Duke Executive Education Tops World Rankings

DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke Corporate Education, Inc., the customized non-degree education company of Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, has been ranked the top customized corporate educator in the world by the Financial Times.

Duke's Fuqua School ranked second in the world in overall executive education, according to the Financial Times, when the first-place ranking for customized education was combined with its eighth-place ranking for open-enrollment programs that are open to students from multiple companies and associations. Customized education, on the other hand, is tailored for an individual company.

In the Financial Times' overall executive education rankings published today by the global business newspaper, Columbia took the top spot. It was followed in the Top 10 by Duke, Harvard, Iese (Spain), Stanford, IMD (Switzerland), London Business School, Wharton (University of Pennsylvania), Insead (France) and Thunderbird.

In a survey of the schools themselves and international business executives, Duke Corporate Education led the 50-provider list of what the newspaper called "established pace-setters for quality." Duke ranked first in faculty, "value for the money," "new skills and learning," teaching materials, preparation, course design, facilities and food and accommodation.

"What a fabulous honor to achieve this recognition after being in business only three years," Duke Corporate Education CEO Blair Sheppard said. "This ranking is all about our customers, who have committed to using education as a strategic lever to change their leadership dynamics. Our customers have enabled us to be creative and really drive toward outstanding results," he said. "We look forward to pushing executive education to a new level."

As Dean of Duke's Fuqua School of Business, Douglas T. Breeden is chairman of the board of directors of Duke Corporate Education. "This is wonderful news for both Duke Corporate Education and Duke's Fuqua School. It demonstrates the wisdom of the decision three years ago to take Fuqua's renowned custom executive education team, led by visionary Professor Blair Sheppard, to form Duke Corporate Education," he said.

Duke Corporate Education's rise to the top position has been accelerating in the last few years. It was ranked second in 2001 by the newspaper and third in 2003. The company was formed by Duke in July 2000 to house and grow the customized executive education operation. The new flexibility to build and grow has allowed Duke Corporate Education to scale upwards. It is a for-profit corporation with Duke's Fuqua being the largest shareholder. It has grown to a staff of 71 academic and business professionals. Duke Corporate Education generates revenue of more than $23 million from its headquarters in Durham and a service office in London.

Clients include: PricewaterhouseCoopers, IBM, Schering, Saudi Aramco, Royal Dutch Shell, ABB, NCR's Teradata division, Progress Energy, Amvescap, the American Cancer Society, Merck, The New York Times Company, Siemens, Nestle and Eli Lilly.

"We are very proud of the success of Duke Corporate Education as well as Duke's open-enrollment programs," Breeden said. "Duke Corporate Education uses many Fuqua professors in its teaching programs as well as some outstanding educators from other schools."

Surveyed students are happy about the educational programs they are taking from this faculty. "As in previous years," the newspaper wrote in its lead story about the ranking, "perhaps the overriding conclusion from the Financial Times executive education rankings is that all the respondents to the survey are happy, and often extremely happy, with the service they get from the business schools. If this is true in these days of economic uncertainty, then the international business school community can look to the future with confidence."

"The executive education market has grown and matured tremendously in the last decade," said Duke's associate dean for executive education, John F. Cady. "Duke's achievement of leadership in every segment of the executive education market is indicative of the commitment of talent and resources that the school has made to its mission of educating corporate leaders worldwide."

Duke's ranking for non-degree open-enrollment programs is based primarily on the school's Advanced Management Program, Cady said. The program, designed for senior executives with global corporate experience, combines the diverse experience of an international cadre of executives with faculty ranked first in intellectual capital. The result is a collaborative learning experience that provides the knowledge, skills and tools to begin to immediately improve business performance. Fuqua also provides a portfolio of specialized programs and courses for all levels of management.

The full survey and accompanying news stories can be viewed at www.ft.com.