During the event, Dr. Gaston J. Labadie, dean of the School of Business and Social Sciences at Universidad ORT Uruguay, attended the first meeting of the AMBA-BGA Latin America Advisory Council.
The dean also gave a presentation titled“How to Get Out of the ‘Trap in the Middle’?”, alongside the president of CLADEA and dean of the University of the North Business School, Dr. Octavio Ibarra, in which he discussed partnership strategies for developing an agile networked business school and collaboration in a context of increasing digitalization of education and the presence of global platforms.
The council’s main objectives are to advance management education in the region, strengthen the relationships between AMBA and BGA and business schools, promote responsible management and ethical business education, facilitate networking among schools in the region and around the world, and ensure that business schools have a positive impact on society.
The panel consisted of Luiz Brito, Dean, São Paulo School of Business Administration, Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV EAESP), Brazil; Ignacio de la Vega, Dean, Graduate School of Business Administration (EGADE Business School), Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITSEM), Mexico; Gustavo Genoni, Dean, School of Business, University of San Andrés (UDESA), Argentina; Octavio Ibarra, Dean, School of Business, Universidad del Norte (Uninorte), Colombia; Gaston J. Labadie, Dean, Faculty of Administration and Social Sciences, Universidad ORT Uruguay; Virginia Lasio, former Director, Graduate School of Business Administration (ESPAE), Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL), Ecuador; Sergio Olavarrieta, Vice Dean and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Chile (UChile), Chile; and Peter Yamakawa, Dean, ESAN Graduate School of Business, ESAN University (UE), Peru.
Other participants on the board included Bodo Schlegelmilch, chair of the Association of MBAs (AMBA) and the Business Graduate Association (BGA); Andrew Main Wilson, executive director of AMBA & BGA; and Carlos Ramos, international advisor for Latin America at AMBA & BGA.
The event, which took place from September 2 to 4, 2019, in Quito, Ecuador, brought together more than 80 deans and MBA program directors.
Spring Network: a network to foster innovation and entrepreneurship
As part of the Latin America Conference for Deans and Directors, the academic coordinator of the Master of Business Administration (MBA) program, Dr. Luis Silva Domingo, participated in the Spring Network meeting; a network comprising business schools recognized for their focus on innovation and entrepreneurship: Universidad de San Andrés (Argentina), Universidad del Desarrollo (Chile), ESPAE Graduate School of Management–ESPOL (Ecuador), ESAN Business School (Peru), and Universidad ORT Uruguay.
The following people attended the meeting:
- Peter Yamakawa, Dean of the ESAN Graduate School of Business.
- Paola Ochoa, Academic and Research Director at ESPAE, Ecuador.
- Xavier Ordeñana, Dean of the Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL).
- Fernando Sánchez, Academic Director of the MBA program at the Universidad del Desarrollo in Chile.
- Daniel González, Academic Director of the MBA program at the University of San Andrés, Argentina.
- Gustavo Genoni, president of the University of San Andrés.
- Luis Silva Domingo, Academic Coordinator of the Master of Business Administration (MBA) program at ORT-Uruguay.
The main objectives of this meeting were: to organize the schedule for student delegation trips in 2019 and 2020 to the campuses of the network’s business schools and to the world’s leading entrepreneurial ecosystems, such as Silicon Valley, Israel, Babson College, China, etc. To collaborate on developing pitching skills, which allow students to receive feedback from investors on their startups and gain access to the V2 Pitch Competition at the University of San Diego. And to promote participation in the John Molson School of Business International Case Competition at Concordia University, Canada, one of the world’s leading case competitions.
In addition, as part of the Latin American Conference, Labadie signed cooperation agreements with prestigious institutions from various countries, including a memorandum of understanding between the Silk Road Entrepreneurship Education Network (SREEN), ORT’s School of Management and Social Sciences, and the Global Entrepreneurship Research Center at Zhejiang University in China.