The Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) and Duke Corporate Education (Duke CE), a corporation held by Duke University in North Carolina, USA, have announced a collaborative arrangement to develop and deliver custom corporate education programmes in India and the Middle East.

Housed on the IIM Ahmedabad campus, the initiative will leverage the resources and capabilities of each institution to extend Duke CE's business model in India and the Middle East. The corporation's philosophy of using education as a means to help clients effect corporate strategy has led to repeated #1 rankings for its non-degree customised education programmes in FT and BusinessWeek .

"This is a matter of the best joining with the best," said Duke CE's CEO, Blair Sheppard, noting that IIM-A has been consistently rated as the best B-School in India and among the top ranking B-schools in the Asia-Pacific region. "We're delighted to be partnering with another world-class institution to extend our reach to India and the Middle East."

IIM-A director Bakul Dholakia agreed, citing Duke CE's strong growth and existing programme deliveries in 43 countries. Both parent institutions regard the collaborative venture, Dr. Dholakia says, "not as an experiment but as a logical and inevitable expression of our mutual goals."

IIM-A has also engaged with Duke University's Fuqua School of Business to design open enrollment programmes for executive education for the global market.

Duke CE has offices throughout the United States and a major presence in Europe, where it operates a successful joint venture with Enterprise LSE housed at the London School of Economics.

Dr Shailendra Mehta, who currently teaches Strategic Management at Purdue University and who holds degrees from the Universities of Delhi and Oxford as well as a PhD from Harvard, has been named to head the venture. Duke CE managing director William J. Bigoness, who previously headed the joint venture in London, will also be joining the initiative as COO for India.