Russia’s Skolkovo School of Management Suspended from Global Network for Advanced Management
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the network’s steering committee announced that the Moscow-based school has been suspended from participation in network programming.
The steering committee of the Global Network for Advanced Management released the following statement on March 8, 2022:
In this statement, the Steering Committee of the Global Network for Advanced Management (GNAM) condemns the Russian invasion of Ukraine and announces the suspension of the Skolkovo School of Management from GNAM programming.
(Members of the Steering Committee are listed below along with a complete list of the 32 Member Schools.)
The Russian government’s attempt to end Ukraine’s sovereignty is an awful example of callous brutality. Now engaged in indiscriminate attacks, the Russian military is destroying Ukrainian society and threatening millions of innocent Ukrainian citizens. Unanimously and without qualification, the Steering Committee condemns the Russian government and expresses our support of Ukraine.
The Dean of Skolkovo School of Management, Yuri Levin, has expressed his deep concerns about the situation in Ukraine. Dean Levin’s personal statement, published in Poets & Quants, is compelling.
Dean Levin also communicated his request that the Steering Committee suspend Skolkovo and expressed his hope that Skolkovo might be able to resume its participation at some point in the future. The Steering Committee has reached a decision to suspend Skolkovo’s participation in GNAM programming, including Global Network Weeks, Global Virtual Teams, and Small Network Online Courses. This suspension will be in effect until December 2022 when the renewal of Skolkovo’s three-year term is scheduled for regular review.
The Steering Committee emphasizes that the suspension of Skolkovo is unfortunate. Since joining the network, Skolkovo has taken many steps to forward its worthy objective of developing Russian entrepreneurs who would engage globally. Those steps include participation in GNAM programming; in fact, earlier this calendar year Skolkovo students joined others around the network in our Global Virtual Teams module. Skolkovo also has worked to further develop its faculty and was in the process of co-designing new degree programs with other member schools.
With the invasion, however, this substantial progress comes to a halt. The very rationale for Skolkovo’s membership and its overall strategy are rendered invalid given that the Russian economy is on a path to become more isolated and less focused on the development of human capital. More practically, while we lack comprehensive knowledge of Skolkovo’s programs and operations, we expect the school to experience a substantial loss, if not an exodus of students, staff, and faculty. The straightforward implication is that Skolkovo will not be able to function as a viable member of the network. While we cannot be optimistic, we will remain steadfast in our hope that Russian and institutions like Skolkovo will be able to rejoin in the global economy.
The Steering Committee recognizes that it does not speak for all 32 member schools. Individual schools can decide whether to join in our condemnation of Russia. Moreover, GNAM has never prevented individual schools from pursuing bilateral or multi-lateral partnerships with other schools, whether they are part of GNAM or not. Each member school, therefore, has the right to decide how to engage with other schools, including Skolkovo. To the extent that individual schools can find ways to engage members of the Skolkovo community, the Steering Committee believes that such actions are consonant with GNAM’s mission to “drive innovation and create value by connecting leading global business schools, their resources, and their stakeholders.”
Steering Committee Members
- Jikyeong Kang (Asian Institute of Management)
- Jörg Rocholl (ESMT)
- Kaz Ichijo (Hitotsubashi University Business School, School of International Corporate Strategy)
- David Bach (IMD)
- Alberto Trejos (INCAE Business School)
- Nida Bektas (Koç University Graduate School of Business)
- Chris Ogbechie (Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic University)
- Edward A. Snyder (Yale School of Management)
- Kerwin Charles (Yale School of Management)
Global Network Schools
- Asian Institute of Management, Philippines
- Business School, Renmin University of China, China
- EGADE Business School, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico
- ESMT Berlin, Germany
- FGV Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo, Brazil
- Fudan University School of Management, China
- Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley, United States
- HEC Paris, France
- Hitotsubashi University Business School, School of International Corporate Strategy, Japan
- Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Business School, Hong Kong SAR China
- IE Business School, Spain
- IMD, Switzerland
- INCAE Business School, Costa Rica
- Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, India
- Koç University Graduate School of Business, Turkey
- Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic University, Nigeria
- National University of Singapore Business School, Singapore
- Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile School of Business, Chile
- Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
- School of Management SKOLKOVO, Russia
- SDA Bocconi School of Management, Bocconi University, Italy
- Seoul National University Business School, South Korea
- Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden
- Strathmore Business School, Kenya
- Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Israel
- UBC Sauder School of Business, Canada
- UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, Ireland
- University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, South Africa
- University of Ghana Business School, Ghana
- University of Indonesia Faculty of Economics, Indonesia
- UNSW Business School, Australia
- Yale School of Management, United States
