ALAN Chan, chief executive officer of Singapore Press Holdings, the parent company of this newspaper, is an alumnus. So is Helen Alexander, CEO of The Economist Group.
The illustrious list of Insead alumni is not confined just to newspaper and media top executives.
Indonesia's Vice-President Jusuf Kalla, Bank of England's deputy governor Andrew Large and the corporate chiefs of Tata Steel, Kodak Eastman, L'Oreal and Merrill Lynch Japan were also students of this renowned graduate business school.
Insead graduates continued to be sought after by top employers worldwide. Its 2005 class of MBA graduates were snapped up by the likes of McKinsey & Company, Google, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Boston Consulting Group.
Distinctive in particular for its global perspective and multicultural diversity, Insead admits students who excel in academic performance, career progress, interpersonal skills and leadership potential. All applicants must hold a bachelor's degree or equivalent and must be fluent in English and at least bilingual. And they are required to learn a third language before finishing their programmes.
Set up in 1957 in France, the school has as its motto "The Business School for the World". Insead's students come from 70 nationalities, with no one nationality representing more than 15 per cent of the student body. The mother tongues of MBA programme students in the 2006 classes were English 17 per cent, French 13 per cent, Hindi 8.0 per cent, Spanish 6.0 per cent, German 5.0 per cent, Mandarin 4.0 per cent, Portuguese 4.0 per cent and others 43 per cent.
Insead has two full facility campuses - one in Fontainebleau, France; and the other in Singapore. They are officially called Europe Campus and Asia Campus and there's no distinction in admission. Most elective courses are offered on both campuses.
There are 143 faculty members from over 30 countries and they teach nearly 900 MBA students, 56 Executive MBA candidates, 6,400 executives and 71 PhD students from over 75 countries on the two campuses.
