Romanian Leaders Graduate Top EU Executive MBA Program

23 Romanian alumni, current and future C-level managers, entrepreneurs, have just graduated the Bucharest Executive MBA (EMBA) program of the WU Executive Academy, part of the Vienna University of Economics and Business, Europe’s largest Business University, in Vienna, Austria.

The program, present on the Romanian market since 2006, is part-time and is stretching on 16 months, 14 modules, with one international residency in USA/Asia and 2 in Austria.  It was ranked No 1 Executive MBA in Romania in 2008, 2010, 2014 and 2015 and is in the top 15EMBA programs in the EU, (#14), according to the Financial Times Executive MBA Ranking 2024. It holds triple accreditation (EQUIS, AMBA and AACSB), which places WU among the 1% international universities and business schools that benefit from this accreditation.

The program has had 500 graduates so far, with 68% having made solid career progress. 84% were Romanians, 15% other nationalities, mainly from the CEE region. The most numerous alumni come from such sectors as finance/insurance (23%), IT/telecommunication (21%), industry/manufacturing (9%), commerce (7%), energy (7%) and pharmaceutics (5%).

How it all started?

Prof. Phillip Nell – Academic Director of WU Executive MBA Bucharest (Prof. for Global Strategy, Competence Center for Emerging Markets & CEE at WU) explained to us how the Bucharest Executive MBA started 19 years ago. He said that in early 2000s there was a sort of backlash in the Romanian society due to Austrian companies’ buying some important national assets in Romania, and so companies like OMV and Erste wanted to bring a positive contribution to the Romanian business educational system.

“At that time, there was significant political backlash in Romania regarding the deals with OMV Petrom and Erste BCR, as many people felt the country was selling off its established national companies to Western corporations, often perceived negatively. In response to this sentiment, both OMV and Erste decided to take action and contribute positively to Romania by supporting education — specifically, by sponsoring programs for Romanian managers.

This initiative marked the beginning of everything: the two companies, together with WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business), launched what would later become a longstanding educational collaboration. A few years down the line, the companies felt their mission was accomplished, and WU chose to continue the initiative, recognizing its value and potential. What started as a response to a specific moment in history gradually evolved into a formal and permanent program in Romania.

So, in that sense, it wasn’t originally a strategic initiative by WU itself. It emerged organically, driven by the commitment of Erste Bank and OMV. Fast forward to today, this background explains why our program is the only one of its kind outside of Austria — and why it holds a very special place for WU. It’s not just about geography. This program is unique in its clear focus on the region and the specific needs of local professionals,” Phillip Nell said.

Why is it so successful and appealing to candidates?

“Because we offer a distinctive combination of elements that set us apart from many other programs. First and foremost, the quality is outstanding. We bring in professors not only from WU but also from top international institutions such as IESE and the University of South Carolina — the number one U.S. school for international business, for example.

This world-class content and faculty are combined with a local cohort, creating a powerful mix of international excellence and local relevance. Participants benefit from high-level instruction while building local networks, engaging in region-specific projects, and sharing insights that matter in their context.

This combination is rare. In many other programs, you’ll find local cohorts and local professors, maybe with a module abroad — perhaps one week in the U.S., for example — but otherwise, it remains a locally anchored experience. Our program, by contrast, brings together the best of both worlds,” the academic director of WU Executive MBA Bucharest pointed out.

Nell also underlined that the WU MBA program, apart from being a good career investment, it is not only about getting the degree, it has a very unique position. “It is a sweet spot for people who want to get this top-notch content and still think that Romania is an important location for them in the future (…) I think it’s this combination of content, faculty, location, network, cohort, that’s why we have nearly exclusively Romanians, plus a little bit of Bulgarian, Moldovan or Serbian”.

In his turn, Professor Bodo B. Schlegelmilch, Dean and Academic Director of the Global Executive MBA at WU Vienna, talked on the vision behind the program:

“Our focus is on developing modern leadership—not just creating hierarchical managers, but empowering individuals to become true leaders. We emphasize the importance of self-leadership, including the often-overlooked strength of knowing when and how to say ‘no’.

Our program is at the forefront of AI and digital innovation, with expert professors delivering cutting-edge insights that prepare participants for the evolving business landscape. We continue to believe in the power of globalization—and we encourage our students not to lose faith in its potential to create opportunities and foster collaboration across borders.

Leadership today requires more than financial motivation. Understanding what drives different generations is key, and we delve into these evolving motivators to build more inclusive and inspired leadership.

Finally, we teach differently. Our goal is to ignite enthusiasm and curiosity in our students—to inspire, not just instruct.”

