New members from Africa and India reflect the increasingly global nature of graduate management education

RESTON, Va., June 26 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), a global association of leading graduate business schools, today announced a new board chairperson and the addition of four new members to its board of directors. The terms will begin on July 1, 2020.

Martin Boehm, Dean and Professor of Marketing at IE Business School has served on the GMAC board since 2017 and will represent GMAC as its new board chairperson for two consecutive years, replacing William Boulding who concludes his two-year term on June 30. Professor Boehm has held several roles within IE Business School including Dean of Programs and Associate Dean of Master in Management Programs. He teaches across the School’s Master in Management, MBA, Executive MBA, and PhD programs. Prof. Boehm’s research provides managerial implications on how to build profitable and long-lasting customer relationships. His primary concern is to quantify the impact of various customer management activities on a customer’s lifetime value.

“I am excited to build upon my experience with GMAC in this new role as chairperson,” said Boehm. “The business school value proposition is strong, and that doesn’t change in a COVID-19 environment. In fact, it’s essential, now more than ever, that we help today’s students prepare for the unforeseen challenges of tomorrow, through flexible and adaptive learning in and out of the classroom. The industry has an impactful story to tell across a number of different indicators and I’m excited to help lead that discussion.”    

The new board members include: Ranjan Banerjee, Dean, Professor of Marketing, S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research; Soojin Kwon, Managing Director, Full-Time MBA Admissions and Program, Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan; Enase Okonedo, Dean, Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic University; and Jay Nibbe, EY Global Vice Chair – Markets as an independent director.

“We’re excited to engage and collaborate with some of the brightest minds in Graduate Management Education from regions across the world,” said Sangeet Chowfla, president and CEO of GMAC.  “Enhancing diversity and global perspective on our board better enables GMAC to bring solutions and ideas to the marketplace that help address the unique challenges and opportunities associated with our industry.”

New GMAC Board Members

Dr. Ranjan Banerjee (Dean Director), Dean, Professor of Marketing, S. P. Jain Institute of Management and Research

Dr. Ranjan Banerjee holds an engineering degree from IIT Bombay, an MBA from IIM Calcutta and a PhD in Marketing from the Carlson School, University of Minnesota. He is an internationally renowned teacher, speaker, researcher, and consultant. His consulting clients include Vodafone, BASF, Philips, Legrand, etc. His areas of interest and expertise include marketing channels and incentives, design thinking, change management, learnability, and innovation in education systems. He has recently begun a second term as Dean and Professor of Marketing at S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, one of India's premier business schools. During his first term, a number of significant changes have been implemented at the institute. He has co-authored a bestselling book on the “Made In India Manager.”

Soojin Kwon (Representative Director), Managing Director, Full-Time MBA Admissions and Program, Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan

Soojin Kwon is the managing director for full-time MBA Admissions and Program at Michigan Ross. She joined Ross in 2004, became director of MBA Admissions in 2006 and launched the team exercise as part of their admissions process. In 2016, she became managing director of the full-time MBA Admissions and Program, overseeing admissions, academics, and student experience for 800+ students. Soojin is also a lecturer of Business Communication and has taught in Ross’ BBA and MBA Programs and Executive Education. Prior to Ross, Soojin was a manager in Deloitte’s strategy and operations practice. She has also served on the Senate Budget Committee, House Appropriations Committee, and at the Department of Commerce as a presidential management fellow. Soojin is a frequent presenter at GMAC’s Annual Conference and Leadership Conference and has served as the faculty in residence and instructor in GMAC’s Admissions Institute for New Professionals. She was previously on the board of the Forte Foundation. Soojin holds an MBA from Ross, a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and a bachelor’s in economics and Political Science from Yale.

Jay Nibbe (Board Elected Director), Global Vice Chair – Markets, EY

Jay Nibbe has 35 years’ experience serving a wide variety of clients and filling numerous leadership roles. He joined EY in 1985 and became a partner in 1994. Currently, he serves as EY Global Vice Chair – Markets and as a member of the EY Global Executive. He oversees all accounts across all EY service lines, sectors and geographies. As part of this role he is responsible for leading Global Industry, Global Solutions, Alliance Partnerships, Managed Services, Business Development and the EY global alumni programs. He was a board member at the Minnesota State University Moorhead Alumni Foundation (from 2007 to 2009) and is currently a member of the US-Russia Business Council, and the SKOLKOVO International Advisory Board (Moscow). He holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance degree from Minnesota State University Moorhead and a master’s degree in business taxation from the University of Minnesota.

