IE Business School has created a Corporate MBA for the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD). The school and the ICD signed a partnership agreement at the start of the program, which opens with the first of the two residential periods in Madrid, Spain, next week.

The agreement aims to create the program specifically developed for the employees of ICD, IDB Group and private sector entities from their member countries.

The 15-month Corporate MBA program will include 10 residential periods, each of one week duration. The opening and closing sessions, including the graduation ceremony, will take place on the IE Business School campus in Madrid, and six residential periods will be held at ICD headquarters in Jeddah. The remaining two modules will be taught by faculty at the collaborating US-based schools. The graduates of the ICD MBA will receive an MBA degree from IE Business School.

The core ICD MBA curriculum will include marketing, accounting, strategy, economics, finance – including valuation and behavioral finance — operations, and entrepreneurship. Instruction at Harvard Kennedy School will include a policy perspective on the MBA curriculum.

Abdelziz Mustafa, commenting on the agreement on behalf of ICD CEO Khaled Al-Aboodi, said: “The mandate of ICD is basically the development. We are certain that a critical part of the development is education. In this regard, ICD management is keen to build the capacity of its staff in order to be able to develop and apply the best practices in our markets in the member countries.”

“This institutional MBA, which we developed specifically for ICD, is unique in terms of learning objectives covered and the manner in which the format is delivered. Especially our collaboration with the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts adds the necessary political perspective to the program,” said IE Business School Dean of Programs Martin Boehm.