IESE Business School is the graduate business school of the University of Navarra. It was established in Barcelona in 1958 by Opus Dei. From 1963, in collaboration with Harvard Business School it offers a two-year Master of Business Administration degree. It also offers two Executive MBAs, and master´s degrees (Master in Management and Master in Finance) and executive education courses. It has other campuses in Madrid, Munich, New York City,Cause IQ "IESE Business School New York" and São Paulo.
As of 2026, IESE Business School has more than 60,000 alumni worldwide from different countries. It has been recognised by EQUIS, AACSB, and ANECA.
History Antonio Valero Vicente, commissioned by Jose María Escriva de Balaguer, was IESE´s main promoter and first dean. The founder of Opus Dei had listened to businessmen from Madrid, the Basque Country and Catalonia who, led by the Madrid naval engineer Alejandro Crespo Calabria, had expressed their concern and desire for the education and training of business leaders with a Christian vision.Francisco Ponz Piedrafita, “Datos para la historia de la Universidad de Navarra (1952-1980). Instituto de Estudios Superiores de la Empresa, IESE (1958)” (manuscrito inédito, 2013), archivo de pdf, 2-3, cit por J.Pampliega "La historia de una business school global", IESE noviembre 2023 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.López, T. La fundación del IESE (1956–1958)
IESE launched its first training project for entrepreneurs during the 1958-59 academic year.SALGADO, Claudio. TORRES, Beatriz (2015), Los orígenes del IESE, LID Editorial Empresarial, Madrid. Revista Empresa y Humanismo, 2017, p. 193-196. 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 following academic programs 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, and IESE launched the Master in Business Administration and Economics (MED) in 1964.Calleja, R. and Melé, D. (2017), "Valero's "Enterprise Politics": a model of humanistic management and corporate governance", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 36 No. 5, pp. 644-659. It was the first time the term "master's" was used in Europe; it later took on the standardized name of MBA.
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 Ross Business School, the MIT Sloan School of Management and NYU Stern School of Business.
IESE began offering programs in Madrid in 1974, opening a campus there in 1991. The school completed an expansion project in 2021, which doubled the size of the Madrid campus. In 2007, after expansion and renovation, the new Barcelona campus was inaugurated. In the following years, the campuses in New York City (2010), Munich (2015), and São Paulo (in collaboration with ISE Business School), were consolidated and opened.
Since its founding, IESE has created an ecosystem to support entrepreneurs, such as providing seed capital to graduates with promising start-up ideas. It was one of the first schools outside the United States to offer a course on search funds.
In 2009, the Africa Initiative was created to provide research and teaching support to associated schools on the Continent. This has included faculty training, joint program development, exchange opportunities, conferences and the Africa-focused research and teaching materials.
In 2021, the Institute for Sustainability Leadership (ISL) was established to foster cooperation between academia and business. ISL researches and measures environmental targets, governance systems for sustainable cities and financial instruments for their development.
In 2023, IESE launched the Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Management Initiative to explore how AI is impacting management. It also prepares executives to put Al to use in their companies in an ethical and socially responsible way. Organization The institution is governed by the Executive Committee and the Supervisory Board, established in 2023 to oversee the Executive Committee and the dean in strategic planning, execution and key decision-making. The Executive Committee is responsible for the strategic development, faculty recruitment, program portfolio and operations of the school.
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 programs, institutional development and corporate sponsorship. 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.
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 programs.
Programs Given the importance of entrepreneurship, with 30% of students starting a business within five years of graduation, the entrepreneurial mindset is embedded across all programs through mentoring, networking, funding and research. The institution also promotes entrepreneurship through: Business Angels Network for investors and entrepreneurs and IESE 40under40 Awards.
Learning methodologies and innovations IESE’s teaching approach is centered on the case method, pioneered at Harvard, which is used across all programs.
It also employs other methodologies like experiential learning, coaching, mentoring, and business simulations. Since 2025 IESE has had a special focus on artificial intelligence, immersive and lifelong learning. The institution has developed business simulations focused on change management, sustainability, and entrepreneurship.
