COLUMBUS, OH (October 29, 2010)--Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University was selected for membership in the Global Business School Network (GBSN), an international non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening management education in emerging market countries.

GBSN, based in Washington, D.C., aims to create a public-private partnership to strengthen the skills of managers in emerging markets by expanding opportunities for management education and training in these countries. Management education is widely considered to be a critical component of successful international development strategies because it provides a stronger pool of local leadership and management talent for all sectors.

"GBSN welcomes Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business as a new member school,” said Guy Pfeffermann, CEO. “Besides having risen rapidly in business school rankings, Fisher College of Business excels in agribusiness and emerging markets education. Fisher membership in the network is especially timely as GBSN is working with African and Latin American business schools toward serving better the needs of local agribusiness and emerging entrepreneurs, key players in these regions’ economic and social development."

Fisher, which houses a U.S. Department of Education’s Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER), is uniquely positioned to support the goals and mission of GBSN through the college’s cutting-edge international programs and interdisciplinary curriculum.

“From our world-class scholars to our entrepreneurial students, the Fisher community has demonstrated a commitment to improving the economic conditions in emerging markets,” said Christine A. Poon, dean and John W. Berry, Sr. Chair in Business at Fisher. “Fisher’s innovative programs include a faculty-student-alumni collaborative project that helps rural villages in Bolivia establish micro-enterprises and a student-organized annual conference, ‘Alleviating Poverty through Entrepreneurship.’ We are pleased to join forces with GBSN and other business schools, because through our collective expertise and shared resources we can make a difference in the lives of our global neighbors who are most in need.”

Fisher’s international action-based learning projects and curricular programs emphasize the development of skills in sustainable business, risk management, micro-enterprise, global innovation and entrepreneurship. In addition to Bolivia, Fisher has expanded its education programs to emerging global business settings in Peru, Vietnam, Ethiopia and Brazil.

In response to the need for management expertise in food production and agriculture in emerging markets, Fisher and Ohio State’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences began offering dual degrees this year. The program was designed to provide management education in enterprise and supply chain management, agriculture-food processing and economic development. This interdisciplinary program fits precisely with Ohio State’s land-grant mission to educate a work force capable of managing pressing economic needs even at a global level.

About the Global Business School Network (GBSN)
The Global Business School Network is an international non-profit network of leading business schools dedicated to strengthening the next generation of skilled managers in developing countries. Drawing on its exclusive network of top business schools and organizational partners around the world, GBSN couples global best practice with local relevance resulting in a high-powered approach to management education. GBSN programs enable business schools to provide business and management students with rigorous yet practical training, resulting in a stronger pool of local leadership and management talent for all sectors.

About Fisher College of Business
Ranked by U.S. News and World Report among the top 25 business schools in the country, The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business offers full-time, part-time and executive MBA, Master of Accounting Master of Labor and Human Resources, Master of Business Logistics Engineering and Master in Operational Excellence programs. The college of business was started in 1916, and was named the Fisher College of Business in 1993, in honor of Max M. Fisher, a noted philanthropist, industrialist and alumnus of the college.