I enjoyed spending 3 days with the Dean and entrepreneurship faculty of Sweden’s USBE (Umea School of Business and Economics),  a longtime and active GBSN member. They are unique in having, for over a decade, nurtured Tanzanian Ph.D. candidates in a "sandwich" program funded by SIDA, the Swedish aid agency. In this program, doctoral candidates alternate studies in Dar es Salaam and Umea. Fifteen Tanzanian faculty have earned their Ph.D.s in this program, approximately half of the University of Dar es Salaam Business School's complement of Ph.D. faculty.

I ardently wish more funding becomes available in more countries for such programs, as they target the main stated need of business schools in Africa and other underserved regions: the extreme scarcity of faculty with Ph.Ds.

Meeting in Sweden with the team from USBE (From left, Per Nilsson, Hakon Boter, Hakon Bohman, Guy Pfeffermann, Lars Lindbergh)

Umea is a huge university, with over 30,000 students. Its Business School is inspiring other schools and departments within the University to engage in capacity-building for developing countries. At Dean Lindbergh’s invitation I joined USBE’s international advisory board, and am looking forward to deepening GBSN’s relationship with Scandinavia. On a different note, the world’s oldest pair of skis, dating all the way back to the Stone Age, are on display at Umea’s museum. I hope many of you will feel moved to visit this fascinating part of the world.