Three Abu Dhabi campus students have attained the top three places on the prestigious Dean’s list for the Global Executive MBA 2013 at INSEAD. Their success shows that in spite of the Abu Dhabi campus being the newest of the school’s three campuses, it is attracting some of the best students from around the world.
In the most recent batch which graduated in December, there were 185 students across the three campuses; France, Singapore and Abu Dhabi. Among the criteria to make the Dean’s list, students are judged on their leadership skills as well as their ability to work within teams on projects during their time on the programme. Based on their exceptional academic performance, only the top 10 per cent of the programme’s students make it into the prestigious Dean’s list, who are awarded the EMBA degree ‘with distinction’. The grades measure the performance of a participant for core and elective courses.
The top three in the Dean’s list are Kingsuk Sen, from India based in Muscat, also awarded the Claude Janssen prize, a legacy to one of the school’s founders, followed by Bartek Znojek, management consultant based in Dubai, and Malinga Arsakularatne, CFO from Sri Lanka respectively.
Ilian Mihov, Dean of INSEAD, Professor of Economics, said, “The reputation of the GEMBA degree is based on INSEAD’s ability to select the best candidates, create an effective learning community during the programme, and maintain high quality standards for graduation. The Dean’s list for GEMBA13 highlights that the quality of our graduates in Abu Dhabi is on the same level as the other campuses in France and Singapore. It is yet another reflection of the rigorous entry standards which are uniform across all campuses.”
Mr Sen who works as CFO for Petrogas E&P LLC in Muscat, said he was proud to have been awarded the number one place. He said: “The recognition through this award has immensely helped me intrinsically enhancing my self-confidence and going forward, I believe it will help me a lot in my career progression. Also more importantly, this award helped me to do justice to the sacrifice my family has undergone in supporting me during the course and the belief my company had in me, by part sponsoring the programme.”
He says the INSEAD experience was life changing: “Apart from the vast knowledge and wide perspective I gained from such a rich and diverse class and world class professors, through GEMBA, I reinvented myself and am now much surer about my priorities and needs. Externally, the programme has opened up the world for me with new opportunities and renewed confidence. The brand INSEAD provides instant recognition globally and now it is up to me, how best I make use of it.”
It is Abu Dhabi’s multicultural diversity and it is becoming a hub for international academics which continues to attract such top level students from around the region. Among the participants on the executive MBA, there are 55 nationalities with an average age of 37. Each of them brings a wealth of business experience with an average of 13 years among them from a diverse range of professional backgrounds.
Mr Znojek, from Poland and working with Dubai based consultancy AT Kearney, said this was one of the reasons he chose the INSEAD programme. “I was looking for a programme from a leading school but offering global exposure, excellent networking opportunities and unparalleled curriculum and faculty. “Needless to say, INSEAD GEMBA quickly became the only option, supported by the convenient location of the Abu Dhabi campus.”
Mr Arsakularatne also chose INSEAD for its diversity. “In addition, the programme content of the Global Executive MBA was a perfect fit for my career development goals given its emphasis on leadership development and the flexibility to choose modules that focus on innovation and entrepreneurship,” he said. “Although the Singapore campus was closer to me than the Abu Dhabi campus, I chose the latter as it offered me the opportunity to engage with people, cultures and businesses that I had very little exposure to previously. I also found the specific modular format offered in the Middle East section more convenient to manage given my work schedule.”
The Fontainbleau campus was established in 1957 in France, Singapore in 2000, while the Abu Dhabi campus was inaugurated in 2010. Abu Dhabi participants claiming the top spots reaffirm the campus’s equally high standards in spite of being its youngest.
Miguel Lobo, Associate Professor of Decision Sciences, Director of the Abu Dhabi campus, said: “INSEAD is dedicated to the creation and dissemination of knowledge by educating responsible business leaders. The Abu Dhabi campus is attracting highly talented individuals from the UAE and the region, many of whom are already based here in local businesses.”
The Global Executive MBA (GEMBA) was launched at the Abu Dhabi campus in 2010 and candidates selected should have demonstrated professional accomplishment and potential, as well as academic credentials and motivation to engage in a rigorous graduate-level degree programme.
