INCAE - History

History

On March 23, 1963, in the midst of an integration effort by the nations of Central America, United States President John F. Kennedy visited Costa Rica and met with the presidents of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. In the meeting, the presidents requested President Kennedy’s assistance in establishing a business administration program that would produce future managers. On April 10, President Kennedy wrote to George P. Baker, Dean of the Harvard Business School, thanking the school for taking interest in the initiative. Dean Baker sent three professors, George Cabot Lodge, Henry Arthur and Thomas Raymond, to gauge the level of support from the business community and society at large in each of the Central American countries for a project that would help develop and improve the managerial skills of business leaders.

The response they received was extremely positive, and Francisco de Sola, a respected Salvadoran business leader, took the leadership role in consolidating support for the project. On December 13, 1963, a provisional Administrative Committee was appointed to head the project that only a year later would be known as the INCAE Project. Francisco de Sola was named Chairman of the Administrative Committee, a position he would hold for the next twenty years.

INCAE’s first academic program was the Advanced Management Program, PAG for its name in Spanish. Between the 1st of July and the 7th of August, 1964, forty-five executives from every country in the region gathered in Antigua, Guatemala for the program. The first PAG was taught by Harvard Business School professors. In subsequent years some PAG students would attend Harvard University’s International Teacher Program (ITP). Some of them would later go on to complete doctoral programs at the Harvard Business School, and return to become part of INCAE’s faculty. In 1969, INCAE’s first MBA was inaugurated.

Nicaragua was chosen as the country to house INCAE’s campus, and on June 20, 1969 INCAE’s first campus was inaugurated in Montefresco, Nicaragua. The seventy hectares site was purchased with funds raised through donations from the private sector and the different governments of Central America. This was the result of a campaign headed by INCAE’s National Committee in Nicaragua. Montefresco was chosen from the other options in Nicaragua because of its beautiful scenery and relatively cool climate. It was also relatively close to Managua, Nicaragua. The campus was built with a loan provided by the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE) with USAID funding. INCAE’s first fifteen MBA classes graduated in Nicaragua.

In 1983, INCAE decided to move its MBA Program. The second campus opened in Alajuela, Costa Rica. Costa Rica was chosen because of its history of stable governments and the existing infrastructure. In 1996, INCAE reopened the full-time MBA program in the Montefresco campus, and in 2000 the Montefresco campus was designated to house the Executive MBA program.

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