Czech MBA Program Graduating Class Will Attend Final Course, Commencement in Chicago

DePaul University will welcome the ultimate commuter students in March when 23 students from a Master’s of Business Administration (MBA) program jointly run by the DePaul and the Czech Management Center (CMC) travel 4,500 miles from Prague to Chicago to take their final course and receive DePaul diplomas.

Their graduation ceremony on March 19 will be one of three the university will hold around the globe in March and April. DePaul officials will travel to the Arabian Gulf nation of Bahrain March 9 to award diplomas to 17 students enrolled in an MBA program offered by the university and the Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance (BIBF) in Manama. Then, on April 24, the university will hold a commencement in Hong Kong for 27 students in MBA and School for New Learning (SNL) programs offered through a partnership with the International Bank of Asia (IBA).

The newly minted graduates will join 127 others who have already matriculated from DePaul through the university’s international degree programs. They have formed active alumni clubs in the three countries during the last six years.

“DePaul’s international education programs and growing alumni networks show how the university’s influence as an educational institution is spreading well beyond Chicago,” said Arthur Kraft, Kellstadt Graduate School of Business dean. “These programs not only expand access to a high-quality DePaul education internationally, but also give DePaul faculty members an opportunity to teach and do research while immersed in another culture—valuable, firsthand experience that they bring back to their DePaul classrooms in Chicago.”

The Czech students arrive March 6 to take their final course, “Strategic Analysis for Competing Globally,” with Marketing Executive-in-Residence Luis Larrea from March 10 to 18 on DePaul’s Loop Campus. The capstone course challenges student teams to compete in running simulated businesses. To succeed, students must integrate what they have learned in previous marketing, management, accountancy, economics and finance classes.

After completing this course, the Czech class will participate in a commencement ceremony with fellow graduate students from DePaul’s MBA in International Marketing and Finance program at 6 p.m., March 19, at the Chicago Athletic Club, 12 S. Michigan Ave. Richard Driehaus, chief executive officer of Driehaus Capital Management, Inc., who holds two degrees from DePaul including an MBA, will be the graduation speaker. Donations from Driehaus allowed DePaul’s business school to launch its Driehaus Center for International Business and its Driehaus Center for Behavioral Finance. This is the second cohort of students from the Czech program to graduate from DePaul and the first to do so in Chicago. The program was introduced by DePaul in partnership with the CMC in Prague in 2002.

The Bahrain Program also is graduating its second cohort of students. James Hogan, president and chief executive officer of Gulf Air, will speak at the March 9 commencement ceremony in the capital city of Manama. DePaul collaborated with the BIBF in 2000 to offer the MBA degree program in Bahrain.

The April 24 graduation ceremony in Hong Kong will award diplomas to the fourth MBA and second SNL graduating classes there. The speaker will be Retired Air Force Lieutenant General Brent Scowcroft, who served as national security advisor to two presidents and currently is president of The Forum for International Policy. DePaul partnered with the IBA to open an MBA program in Hong Kong in 1997 and later added the degree program from SNL, a leader in college programs tailored to adult learners.

Editor’s Note: Reporters interested in covering the Czech MBA commencement ceremony in Chicago should contact Robin Florzak, DePaul University Media Relations: 312/362-8592