Quality is key to making Kellogg-HKUST EMBA the best

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It has been quite a journey. A programme launched 20 years ago, after a struggle to secure faculty, amid worries about whether it would attract sufficient applications for places, has blossomed into the EMBA, which has established itself as the number one programme in the world.

In 1997 Professor Steven DeKrey, associate dean of HKUST Business School, was recruited to run the school’s MBA programme. DeKrey had not only graduated from the Kellogg School of Management, but also taken on the role of that school’s admissions director for several years.

When Professor Yuk-shee Chan, then dean of HKUST Business School, began to talk to the Kellogg dean, Professor Don Jacobs, about jointly working on a programme, DeKrey pushed hard to make it a joint EMBA. “I needed it to be a flagship programme which showed the quality was here,” he says.

DeKrey, who holds a PhD in psychology, believes the quality of the programme’s first class sent a great message to the market. “I’m into leadership assessment and development, so our strategy from day one was to pick the best.”

While HKUST offers a number of electives, for the past 15 years the school’s EMBA students have also been able to take courses at Kellogg, in the United States, or the six other campuses. “We are now part of a global network that has access way beyond Asia – to Europe, the Middle East and North America,” DeKrey says.