Anniversary: 15 Years Executive MBA Bucharest

Here to stay: the first students enrolled in the WU Executive Academy’s Executive MBA program in Romania’s capital of Bucharest in 2006; this year, the unmatched premium program for executives celebrates its 15th anniversary.

“Originally, we established this MBA program with our corporate partners OMV/Petrom and Erste Bank/BCR in the course of the EU accession of Eastern European countries to provide high-quality executive education to local talents to equip them with the expertise needed in our partners’ subsidiaries and to also contribute to furthering social responsibility and sustainability,” Barbara Stöttinger, Dean of the WU Executive Academy, recalls. After the collaboration with Erste Bank and OMV expired, the program soon established a name on the market. Today, it is considered the leading international MBA program in Romania, featuring the coveted triple accreditation (AACSB, AMBA, and EQUIS) held by less than 1% of all business schools in the world.

Excellent Career Prospects Both at Home and Abroad

Since 2006, 371 participants have graduated from the Executive MBA Bucharest. “Romania is on an upward trend also when it comes to opening up to the world. For many young managers, a high-quality, internationally oriented MBA program kicks off an international career,” Phillip Nell, Academic Director of the Executive MBA Bucharest, says.

But highly qualified managers are also needed in the region: Eastern Europe’s economic performance was growing and approaching the EU average before the pandemic. According to an Austrian foreign-trade analysis, Romania was steadily overtaking other countries in the EU ranking before the coronavirus hit the world: with regard to economic output, Romania surpassed Greece in 2017, Portugal in 2018, and the Czech Republic in 2019; the country currently ranks 13th among the EU member states, the report reveals.

Program participants do not only hail from Romania but also from countries such as Moldova, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Hungary. “They are start-up founders, entrepreneurs managing SMEs, and executive staff from subsidiaries of international corporations,” Nell explains. “Some of our graduates have embarked on outstanding international careers in the West after graduating from the MBA program, now staffing top executive positions in high-pay countries such as Luxembourg and Switzerland.”

International Faculty, Top-Notch Classes, New Focus Areas

Participants in the Executive MBA acquire well-grounded, in-depth management knowledge based on the latest research and expertise of renowned international professors from the UK, the EU, and the USA.

In addition to essential subject-specific business know-how in strategy, operations management, marketing, accounting, and finance, the curriculum encompasses courses aimed at deepening and strengthening leadership skills: “Our new Executive Lab, which is flexible with regard to contents covered, provides a space for participants to work on their individual leadership skills,” Nell explains. The “Negotiations and Conflict Management” module encourages participants to reflect on negotiation and communication strategies. In video-based simulations and practice-focused exercises, they further develop the skills needed to excel in negotiations and handle conflicts.

The pandemic has prompted a stronger focus on the advantages provided by digitalization in the way the MBA is organized: “We started a virtual speaker series with international contributors from our alumni networks as an additional offer for our students, and we plan to continue these talks also after the pandemic,” says Adriana Georgescu, Program Manager of the Executive MBA. In these one-hour presentations, a start-up founder based in New York or a German senior manager, to name just two examples, share their insights gained in various management challenges.

"Special thanks go to our colleague Adriana at this point, who is not only celebrating her own 10-year anniversary as Program Manager this year, but has also played a major role in making the Executive MBA such a success story," adds Barbara Stöttinger.

Stepping stone for entrepreneurs

For Catalin Putineanu, professionalizing his management skills was the biggest perk of completing the Executive MBA. After his graduation in 2008, he founded IB Cargo, an independent freight forwarder that employs almost 100 people today. Putineanu has remained the company’s managing partner to this day. The MBA program also helped him grow as a manager: “The up-to-date case studies that we analyzed in many modules really pushed participants to develop a much broader view of the real world. This helped me acquire new skills and perspectives, and it was also a great networking opportunity. The well-structured general-management education I obtained in the course of the MBA program really extended my perspective and provided tools that enabled me to use my experiences to found and grow a successful enterprise.”

Overview of Graduates

With regard to industries, the majority of participants in the past 15 years worked in banking/finance/insurance (24%), followed by IT/telecommunications (20%), retail (8%), and consumer goods, the manufacturing industries, and the energy sector (6% each). 18% worked in finance/controlling, 17% were managing directors, 16% were employed in marketing/sales, 8% in operations, a further 8% in strategy/business development, and 6% in consulting.

88% of participants hailed from Romania, 3% from Bulgaria, 2% from Moldova, 1% from Austria, and another 1% from Germany. Their average age was 35 years, and they looked back on an average of 13 years of professional experience (of which they spent seven years in a management function).

For more information about the Executive MBA Bucharest, please click here.