By José Ángel de la Paz

EGADE Business School at Tecnológico de Monterrey participated in the 2020 edition of CentreCourt, an admissions festival featuring the top MBA programs in the world.

This year the annual event organized by Poets&Quants, the leading global online publication for business education news, evolved into a virtual format due to the COVID-19 contingency and brought together 33 prestigious business schools who were able to interact with more than 3,000 candidates from over 75 countries through digital lectures, panel discussions, interviews, and chat rooms.

Ignacio de la Vega, dean at EGADE Business School and the Undergraduate Business School at Tec de Monterrey, had a keynote conference with John A. Byrne, editor-in-chief of Poets&Quants, in which they discussed business education trends from a post-pandemic perspective.

“The future of business education was already on the table years ago; COVID-19 is only accelerating our industry's transformation. We need to be bold and innovative to remain relevant,” said de la Vega.

Meanwhile, Jaime Martínez Bowness, director of the EGADE Business School campus in Mexico City, participated in a career development panel with representatives from the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, Cambridge Judge Business School and McCombs School of Business, led by Matt Symonds, an author and correspondent for Forbes, the BBC, and The Economist.

“Innovation, digital disruption, and entrepreneurship are at the core of our programs. Now more than ever, companies expect more from our students, especially in sectors that involve digital transformation,” said Martínez.

Eric Porras, national director of EGADE Business School's MBA programs, also participated in an admissions panel with colleagues from Harvard Business School, Kellogg School of Management, and McCombs School of Business, which led as well by Symonds.

“We are looking for candidates who are aligned with our mission, omnipreneurial leaders who are capable of creating shared value and transforming society,” said Porras.

In addition, Jorge Luis Torres Aguilar, who is both president at FedEx Express Mexico as well as at the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico (AmCham), and who was awarded as Influential Leader of the Class of 2020 by AACSB International, was interviewed about his experience as an OneMBA graduate from EGADE Business School. 

"One of the highlights of OneMBA is its global perspective. The program allows you to live a truly global experience through a series of residencies around the world," he said.

EGADE Business School, the only academic institution from Latin America that was invited to participate, shared information on its MBA program portfolio, interacting with candidates through apps such as Whoa and Zoom.

Some of the other schools in attendance were Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, the MIT Sloan School of Management, UC-Berkeley Haas School of Business, HEC Paris and London Business School.