Thomas to lead AACSB

Howard Thomas, dean of Warwick Business School in the UK, is to become chair of both AACSB International, the US-based accrediting body, and the Association of Business Schools, the UK business schools membership organisation.

Prof Thomas will hold the positions simultaneously and is the first non-American to hold the AACSB appointment.

Prof Thomas was previously chair of the board of the Graduate Management Admissions Council and vice-president of the European Foundation for Management Development.

“The growth in accreditation over the past five to 10 years has been international and the AACSB has recognised that it has to be a global education management body,” says Prof Thomas.

“It has moved from being American-centric to a global organisation.”

Prof Thomas believes his appointment reflects the AACSB’s desire to demonstrate its growing global focus. “The AACSB sees me as a global citizen …I would say that for them I was a flexible choice as it is a way of signalling their global intention.”

In his new role as chair of the ABS, Prof Thomas says he will promote the virtues of UK business schools.

“My role is to make it clear to the global audience what is distinctive about UK management education. We have a wide range of political management perspectives, it is a tremendously important issue.”

Prof Thomas’s appointments to both chairs will end in 2010 when he also intends to step down as dean of Warwick – a position that he will have held for 10 years.

Euro*MBA members grow
Euro*MBA, the consortium of five European schools that offers the e-learning based Euro*MBA programme, has welcomed a sixth member to the fold.

HHL-Leipzig Graduate School of Management, the private German business school, joins France’s Audencia Nantes School of Management and IAE in Aix-en-Provence; Spain’s Eada business school in Barcelona; Leon Kozminsky Academy of Entrepreneurship and Management in Warsaw; and Universiteit Maastricht Business School in the Netherlands.

HHL-Leipzig will promote the Euro*MBA in Germany and support student recruitment activities.
www2.euromba.org

Mystery $50m for school
St Thomas Opus College of Business has received an anonymous $50m donation. The gift to the Minnesota-based school’s capital campaign will be used to increase the institution’s endowment. Interest from the donation will fund scholarships and be used for academic programmes.

Christopher Puto, dean of the college, says the gift is a “dream come true”.

“The $50m opens the door to exciting new opportunities for our students as well as faculty.”

Several new professional development programmes in the area of business research will also be on the agenda. Last year St Thomas received a $60m donation and in 2000 received $50m. Last year the school announced a $500m Opening Doors capital campaign to build endowment for scholarships, faculty positions and educational programmes.
www.stthomas.edu/business

LBS Prof wins €1.3m grant
An economist at London Business School has been awarded a €1.34m grant from the European Research council – the largest individual grant ever awarded to an LBS faculty member.

Hélène Rey will use the grant for a five-year research programme looking at countries’ external balance sheets, dynamics of international adjustment and capital flows. Prof Rey’s grant is one of only 10 awarded to economists in Europe. In 2006, Prof Rey received the Bernácer Prize for the best European economist working in macroeconomics and finance under the age of 40.
www.london.edu

More accords for Audencia
Audencia School of Management in France has extended its partnerships to 90 with the signing of three new academic accords.

Agreements with Sofia University Faculty of Economics and Business Administration in Bulgaria, Ajou University in South Korea, and MIP Politecnico di Milano in Italy means that Audencia now has accords with institutions in 40 countries.
www.audencia.com