Glendale, Arizona, United States
For the fourth consecutive year, Thunderbird, The Garvin School of International Management has been named one of the world's best providers of executive education programs.
London-based Financial Times newspaper, in its May 15 special edition, placed Thunderbird as the 7th best custom executive education program in the world and 6th best in the United States. Thunderbird also held the No. 7 position worldwide in 2005.
Thunderbird's custom corporate learning programs offer businesses throughout the world a wide array of customized degree and non-degree services and solutions, including corporate MBA programs, that are specifically designed for each business client based on its unique objectives and strategies.
"Being confirmed as a Top 10 player in the custom programs area for the fourth year in a row gives us the confidence to keep innovating, be bold and engage in new activities, not just do more of the same," said Senior Vice President of Corporate Learning Jerome Couturier. "This is the key difference between us and the competition. We are not just a player, we are a very different player. We want to make our mark in the industry and that is what makes it fun and -- as this ranking shows -- most rewarding."
Thunderbird's custom executive education faculty members placed No. 3 in the rankings for their quality of teaching and for their cultural and gender diversity. Of the 72 faculty members who teach courses in these executive programs, 60 percent are non-U.S. citizens and 38 percent are women.
"Diversity at Thunderbird is not just a compilation of nationalities. It is a culture, mindset and attitude that is reflected in all aspects of customer engagement and program content," Couturier said. "Diversity is in what we do."
Financial Times also ranks business schools on the quality of their open enrollment programs. At Thunderbird, those certificate programs are specialized non-degree courses designed to help working professionals gain the understanding and skills necessary to compete in today's global marketplace.
Financial Times ranked Thunderbird's open enrollment program 24th overall and No. 1 in the categories of "international location" and "international participants." About 78 percent of program participants live outside of the United States and represent 35 different nationalities. Sixty-two percent of the programs were conducted in countries outside of the United States. The school presently operates programs in the U.S., Europe, China and Russia and has plans to expand into other countries later this summer.
"Thanks to the support of our customers, we have doubled our activity in less than three years," Couturier said. "We have the ambition to double it again over the next five. But our ambition is not just in the numbers. We also have the ambition to keep pushing the traditional frontiers of corporate development in particular by offering and integrating a broader range of services and solutions in an even more globally distributed way."
When ranking executive education, overall, which includes both the custom and open enrollment programs, Financial Times placed Thunderbird 15th on the list topped by Duke University, IMD and Stanford University GSB, respectively.
Thunderbird is the only business school operation in Arizona to appear at the top of the world rankings in executive education.
Celebrating its 60th anniversary, Thunderbird is the oldest graduate management school in the United States focused solely on preparing graduates for global leadership. More than 35,000 men and women in more than 140 countries have graduated from Thunderbird since 1946.
Thunderbird is accredited by AACSB International -- The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, the North Central Association for Colleges and Schools, and the European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS). www.thunderbird.edu
CONTACT: Thunderbird Carol Sunnucks 602-978-7272 sunnuckc@t-bird.edu
CONTACT: Thunderbird Carol Sunnucks 602-978-7272 sunnuckc@t-bird.edu , ,
Source: Business Wire (Business Wire India)