DIRECTOR’S DESPATCH
A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE ON PROGRESS AMBA & BGA membership director Victor Hedenberg charts how business schools have embraced female leadership over the past decade, paving the way for more women to take up senior management positions and make an impact on a global scale
W hen I first in a very different industry. Back then our focus was almost entirely on the MBA, whereas today we cover the full spectrum of business education, from undergraduate to postgraduate level and beyond, via the launch of BGA accreditation in 2019. In addition, across both student cohorts and business school leadership teams, males heavily predominated. Indeed, a few months into my first role at the organisation, the annual AMBA Application and Enrolment Report showed that only 32 per cent of enrolled MBA students across our global network were female. This underrepresentation also stood out in my earliest conversations with deans and other school leaders. Tasked with building awareness for AMBA & BGA’s industry-leading events, such as the Global Deans & Directors Conference, I discovered that only around one in six business school deans were women. While many institutions had female faculty, few were involved in senior joined AMBA & BGA a decade ago, it was a very different organisation, operating
From one sizeable shift in personal experience, it is possible to glean how an entire industry has begun to embrace female leadership, even in countries where, until recently, it was often unheard of to find a woman in a senior management role. Of course, when women take on leadership positions, they serve as inspiration for others to follow and for high-potential women who dream of making a difference in the world. In this sense, they also embody the ideals of the Business Graduates Association and its movement for responsible management and positive impact. There is still much to do. A cursory glance at the average FTSE100 board and c-suite serves as a valuable reminder that women are still vastly underrepresented at the upper echelons of management. However, even here, the trend is in the right direction. At companies listed on the OMX Stockholm 30 stock index, for example, nearly 37 per cent of board members are now women, up from 17 per cent in 2003. I believe that the work being done in higher education and progress in the industry worldwide is having an impact here and that this should be recognised. We hear a lot of bad news these days, but it’s important to celebrate and highlight good news, while we continue to strive for greater equality.
leadership and despite impressive CVs, many were often relegated to administrative tasks. Today, the latest AMBA Application and Enrolment Report indicates that approximately 40 per cent of all MBA enrolments are women, with regions such as Southeast Asia, India and Africa making some of the clearest improvements across the world. Yet, what’s more astonishing to me is how my interactions with schools have evolved over these past 10 years, with nearly one third of my discussions now taking place with female deans, who stand at the helm of leading business schools in every corner of the world. “Although women are still vastly underrepresented at the upper echelons of management, the trend is in the right direction”
38 Business Impact • ISSUE 3 • 2025
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