INSEAD Expands Asian Footprint With S$55 million Leadership Development Centre in Singapore

Establishment of the Asia business innovation hub marks INSEAD’s fifteenth year in Singapore. The hub raises INSEAD’s student intake capacity by 50%.   

INSEAD has opened the doors to a spanking new Leadership Development Centre in Singapore. The 10,000 sq. meter centre marks “Phase Three” in the school’s major Asia campus expansion. Combining business research and a rich and diverse learning environment to cultivate a global community of leaders, the new Leadership Development Centre is planned as a business innovation and executive education hub for the region.

Commenting from the inauguration ceremony in Singapore, INSEAD Dean Ilian Mihov said: “The Leadership Development Centre is a significant milestone for INSEAD in our continued global growth and commitment to providing relevant and locally-driven business education across Asia, and globally. This year, we celebrate INSEAD’s fifteenth anniversary in Singapore at the same time as Singapore celebrates its own fiftieth year of independence. We are proud to be a longstanding contributor to this thriving and constantly innovating global business centre. We owe much of our success here to the continued support of the Singapore Government and the Economic Development Board in particular.”

Covering an area of 10,000 square metres over six storeys, the S$55 million development will bring INSEAD’s total Asia campus footprint to two hectares. Raising capacity by 50 per cent, the centre will meet rapidly growing demands for management and leadership education in Asia.

Dr. Beh Swan Gin, Chairman of the Singapore Economic Development Board, said at the opening: “Over the past decade, Singapore has built up a strong ecosystem of business schools, leadership development specialists, HR consultancies and think-tanks to support the talent development needs of companies here and in the region. INSEAD’s Leadership Development Centre will further strengthen this ecosystem and develop leaders who can help their companies navigate the complex business environment today, harness the opportunities and overcome the challenges.”

Covering an area of 10,000 square metres over six storeys, the S$55 million development will bring INSEAD’s total Asia campus footprint – situated in Singapore’s Buona Vista “Knowledge Hub” – to two hectares. Raising capacity by 50 per cent, the centre will meet rapidly growing demands for management and leadership education in Asia, and significantly increase the number of students, executives, top scholars and practitioners on-site.

Annually the Asia campus will welcome 500 MBA students, 5,000 executives, 90 Global Executive MBA students, and 30 participants enrolled in the Master of Finance programme. The growth will allow INSEAD to build its complement of world-class faculty in Singapore to 70.

Andreas Jacobs MBA’90D, Chairman of the Board of Directors, INSEAD, commented: “As a leading global business school, INSEAD’s multi-campus approach is unique in that it is established not simply to attract local students from each region, but to offer students worldwide a truly international education. The investment made in each of the regional hubs – Europe, Asia and the Middle East – goes beyond our bricks and mortar presence. At the core of INSEAD’s global offering is the large number of permanent faculty present on each campus, highly localised research and diverse mix of nationalities and cultures represented on each programme. This is what really sets INSEAD apart from many of the other business schools operating internationally today.”

INSEAD has a long history in Asia, dating back to 1974 when Professor Henri-Claude de Bettignies spearheaded INSEAD’s first programme on Business in Asia, followed by the introduction of a Euro Asia Centre in Fontainebleau in 1980, designed to unite European and Asian companies interested in expanding into each other’s regions.

Since the establishment of INSEAD’s Asia campus in Singapore in 2000, the business school has made a continued and significant investment in Singapore, and Asia. In 2014, participants on the INSEAD Asia campus in Singapore hailed from over 60 countries, including 50 participants in the Asia Section of the Global Executive MBA and 2,500 executive education participants. There are currently 63 permanent faculty based in Singapore, hailing from 22 countries, and 7,026 INSEAD alumni living and working in the Asia Pacific region.

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The new Leadership Development Centre will further establish Singapore as a hub for business education in the region while allowing INSEAD to offer a broader range of executive education programmes, both degree and non-degree. With an emphasis on the Advanced Management Programme and Leadership courses, it will also expand the Global Executive MBA and Master of Finance programmes and catalyse the development of new specialised degree offerings. Top global companies seeking to establish professional development centres for their employees in Asia will also benefit from the new centre.

Annually the Asia campus will welcome 500 MBA students, 5,000 executives, 90 Global Executive MBA students, and 30 participants enrolled in the Master of Finance programme. The growth will allow INSEAD to build its complement of world-class faculty in Singapore to 70, which translates into expanding research in areas such as emerging markets, Asian business leadership, global strategy and other areas of critical importance to the region.

Features of the new INSEAD Leadership Development Centre include four amphitheatres each with seating capacity for 50 to 70. Each amphitheatre will be serviced by its own pre-function and meeting rooms, and several large and small meeting rooms will accommodate intensive team study and interaction.

The B-School says that the establishment of the new centre is supported by more than 154 highly placed volunteers from INSEAD’s network of alumni across the region, devoted to helping grow INSEAD. INSEAD has active National Alumni Associations in Singapore, Malaysia, India, Japan, Indonesia, S Korea, Australia, China, Hong Kong, Pakistan, Philippines and an Alumni Club in Thailand.