Enase Okonedo (Dean Director), Dean, Lagos Business School, Pan Atlantic University

Enase Okonedo, FCA is a professor of management and an accomplished professional with over 30 years’ experience in the financial services and management education sectors. In 2009, she became Dean of Lagos Business School where she has the responsibility for setting the strategic direction for the school. Under her leadership, the school achieved international accreditations from AACSB International and the Association of MBAs (AMBA). As Dean, Lagos Business School has sustained its Financial Times of London ranking becoming one of the top 50 global providers of Open-Enrolment and Custom Executive Education programs in 2020. In 2018, the Lagos business School Executive MBA was ranked as one of the top 50 EMBA programs by The Economist magazine. She has served as a board member and chairperson of the Association of African Business Schools (AABS) and a member of the board and Secretary-Treasurer of AACSB International. She currently serves on the board of the Global Business School Network (GBSN); is a member of the International Advisory Board of Porto Business School, Portugal; as well as a member of the Academic Advisory Board, Blatnavik School of Government, University of Oxford. She is President of AIFA Reading Society; Nigeria, a member of the Panel of Advisors, Africa Initiative for Governance (AIG) and also serves on the boards of several other companies.

GMAC also recognizes its outgoing board chair, William Boulding, Dean of the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. Among Dr. Boulding’s many accomplishments as GMAC’s board chairperson, he oversaw the creation and launch of GMAC’s Early Warning Signals white paper, bringing issues associated with student and talent mobility to the forefront of public policy discourse. As part of that work Dr. Boulding noted that, “Aspiring students who want to cross national borders to attend business school are a critical economic resource; over the course of their careers, these graduates will guide companies through complicated but lucrative foreign markets, provide overseas contacts for their classmates, provide top-tier talent for global companies, and stitch together the global economy.” While Dr. Boulding’s two-year term as GMAC board chairperson expires on June 30, he will continue to serve as a Dean Director on the GMAC board until June 30, 2022.

Also leaving the GMAC board as of July 1 are Ellen J. Glazerman, Executive Director, Ernst & Young Foundation, Ernst & Young LLP; D. Eric Hirst, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and King Ranch Chair for Business Leadership, McCombs School of Business, The University of Texas at Austin; Xiongwen Lu, Dean and Professor of Marketing , School of Management, Fudan University; and Sri Zaheer, Dean and Elmer L. Andersen Chair in Global Corporate Social Responsibility, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. GMAC thanks them for their service to our organization and contributions to the graduate management education community.

About GMAC

The Graduate Management Admission Council™ (GMAC™) is a mission-driven association of leading graduate business schools worldwide. Founded in 1953, we are committed to creating solutions for business schools and candidates to better discover, evaluate, and connect with each other. We work on behalf of the schools and the graduate management education community, and guide candidates on their journey to higher education, to ensure that no talent goes undiscovered.

GMAC provides world-class research, professional development opportunities and assessments for the graduate management education industry, designed to advance the art and science of admissions. Owned and administered by GMAC, the Graduate Management Admission Test™ (GMAT™) exam is the most widely used graduate business school assessment, recognized by more than 7,000 programs worldwide. Other GMAC assessments include the NMAT by GMAC™ (NMAT™) exam, for entrance into graduate management programs in India, Nigeria, the Philippines, and South Africa, and the Executive Assessment (EA), which supports the admissions needs of more than 160 programs around the world.

Our flagship portal for graduate management education resources and information, www.mba.com, receives over 7 million visits a year and features the Program Finder matching tool and GMASS™ search service, a data-driven technology that helps connect candidates and business schools. These platforms are part of GMAC Connect, a suite of services that help schools attract students through recruiting solutions that marry our market intelligence, data, reach and candidate touchpoints.

Subsidiaries of GMAC include UK-based online publishing company BusinessBecause, a content-rich destination that helps students identify the right-fit business schools during the critical consideration and selection phases of their journey, and The MBA Tour, which supports business schools’ global recruiting efforts by organizing business education-focused events virtually and around the world.

GMAC is a global organization with offices in China, India, Singapore, United Kingdom, and the United States. To learn more about our work, please visit www.gmac.com.

Media contact:
Geoffrey Basye, Director of Media Relations, GMAC
+1 (202) 271-1529 or gbasye@gmac.com 

SOURCE: Graduate Management Admission Council

--BERNAMA