NEWS

CHAPEL HILL -- A group of diverse and talented executives will travel from around the globe to meet as classmates at the launch of OneMBA, a global executive MBA program, Sept. 22-28, in Washington, D.C. The inaugural class will learn about the global business environment – including international dimensions of ethics, leadership and virtual teamwork – as they lay the foundation for an unparalleled professional network that spans the globe.

Five top-ranked business schools in Asia, Europe and North and South America have designed and now will deliver OneMBA, a premier global executive MBA program. OneMBA is distinguished by its span of five business cultures that connect a diverse network of executives living and working on four continents. OneMBA is offered by five top-ranked partners:

· The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Faculty of Business Administration, Hong Kong SAR, China;

· Fundação Getulio Vargas, Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo (FGV-EAESP), Brazil;

· Tec de Monterrey's Graduate School of Business Administration and Leadership (EGADE-ITESM), Mexico;

· Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam School of Management (RSM), The Netherlands;

· The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), Kenan-Flagler Business School, United States.

The worldwide OneMBA class of almost 100 senior executives is perhaps the most culturally diverse class of senior executives ever to assemble for an executive MBA program:

· They are Brazilian, British, Canadian, Chinese, Cypriot, Dutch, French, German, Indian, Mexican, Moldovan, Taiwanese and American.

· 17 percent are women.

· Many have advanced degrees, including an M.D. and Ph.D.s.

· They average 11 years of work experience.

· They work in diverse industries, including accounting, automotive, banking, chemicals, consulting, construction, diplomatic service, energy, food processing, media and publishing, engineering, information technology, luxury goods, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, toys, transportation and logistics, and waste management.

· Their companies are Fortune Global 500, mid-size and start-up firms, including ACNielsen, Atos Origin International, Boeing, Canadian Northern, CEMEX, Consulate-General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Hong Kong and Macau, FedEx, GlaxoSmithKline, Turner Entertainment Network Asia Inc, The National Football League, PenPower Group, Philips, Shell, Siemens and Whirlpool.

The OneMBA faculty designed the opening week to equip the executives to learn together and from each other – across time zones, cultures and companies – throughout the 21-month rigorous program. The executives will be coached on concrete skills that will serve them in their studies and their work:

· Former Unilever chairman Floris Maljers will discuss global management skills at the opening dinner on Sunday, Sept. 22.

· Professors from all five schools and international practitioners will provide a framework for understanding the global business environment, as well as management challenges specific to doing business in Europe, Latin America and Asia. At the cultural, organizational and individual levels, they will explore the commonalities and differences of conducting business around the world.

o To prepare them to work on global virtual teams -- a key component of the program -- Irene Rodgers and Elizabeth Jardine of Inter Cultural Management Associates of Paris will teach skills that keep culture and distance from getting in the way of effective teamwork. Their lessons are well-informed by research. Rodgers is an author of "Successful Mergers, Acquisitions, and Strategic Alliances: How to Bridge Corporate Cultures".

o Maxine Dalton of the Center for Creative Leadership will teach pivotal skills for global leadership and managing successfully across distance, countries and cultures. Based on research with more than 200 managers in 30 countries, the lessons are the subject of her book "Success for the New Global Manager: What You Need to Know About Managing Across Distances, Countries and Cultures".

o Institute for Global Ethics president Rushworth M. Kidder will help them grapple with global ethics and shared values during an interactive session. Kidder is the author of "How Good People Make Tough Choices: Resolving the Dilemmas of Ethical Living".

· Executives will work on a case study of CEMEX’s transformation from a regional cement producer into a thriving global business, which will tie together the week’s lessons. At the end of the week, they will make recommendations for future challenges facing the company, and hear from Hector Medina, who is CEMEX executive vice president of planning and finance and responsible for worldwide strategic planning and finance.

After the week’s end, the OneMBA executives will return to their home business schools to study a unified core curriculum jointly designed by OneMBA worldwide faculty. The worldwide class

will continue to work together via distance learning and virtual teams. They will meet again face-to-face in March, when they reunite to study best practices in developing and developed countries in Europe (March 30-April 5, 2003); in Asia (Nov. 16-23, 2003); and in Monterrey, Mexico and Chapel Hill, North Carolina (May 16-22, 2004).

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Note: For more information: www.onemba.org

· CUHK: Emmeline Mok, 852-2609-7591, emmeline@cuhk.edu.hk

· FGV- EAESP: Rita de Cássia Marques Lima, 5511-3281-7926, rita@fgvsp.br

· EGADE-ITESM: Melina Lugo, 8625 6214, melina.lugo@itesm.m

· RSM: Nesrin Rachid, 31-10-408-1936, nesrinrachid@rsm.n

· UNC: Allison Adams, 1-919-962-7235, aadams@unc.edu