Thunderbird Executive Education Ranks Among World's Best for Fourth Straight Year; Quality of Faculty, International Diversity Rank High on List

For the fourth consecutive year, Thunderbird, The Garvin
School of International Management has been named one of the world's
best providers of executive education programs.
London-based Financial Times newspaper, in its May 15 special
edition, placed Thunderbird as the 7th best custom executive education
program in the world and 6th best in the United States. Thunderbird
also held the No. 7 position worldwide in 2005.
Thunderbird's custom corporate learning programs offer businesses
throughout the world a wide array of customized degree and non-degree
services and solutions, including corporate MBA programs, that are
specifically designed for each business client based on its unique
objectives and strategies.
"Being confirmed as a Top 10 player in the custom programs area
for the fourth year in a row gives us the confidence to keep
innovating, be bold and engage in new activities, not just do more of
the same," said Senior Vice President of Corporate Learning Jerome
Couturier. "This is the key difference between us and the competition.
We are not just a player, we are a very different player. We want to
make our mark in the industry and that is what makes it fun and -- as
this ranking shows -- most rewarding."
Thunderbird's custom executive education faculty members placed
No. 3 in the rankings for their quality of teaching and for their
cultural and gender diversity. Of the 72 faculty members who teach
courses in these executive programs, 60 percent are non-U.S. citizens
and 38 percent are women.
"Diversity at Thunderbird is not just a compilation of
nationalities. It is a culture, mindset and attitude that is reflected
in all aspects of customer engagement and program content," Couturier
said. "Diversity is in what we do."
Financial Times also ranks business schools on the quality of
their open enrollment programs. At Thunderbird, those certificate
programs are specialized non-degree courses designed to help working
professionals gain the understanding and skills necessary to compete
in today's global marketplace.
Financial Times ranked Thunderbird's open enrollment program 24th
overall and No. 1 in the categories of "international location" and
"international participants." About 78 percent of program participants
live outside of the United States and represent 35 different
nationalities. Sixty-two percent of the programs were conducted in
countries outside of the United States. The school presently operates
programs in the U.S., Europe, China and Russia and has plans to expand
into other countries later this summer.
"Thanks to the support of our customers, we have doubled our
activity in less than three years," Couturier said. "We have the
ambition to double it again over the next five. But our ambition is
not just in the numbers. We also have the ambition to keep pushing the
traditional frontiers of corporate development in particular by
offering and integrating a broader range of services and solutions in
an even more globally distributed way."
When ranking executive education, overall, which includes both the
custom and open enrollment programs, Financial Times placed
Thunderbird 15th on the list topped by Duke University, IMD and
Stanford University GSB, respectively.
Thunderbird is the only business school operation in Arizona to
appear at the top of the world rankings in executive education.

Celebrating its 60th anniversary, Thunderbird is the oldest
graduate management school in the United States focused solely on
preparing graduates for global leadership. More than 35,000 men and
women in more than 140 countries have graduated from Thunderbird since
1946. Thunderbird is accredited by AACSB International -- The
Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, the North
Central Association for Colleges and Schools, and the European Quality
Improvement System (EQUIS). www.thunderbird.edu