MADRID, Spain, and PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — IE Business School and Brown University announce the launch of the IE Brown Executive M.B.A. Program, a one-of-a-kind offering that integrates the innovative approach to management education at IE Business School with Brown University’s excellence in the humanities, social, biological, and physical sciences. The program is designed for senior managers with more than 10 years of experience who want to develop their entrepreneurial mindset and gain a deeper and much richer understanding of the global business environment.

The IE Brown Executive M.B.A. Program is a 15-month blended learning program that combines online modules with five face-to-face sessions taught at IE’s campus in Madrid and Brown’s campus in Providence, R.I. Participants will graduate the program with a degree from IE Business School.

“This executive M.B.A. program draws on the distinct expertise of both IE and Brown to address, in a new and unique way, the key issues faced by senior managers in the 21st century — from economic uncertainty and rapidly changing business models to the rise of emerging markets and increased globalization,” said Santiago Iñiguez, dean of IE Business School. “We are extremely pleased to be partnering with Brown, a university known for its intellectual exploration and multidisciplinary education, to create a revolutionary program at the intersection of management and humanities that develops managers with a global vision of value creation and sustainability.”

The new program forms just one element of a wider partnership formed between the two institutions to explore areas of mutual interest in research, joint program initiatives, and exchanges.

“This relationship is an opportunity to focus on innovative approaches to management,” said Brown Provost David Kertzer. “By linking traditional analytic skills with humanist and scientific learning, IE Business School and Brown aim to pursue interdisciplinary research across a broad range of fields relating to organizational, economic, and social dynamics, and develop new pedagogic avenues in the fields of innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship.”

Launching in the spring of 2011, the IE Brown Executive M.B.A. Program mixes content, pedagogies, and faculty from both institutions. For example, the M.B.A. Core module uses real-life case studies to examine the latest management tools and insights. The Liberal Arts and Critical Studies module draws on disciplines such as history, philosophy, legal studies, and psychology to uncover the underpinnings of society — from the dialogue between religion and secularization to capitalism and its hidden economies. Additional modules investigate the political and social forces shaping emerging markets today as well as the corporate innovation processes and leadership skills associated with entrepreneurial management and new business development.

“Together, Brown and IE have created a new kind of program that equips managers with a combination of analytic and humanist skills necessary to confront the challenging environment posed by today’s global economy,” said David Bach, dean of programs at IE Business School. “By linking approaches from areas beyond the traditional management disciplines, for example incorporating cultural studies and political discourse into the investigation of emerging markets, the program develops more holistic managers and entrepreneurs who can be leaders and change agents across different types of organizations. Participants should expect to have their perceptions — of management education and the business world in general — challenged every day.”