Executive MBA Program ranked No. 20 by BusinessWeek

The South Bend Executive MBA Program at the University of Notre Dame has been ranked 20 th in BusinessWeek magazine’s biennial survey of 241 programs worldwide.

Notre Dame, the Universities of Michigan and Ohio State and IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain, entered the rankings for the first time.

“Notre Dame was excluded from the 2003 ranking because no program directors put it on their list of favorites,” BusinessWeek reported. “This year two directors did, and students gave the program kudos for its enthusiastic faculty, high-caliber classmates, and special emphasis on corporate governance, ethics and leadership.”

Carolyn Woo, Gillen Dean of the Mendoza College of Business, said the recognition from BusinessWeek represents crossing a threshold.

“Our Executive MBA program has tremendous momentum and has built its reputation on holistic leadership and values-based decision-making,” Woo said.  “We have a diverse and hands-on curriculum, immersion experiences to international sites such as Brussels and China, and a signature Executive Integral Leadership component that explores the cognitive, interpersonal, emotional, physical, ethical and spiritual capacities needed to govern organizations and lead people.  All of this fulfills our mission at Notre Dame and contributes to a valued world community.”

Executive MBA (EMBA) programs are designed to provide a master’s of business administration degree to executives while they continue working in their full-time positions. Students in Notre Dame’s South Bend Executive MBA Program attend classes from noon Wednesdays to Saturday afternoons once a month and complete the degree requirements in two years.

“We have a flexible four-day-a-month format that enables current students to join us on campus from as far away as Colorado, Texas, Pennsylvania, Georgia and even Switzerland,” said Leo Burke, associate dean and director of Executive Education at Mendoza.  “Really what we’re trying to do here is develop leaders who are not only effective in business but who act with courage and have a great heart.”  

The South Bend program also is available via distance learning technology to students in Cincinnati. Notre Dame offers a separate EMBA in downtown Chicago, which began in 2002 and will be eligible for ranking by BusinessWeek in 2007.

Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management was ranked first in the BusinessWeek survey, followed by the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and the Universities of Chicago, Michigan and North Carolina.

The Mendoza College of Business has offered Executive Education programs since 1982.  In addition to the Chicago and South Bend EMBA programs, Notre Dame’s Executive Education department offers a portfolio of custom programs and open enrollment courses for executives, managers and supervisors.

Contact: Leo Burke, associate dean and director of Executive Education, 574-631-5285

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