Classes kicked off April 12 in Beijing for the Smith School’s new cohort of executive MBA students in China. The Smith School partners with China’s University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) to offer the joint 18-month degree program. The partnership began in 2003 and relaunches this year after a four-year hiatus. The program focuses on executive coaching, entrepreneurship and global perspectives. Greg Hanifee, assistant dean of executive programs at the Smith School, greeted the new class in an opening ceremony during the program’s first course session.

College Park, Md. and Beijing, China - September 28, 2007 - The University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business today announced its executive MBA program in China is No. 1 among the Most Valuable EMBA Programs jointly ranked by the World Executive Weekly, The Mundell magazine and theWorld Brand Laboratory. The three organizations are subsidiaries of the World Executive Group, an organization established in 1999 and chaired by Nobel Economics laureate Robert A. Mundell.