Important changes as of the next program starting in November: Focus on Reflective Practice

Starting with the next intake, the Bucharest Executive MBA program will undergo significant enhancements designed to deepen learning, foster personal growth, and strengthen leadership development, as Prof. Phillip Nell announced.

One of the key innovations is the introduction of a cross-module reflection component. This new layer will run throughout the entire program, encouraging participants to continuously reflect on what they’ve learned, how the content connects across modules, and how it applies to their own professional journey. The approach is highly interactive and designed to stimulate critical thinking, self-awareness, and personal insight — going beyond traditional learning methods.

Participants will engage in structured feedback and reflection activities in each module, making the learning experience not only more personalized but also more interconnected. Rather than seeing the modules as isolated blocks, students will be encouraged to view them as part of a larger, evolving narrative about leadership, strategy, and career development.

This new dimension has already received positive recognition from international accreditation bodies, and will now be integrated more broadly across WU Executive Academy’s programs. At the heart of this enhancement is what we call the Leadership Lab, a space that ties together academic insights and personal development with a strong business and organizational focus. It is called a Reflective Practice approach, meaning work on the job during MBA, reflect upon work/job and how it relates to some academic content covered thus far.

”This has been valued a lot by the accreditation agencies, and that’s why we roll it up. And I think it will be very good for the overall experience. It’s called the Leadership lab, focusing more on the business perspective, on the firm perspective, but it’s the same kind of idea of connecting the modules to one other on a leadership development”, Phillip Nell pointed out.

In addition, the MBA is introducing greater global flexibility to their international residency module. Beginning with the next cohort, participants will have the option to choose between a study trip to the United States or Singapore, expanding their global exposure and networking opportunities. This change also helps accommodate potential visa constraints while ensuring all participants gain valuable international business insights — including more interaction with the dynamic Asian business landscape, which has been underrepresented until now.

“We’ll also alternate the MBA program one year in US, next year in Singapore…because so far we haven’t much Asian contact. We will give the students the option if they want to go to US, or Singapore., flexibility, we will do it irrespectively of the funds or the visa issue,” Nell commented.

These updates are launched with the upcoming November 2025 cohort.

The winning capstone presentation

Getting back to the cohort graduating this month, there have been 23 Romanian students mainly from the IT, banking, finance sectors, but not only, who have just got their MBAs at WU after the 16-month program, managers, software engineers, entrepreneurs, who gained new C-suite skills, but who also gave something in return, their innovative input. They presented their capstone projects in 4-people teams, launching new ideas or revealing already implemented projects. Speaking with some of them, they told us that among the most important gains after this program, besides the high teaching standard, awesome professors and flexibility, were the networking with the colleagues and professors, the perspective of self-development and the 360-degree image over their own business or over the corporate environment they are working in.

SustainFactor project, a fully digital, AI-driven factoring platform, was awarded as the best capstone projects of this cohort, being voted by the jury and also winning the popularity award (voted by the other teams). They will also benefit of a voucher offered by the Entrepreneurship Center at WU. This voucher allows the team to participate in the WU “Startup League” Program and work on implementing its entrepreneurial idea.

The “Startup League” was created to support startups and projects that aspire to become startups in their entrepreneurial journey.

Workshops, mentoring and presentations by experts are key elements of the program, which begins every winter semester.

An extensive report on SustainFactor and on three other capstone projects from various fields presented by the Romanian alumni will be available on Romania Journal in the coming days.

How was this cohort special? Professor Phillip Nell said that, besides that the variety of sectors represented by the alumni was not so different from the previous ones, like banking, finance, IT, FMCG or entrepreneurship, the cohort of November 2024-April 2025 stood out through something special: the quality of the projects was higher, and this is also due to the credit of the Artificial Intelligence (AI).

“I think that the entrepreneurial project quality has increased a bit, right on average, these are better projects than in the past. My hunch it is because we train them a lot in this in various ways. This is because of AI, because we can use AI now in many different ways, for checking out a lot. IT tools don’t take over the job of the students, but they help in fine tuning, a lot of stuff in between, and I think this makes the projects better. Of course, the projects come from them, but it’s about fine tuning. It’s about asking the AI, what do you think? You have an MBA degree, so you are at the top, but with AI, you’ll have a much broader, better understanding of a lot of different types of fields. Your AI input will move you upwards much more. That’s why I think, why this general MBA education is gaining a lot with AI”, the professor noted.

More details about the WU Executive Academy: www.executiveacademy.at

And about the Executive MBA Bucharest Program: www.executiveacademy.at/emba-buc