Business capitals unite in visionary EMBA (hktdc.com)

Launching EMBA–Global Asia are, from left: Professor Gary Biddle (Dean, Faculty of Business and Economics, HKU); Anne Sandford (Programme Director, Sloan and Executive MBA Programmes, London Business School), Dr Victor Fung (Council Chairman, HKU), Professor Richard Wong (Deputy Vice-Chancellor, HKU), Ethan Hanabury (Associate Dean, Executive MBA Programmes, Columbia Business School), and Dr Peter Fong (Director, EMBA and Executive Programmes, HKU)

Three financial cities that drive the global economy led Time Magazine earlier this year to come up with the term ‘Nylonkong' to describe the interconnectedness of New York, London and Hong Kong. Now, a group of leading educational institutions has capitalised on that by extending a Master of Business Administration (MBA) programme to include Hong Kong. The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has teamed up with the London Business School (LBS) and New York's Columbia Business School (CBS) to offer an expanded MBA programme called EMBA-Global Asia.

"This EMBA programme gives reality to this concept (Nylonkong). It's the only programme with access to the three regions important to the world," said Victor Fung, HKU Council Chairman. The inaugural class will start in May 2009 with around 50 students.

The 20-month programme will involve courses taught in London, New York, Hong Kong and the HKU's campus in Shanghai. Students who complete the programme will receive a joint MBA degree from the three leading universities.

"This is the first executive MBA programme located in cities that drive global business. Hong Kong was a natural choice of location because it is the entrepreneurial hub of Asia and well-connected to other financial capitals around the world," said Ethan Hanabury, Associate Dean of the Executive MBA Programmes at CBS.

The programme will start taking applications next month. Applicants are required to have at least five years of supervisory and management experience in order to apply. According to Anne Sandford, Programme Director of the Sloan and Executive MBA Programmes at LBS, EMBA-Global Asia is tailored for "globally focused executives and managers based primarily in Asia." Students will spend eight weeks in Hong Kong, then two weeks each in London and New York. In the second year, students will choose elective courses that will take them to places such as Eastern Europe, South America, Dubai, India or Shanghai. "We are providing a rigorous and innovative curriculum examining the changing world of international business in three of the world's most dynamic and influential cities," Ms Sanford noted.

Unbeatable combination

"Joining the top-ranked EMBA-Global programme of London Business School and Columbia Business School with the prominence and Asian expertise of the University of Hong Kong is a combination that no other Executive MBA programme can match," said Gary Biddle, Dean of HKU's Faculty of Business and Economics. "EMBA-Global Asia offers participants renowned faculty, cutting-edge East-West insights, and networking with prominent peers, business leaders, policy makers and the who's who alumni of the top universities of their regions" - which include investor guru Warren Buffet and Nobel economics laureate Joseph Stiglitz.

University officials last month kicked off a promotional tour of the new EMBA-Global Asia, which took them to Shanghai, Beijing, Taipei and Singapore. The new EMBA programme looks set to go head-to-head with another distinguished joint Hong Kong-US MBA programme, offered by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Business School and Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management in the US, which was ranked the best of its type in the world by the Financial Times in October.