnership thus:
"The right mix, in other words, a compelling overall package, is key for a high-quality MBA program. Without a doubt, the Global Executive MBA meets this requirement. What I am particularly proud of — apart from all our achievements, such as top results in leading rankings or further accreditations by bodies such as AMBA — is our amazing team. The most important thing that distinguishes us from other MBA providers is the professionalism and passion with which we join forces on a daily basis to make this program even better."
The main beneficiaries of this great partnership are the Global Executive MBA participants: Upon completion of their training, they are awarded 2 MBA degrees, an American one and a European one. Moreover, they become members of 2 alumni associations that are among the most successful in Europe and America, respectively: the WU Executive Club, the CEE region's biggest network of managers, connecting more than 2,200 graduates, and the Carlson School of Management Alumni Society with over 50,000 members across 78 countries.