In 2026, IESE announced a redesign of the full-time MBA program for the 2026–27 academic year, with the transversal integration of artificial intelligence content into first-year courses. The change retains the case method as the foundation of the program and introduces the use of AI tools in case analysis, along with skills related to using these tools, process redesign, and decision-making in contexts of technological change.Carmen Sánchez-Silva "¿Crisis de los MBA? Su alto precio y las menores salidas profesionales tras cursarlos los ponen en la picota" El País (May 11, 2026)
Degree programs IESE offers specialized master’s, MBAs and doctoral degree programs. During the 2024–25 academic year, these programs included approximately 1,700 participants. IESE Annual Report 2025
Master in Management
The full-time Master in Management (MiM) offered on the Madrid campus is for recent university graduates. It includes general management foundation with courses marketing, finance, strategy, economics and ethics courses, with the option to specialize in strategy, finance or data.
Master in Finance
The Master in Finance (MiF) is a full-time program for recent university graduates and is offered on the Madrid campus. It covers finance, data analytics, valuation, sustainable finance, AI and leadership, and corporate responsibility. Students choose between three tracks: Corporate Finance; Capital Markets; and Banking and Financial Innovation.
Full-Time MBA
The Full-Time MBA is offered in two formats of 15 or 18 months on IESE´s Barcelona campus."4 Popular European MBA programs for Americans" USNews Students choose from concentrations including areas such as finance, data analytics, entrepreneurship, international business, and sustainability. The program includes modules abroad and exchange opportunities with 29 partner institutions around the world.
Executive MBA
The Executive MBA (EMBA) is for experienced professionals and takes place over 18 months. The program has a modular format across several locations, including Madrid, Barcelona, São Paulo, and Munich. It includes elective content and options to study on several campuses.
Global Executive MBA
The Global Executive MBA (GEMBA) is a part-time program for senior executives that includes online instruction and on-campus modules in multiple international business hubs such as the United States, Germany, Singapore and Spain.
PhD in Management
The PhD in Management is based at IESE’s Barcelona campusLa Vanguardia, Tuesday, 24 June 1969, p.24, and includes the Master of Research in Management. PhD students can participate in academic seminars, conferences, and interdisciplinary research opportunities.
Executive education programs The business school offers executive management programs in Munich,"El nuevo campus en Múnich extiende el alcance global del IESE" Comunica-e (June 29, 2015) New York and São Paulo and in the Spanish cities of Barcelona, Madrid, Santiago de Compostela, Valencia and Zaragoza.
These programs include: the Programa de Desarrollo Directivo (PDD); the Program for Management Development; the Programa de Dirección General (PDG); the General Management Program; the C-Suite Pathway Program, offered jointly with New York University Stern School of Business; the Leadership Coaching Program; the Programa de Alta Dirección de Empresas (PADE); the Advanced Management Program; the Global CEO Program, offered jointly with the MIT Sloan School of Management; Value Creation for Effective Boards, offered jointly with Harvard Business School; and the High-Performance Board Member, offered jointly with the WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management.
The institution also offers specialised programs in artificial intelligence, sustainability and strategic management; leadership for professionals in the public and healthcare sectors; coaching and specialised training for entrepreneurs through its School of Founders.
Online and hybrid programs The school openly offers several massive open online courses on Coursera in corporate finance, marketing, scalability, operations, organisational behaviour, strategy and sustainability, as well as specialisations in communication, management, finance and design thinking.
Over time, the institution has expanded blended teaching and learning in several of its executive training programs, combining online and face-to-face modules. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the programs offered in this format have grown and now include: the Program for Management Development (PMD), the Flexible Management Development Program (PDD Flex), the C-Suite Pathway Program, the Leadership Coaching Program and several specific programs.
International alliances and partnerships Since the late 1950s, the institution has sent faculty members to doctoral programs in the United States and Europe."La internacionalización de las escuelas de negocios españolas: el caso del IESE" by Mauro F. Guillén and Esteban García Canal, Revista Economía Industrial (2011) It has established long-term academic partnerships with Stanford, MIT and CEIBS.Guillén, M. F.; García Canal, E. The New Multinationals: Spanish Firms in a Global Context. Cambridge University Press, 2010, p. 176.