GISMA Business School
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| Type | Private business school |
|---|---|
| Established | 1999 |
| Managing Director | Thorsten Thiel |
| Location | Berlin and Hanover, Germany |
| Campus | Urban |
| Owner | Global University Systems |
| Website | www |
GISMA Business School, (German International Graduate School of Management and Administration) is a privately owned business school located in Berlin and Hannover, Germany. It was launched in 1999 as a joint initiative by the state of Lower Saxony and private-sector enterprises. In financial difficulty after a partnership with Krannert School of Management ended, GISMA was rescued from bankruptcy when it was bought by the for-profit education company Global University Systems in 2013.
GISMA was founded in 1999 as a private non-profit organisation of the state of Lower Saxony. Among its founders was former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. According to reports, the idea of setting up an international school in one of the industrial regions of Germany came following a meeting with Bill Gates, bankers and CEOs. The initiative was supported by 26 German companies. During the initial years, organisations such as Continental AG, and Volkswagen supported the business school through annual grants and by enrolling their staff onto GISMA's MBA programme.
GISMA started offering an MBA awarded by Purdue University and delivered in partnership with Purdue's Krannert Graduate School of Management. The programme was delivered in two modules: an 11-month full-time programme and a two-year executive MBA programme run with a consortium of six partners from 1999 to 2013. GISMA also built an academic partnership with German public university Leibniz Universität Hannover, through which it offered a weekend MBA.
In 2012 GISMA began running into financial difficulties and started bankruptcy proceedings in June 2013. By that time its deficit had grown to 1.2 million euros, the Lower Saxony Ministry of Economic Affairs had frozen its annual grant, and Volkswagen had canceled its sponsorship. Its former CEO Sonning Bredemeier told the Financial Times that there were a number of factors contributing to the school's insolvency, including a downturn in student numbers in 2012 with only 24 students enrolling in the MBA program that year.
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