International Institute for Management Development (IMD)

IMD

Logo of IMD
Type	Private Business School
Established	1990
President	Jean-François Manzoni
Academic staff	60
Administrative staff	300
Students	8,000
Other students	90
Location	Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland 46°31′N 6°37′E / 46.51°N 6.62°E / 46.51; 6.62Coordinates: 46°31′N 6°37′E / 46.51°N 6.62°E / 46.51; 6.62
Campus	Urban
Website	http://www.imd.org/
Alumni: 100,000

IMD is an executive business education school located in Lausanne, Switzerland. In 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, it was ranked first in open programs worldwide by the Financial Times. The FT also places IMD at second in Custom Programs, with the school jumping up two places from fourth in 2016. IMD remained in second place in the combined custom and open program rankings, maintaining its spot from last year.

IMD was formed in January 1990 through the merger of independent management education centers International Management Institute (Geneva) (IMI), established in 1946 by Alcan, and Institut pour l'Etude des Methodes de Direction de l'Entreprise (IMEDE) Lausanne established in 1957 by Nestlé. The new organization, the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), settled in Lausanne. The history of IMEDE and its merger with IMI is documented in Jean-Pierre Jeannet and Hein Schreuder (2015, chapters 2 and 4) Its industrial heritage is unusual for business schools, which are usually university-affiliated.

IMD business school solely provides executive education; it is determinedly not part of a university, and there are no academic departments, just one integrated multidisciplinary faculty. The professors do not have permanent academic tenure but work under one-year contracts and a performance based pay package. The faculty consists of 60 full-time members, made up of 23 different nationalities. The current President is Jean-François Manzoni, who follows Dominique Turpin, John R. Wells and Peter Lorange. The latter ran the school from 1993 till 2008 and has been widely credited with having established IMD as one of the world's leading business schools.

IMD focuses on training and developing general management and leadership skills. IMD selects experienced candidates for both the Master of Business Administration (MBA) (average age 31) and the Executive MBA (average age 41). Its other focus is to have a broad international group of participants attending open programs to ensure that no nationality dominates. Every year, some 8,000 executives, representing over 98 nationalities attend one of the programs.