IESE Business School is the graduate business school of the University of Navarra. It was established in Barcelona in 1958 by Opus Dei, a Roman Catholic organisation.^[1] From 1963, in collaboration with Harvard Business School,^[2] it offers a two-year Master of Business Administration degree,^[3] an executive MBA, and executive education courses.^[4] It has other campuses in Madrid, Munich, New York City and São Paulo.

The Instituto de Estudios Superiores de la Empresa (IESE) was created by Opus Dei in 1958. The first name of IESE was Centro de Estudios de la Empresa, then Escuela de Directores del Instituto de Estudios Superiores de la Empresa (IESE) and finally IESE Business School.^[5]

Antonio Valero Vicente, commissioned by Jose María Escriva de Balaguer, was its main promoter and first dean. Valero visited the École des Administrations des Affaires de Lille, run by an MBA from Harvard Business School (HBS), to get advice on the pedagogical model, the case method.^[6]

IESE launched its first training project for entrepreneurs during the 1958-59 academic year.^[7] The first program, called Programa de Alta Dirección de Empresas (PADE), was aimed at business leaders with a decade of experience in senior management. The first classes were held at the Hotel del Parque in Sant Andreu de Llavaneres. The following academic programmes were Programa de Dirección de Empresas (PDE) 1959–1960, and Programa de Desarrollo para Alta Dirección de Empresas (PDADE, later known as PDG) in 1961. In 1963, after consulting professors Ralph M. Hower and Steve Fuller, the Harvard-IESE Committee was set up,^[8] and IESE launched the Master in Business Administration and Economics (MED) in 1964.^[9] It was the first time the term "master's" was used in Europe; it later took on the standardized name of MBA.^[10]

After almost two decades of collaboration with Harvard, the bilingual Spanish-English MBA was introduced in 1980, and collaboration was extended to other North American universities such as the University of Michigan Business School and the MIT Sloan School of Management (1994). In 2001, the Global Executive MBA was established. At the same time, IESE developed in-company programmes for transnational companies in Spain and leading Spanish companies.^[10] In 2007, after expansion and renovation, the new Barcelona campus was inaugurated.^[11] In 2009, the Global CEO Program for Latin America was launched in partnership with CEIBS and Wharton.^[12]

In the following years, the campuses in New York City (2010),^[13] Munich (2015),^[14] and São Paulo (in collaboration with ISE Business School), were consolidated and opened.^[15] In 2021, the expansion and opening of the new Madrid campus was completed.^[16]

Since the late 1950s, the institution has sent faculty members to doctoral programmes in the United States and Europe.^[10] It has established long-term academic partnerships with Stanford, MIT and CEIBS.^[23]

IESE also contributed to the founding of 15 business schools, mainly in developing countries:^[24] IPADE (Mexico, 1967); IAE (Argentina, 1978); PAD (Peru, 1979); AESE (Portugal, 1980); INALDE (Colombia, 1985); IEEM (Uruguay, 1986); LBS (Nigeria, 1991); IDE (Ecuador, 1992); CEIBS (China, 1994); UA&P School of Business Administration (Philippines, 1995); ISE (Brazil, 1996); ESE (Chile, 1999);^[25] MDE Business School (Ivory Coast, 2003); and SBS (Kenya, 2005).^[26] The partner schools are independent and developed with local faculty and staff.

The institution is governed by the Board of Directors and the International Advisory Board. The Board of Directors is responsible for the strategic development, faculty recruitment, programme portfolio and operations of the school. It is chaired by the dean, who in turn reports to the rector of the University of Navarra.^[27]

The International Advisory Board (IAB) and the Executive Committee of the IESE Alumni Association provide strategic guidance to the school's management on its initiatives, governance, education programmes, institutional development and corporate sponsorship.^[28]

Since 1963, the IESE-Harvard Business School Committee has met annually in the United States or Europe, mainly to advise on the development of international programmes.^[29]

The International Advisory Board (IAB) analyses the global socio-economic context from the perspective of business, emerging trends, entrepreneurial and executive education needs and innovation in the field of management and leadership. IAB members are managers and academics from Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. Appointed by IESE's dean, they meet regularly to assess humanistic and management issues, as well as the emergence of new challenges and opportunities.

The first alumni chapter was that of Catalonia, created in 1961. Regional groups for Valencia (Levante), Mallorca (Balearic Islands) and Madrid were established soon after, followed by Aragon (1973), Andalucia (1975), and Galicia, La Rioja, Basque Country and Navarre (1986). The Argentine-Uruguayan chapter became the first foreign chapter in 1986; the U.S. alumni chapter was set up in 1987.^[61]

In 2021 an alumni meeting was held at the expanded Madrid headquarters and was attended by more than 5000 executives and business people.^[62]