News

Barcelona held the EuroMBA 20th anniversary

EADA hosted the most recent EuroMBA module

15 June 2016

Once again, 38 participants from EuroMBA gathered in EADA Residencial Campus in Collbató during one week –from 6th to 13th May– to undertake one of the six residential modules of the programme. This is one of the differential values of this MBA, which combines 10 online modules with six face-to-face weeks in six European cities: Aix-en-Provence, Leipzig, Maastricht, Nantes, Warsaw and Barcelona. These are the locations of the six renowned European business schools and universities (Audencia Business School, Aix-Marseille Graduate School of Management, Leipzig Graduate School of Management, Krozminski University, Maastricht University and EADA Business School) that offers managers a unique experience.

Business life cycle

During this week the participants developed expertise in the business life cycle. In particular, they learnt about all the stages of a company, from the conception of a new business to its growth, expansion and maturity. An additional component of the week was to  analyze and practice negotiation skills. They did this by taking into account the international current socioeconomic context. For instance, they had to evaluate the risks arising from recent news such as ‘Brexit’ in the U.K, the independence process in Catalonia or the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. In this sense, the EuroMBA gives the participants the opportunity to share knowledge, skills and network as well as to gain insight into contemporary issues in management.

EuroMBA 20th Anniversary

This residential module coincided with  the EuroMBA Graduation Ceremony and it was a special celebration for commemorating the 20th anniversary of the EuroMBA. 150 people attended the gala supper, which was celebrated by present and past participants, graduating students with their family and friends, staff from all six business schools and members of the alumni association. David Parcerisas, president of the Board of Trustees of EADA Foundation, and Miquel Espinosa, EADA’s general director attended in representation of EADA.

The event also featured two Alumni from the first edition of the programme in 1998 who are now two successful managers. The first one is Matt Halfmann, an independent consultant in the Telecomunications field.  He is also an associate professor at EADA Business School, where he is teaching Executive MBA classes in Strategy, Marketing, International Finance and Management consulting skills. The second one is Genio Van der Schaft, Group Risk manager at APG Group and currently member of the Board of Trustees and member of the Audit Committee of the Dutch pension fund PPF-APG.

Stuart Dixon, EuroMBA Director, recalls the 20-year history of the programme: “Two decades ago we were one of the first pioneers in the online MBA environment. It was an exciting time, exploring how to develop new educational programmes that made use of all the new technological changes that the world wide web was providing. The online environment allowed us to bring together people from all over the world, from different cultures, sectors and facing different business challenges”.

“Looking at the programme today”continued Dixon, “we see an amazing group of international managers from 20 different nationalities who all consider themselves a member of the EuroMBA family”. In his opinion, “they have developed their insights, their knowledge and their understanding of business but, moreover, they have shared their stories, their dreams and their vision of the world”.

Dixon concluded by saying that “even after 20 years, our first Alumni still show the international community spirit that we see in our current group of students”.