IESE

Age: 53

History: Set up in 1958, IESE offered the first executive education programme in Europe. In 1980, IESE’s MBA became the world's first bilingual course (offered in English and Spanish) and started accepting students from all over the world.

Address: The school has campuses in Barcelona and Madrid, one centre in New York, and offices in Munich and Sao Paolo. IESE also delivers programmes across the globe, in Latin and North America, Africa, Asia, Western and Easter Europe.

Ambience: A personal, sunny, family-friendly atmosphere. Barcelona is often voted as one of Europe's most liveable cities. Madrid is Spain's business, political and financial centre and heaves with galleries, live music and tapas bars .

Vital statistics: IESE is the international graduate school of management of the University of Navarra. As well as the full-time bilingual MBA, the school offers a global executive option for those with 10 years of work experience, a local executive MBA in Madrid and Barcelona for people with seven years; and also a PhD in management in Barcelona. The MBA is organised like Harvard's, using the “case method”.

Added value: The bilingual English and Spanish MBA seeks to produce multilingual business leaders who understand foreign cultures, instead of becoming mere globe-trotting, English-speaking reps for multinational companies. Students do not need to speak Spanish to start the programme, but most choose to take the school's successful course in business-related Spanish. IESE’s students will also benefit from joining an extensive international network of 32.000 alumni present in over 100 countries.

Easy to get into? You'll need a degree, four or five years of work experience, a good GMAT score and fluency in English. If you have an international background, good leadership skills and are looking to make a positive impact in society, you'll have an advantage.

Glittering alumni: Harri Andersson, vice-president, The Boston Consulting Group; Jorge Lucaya, president, Morgan Stanley; Marcello Gambarini, president, Pirelli Japan; Jaime Salaverri, president, JP Morgan.

Gurus: Pankaj Ghemawat, business strategy; Xavier Vives, competition policy; Jordi Canals, corporate strategy, corporate governance, globalization and banking; Pedro Nueno, expert in entrepreneurship and Asia; Luis Cabral, antitrust and competition policies; Johanna Mair and Christian Seelos, social responsibility and the bottom of the pyramid; policy; Nuria Chinchilla, gender equality in business.

International connections: Eighty per cent of students come from abroad, from 55 countries. The school has exchange programmes with 23 internationally-renowned schools, available to one in three second-year students each year. Schools include: NYU Stern, Wharton, MIT, Kellogg, LBS among others.

Student profile: The average age on the full-time MBA is 27; around a third of students are female.

Cost: €70,700 for the full-time MBA, the Executive MBA is €61,900.

Return on investment: 98 per cent of students clinched jobs three months after graduating.

Who’s the boss? Jordi Canals is the Dean of IESE Business School and Professor of Economics and General Management.

Prospectus: +34 93 253 4229; www.iese.edu; mbainfo@iese.edu