Thunderbird School opens office in Seoul
Thunderbird School of Global Management, an international business school at Arizona State University in Phoenix, opened its office in Seoul, Thursday.
Sanjheev Khagram, the dean and director general of Thunderbird School, said he hopes to build important relationships with South Korean companies and government agencies.
The office is the school’s second in Asia, following the first one in Japan. Seoul was selected for its location as it was deemed one of the 20 major cities around the world that has a large economy, strong market and growing population, Khagram said.
“We feel we uniquely provide the education today’s global leaders need. But we don’t just want people to come as much as Phoenix. We believe we have to get out to the world,” Khagram told The Korea Times.
The office will act as a bridge for Korea and Thunderbird, providing online courses in which students can get digital degrees and helping company employees take business programs. With the Seoul office as a base, Thunderbird School plans to reach out to other Asian countries to recruit students from Vietnam, Cambodia and maybe even North Korea in the future.
“Places we have selected are those that have huge impact on not only its own country but the region and often times globally,” he said.
“For any Korean students, whether young, professional, or leaders who want to have greater access, we believe we could do anything that Thunderbird could offer.”
As a critical asset to become a global leader in this century, Khagram highlighted the school’s mission to promote and advance sustainable prosperity around the world.
He mentioned his personal background of Indian heritage, and his experience as a refugee that impacted him greatly in deliberating about sustainable prosperity.
His parents were some of the wealthiest people in Uganda, but lost everything when they fled from the dictatorship and landed in the United States.
“They made sure we had the opportunity to study and become successful, but also taught us to give back, because you can be successful and wealthy but things can always change overnight like what happened to us,” he said.
As a global economist, Khagram explains the key to sustainable pros- perity has three parts: holistic point of view, hard and soft skills and leadership characteristics.
“We believe we need many more people with a combination of skills, not only leadership skill and understanding of the global economy and technology but also language and culture,” he said.
Thunderbird School, headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, was selected as No. 1 Master in Management ranking by Wall Street Journal for 2019.