Abu Dhabi // The Mubadala Development Company announced a grant of Dh15 million (US$4m) to the international business school Insead's endowment. The money will establish the Mubadala Chair in corporate governance and strategy at the Insead Centre for Executive Education and Research in Abu Dhabi, which opened in Sept 2007.
Insead, which was founded in France in 1957, has two main campuses, one in Fontainebleau, France, and the other in Singapore. It also has a research centre in Israel. On its main campuses, Insead offers MBA, doctoral and executive-education programmes. The Abu Dhabi branch offers executive education courses. It also runs custom programmes for companies. More than 500 executives have participated in these programmes in Abu Dhabi, of which 60 were from Mubadala. Next week 20 employees of the Department of Civil Service will start an 18-month master's programme.
Part of the government's strategy for higher education is to establish institutions in Abu Dhabi that can offer students education of a quality previously available only overseas. The partnership with Insead is intended to fulfil the desire to have a dedicated business research centre in Abu Dhabi. "We need this kind of institution to help us develop our people skills in the private and the public sector," said Dr Mugheer al Khaili, director general of the Abu Dhabi Education Council.
Mubadala's endowment will allow the school to hire a professor with expertise in corporate governance and strategy, and to fund research. "We are conscious of the importance of good corporate governance and its impact on the development and diversification of Abu Dhabi's economy," Khaldoon al Mubarak, chief executive of Mubadala, said in a statement. When the Insead centre opened last year, it said it wanted to hire a faculty and staff of 30 in 18 months. It now has one full-time faculty member and seven resident researchers.
"One of our challenges in building our Insead centre here in Abu Dhabi is to recruit faculty," said Peter Jadersten, executive director of Insead Abu Dhabi. "The Mubadala Chair makes it possible for us to attract faculty to come and live in Abu Dhabi." @Email:klewis@thenational.ae