http://youtu.be/oZI8wCWERNIOlin Business School’s EMBA Shanghai program, offered in partnership with Fudan University, will celebrate its 10th anniversary on May 25th. The program has attracted executive students from some of the world’s largest corporations. They are attracted to the program’s diversity, outstanding faculty and global nature.
The Washington University in St. Louis-Fudan University Executive MBA program, ranked second in mainland China by the Financial Times, will celebrate its 10th anniversary May 25. Established in 2002 at Olin Business School, the program was among the first U.S.-China joint MBA degree programs.
The Olin Executive MBA in Shanghai now attracts around 75 percent of its students from China and is designed to prepare Chinese professionals for global executive positions.
The joint venture also provides valuable international experience for Olin’s St. Louis and Kansas City-based Executive MBA students, who spend two weeks in China working and studying with their Chinese counterparts. The Shanghai-based students also travel to St. Louis each December for a final joint session before graduation.
Over the years, the program has become more complex and specialized as the capabilities of the students have evolved says Patrick Moreton, PhD, former associate dean and managing director of the Olin Executive MBA-Shanghai program from 2004-2012.
“If you go back to 2001-02 when we first started recruiting students, this was just at the dawn of China’s ascension to the WTO (World Trade Organization),” Moreton says. “Fast-forward 10 years and China is now the second-largest economy in the world, a major player and major factor in financial markets and a political entity to be reckoned with. So we’ve had as an institution to step up to the plate and really design an experience that matches their level of sophistication.”
Olin is proud to have Executive MBA programs operating on the ground in three cities – St. Louis, Kansas City and Shanghai, says Kay Henry, former associate dean and director of Executive MBA programs at Olin from 2006-2012.
“They mutually enhance each other programmatically because the Chinese students come to the United States for a two-week residency and the United States students go to China for a residency as well,” she says.
“A lot of Executive MBA programs have international experiences for their students, but where we have the advantage is that we have over 500 alumni in Shanghai —and they all have a wealth of business experience and local experience to share with their U.S. counterparts.”
The program’s excellence is attracting top-notch students from all over the world.
“In China there are a lot of executive MBA programs, but academically they are not serious about it,” says Michael Lam, member of the Executive MBA Shanghai Class of 2011. “The reason I chose this program is that the Financial Times ranking is pretty high. That tells everything. Second of all, I talked to a lot of friends. Those people that I regarded as serious wholly recommended this program.
“The comprehensive knowledge that I acquired in the program is very valuable,” Lam says. “At the same time, we are communicating with a class of elite students from different industries, and that in itself is a very great learning experience.”
Henry says the program with Fudan University is a way to add value to the regional business community as well.
“All business is global business,” she says. “We’re in St. Louis. There are companies in our city that are doing business globally. We really feel we are preparing out students to serve those companies and to serve our regional business community through our global program.”