"While we can be proud of the achievements of the first ten years, they should not blind us to the challenges we still face to realize the ›big idea‹ of ESMT. To meet high academic standards and, at the same time, the expectations of practice will permanently keep us running. It’s a marathon."

WULFF PLINKE, Founding Dean of ESMT

"Berlin has one of the most diverse scientific landscapes in Europe. An international business school like ESMT is a valuable addition to this. It’s good to hear that so many international young professionals and researchers choose Berlin and ESMT as their place to study and work."

KLAUS WOWEREIT, Governing Mayor of Berlin

"ESMT has been on a path of successful expansion for some years. I am confident that the international business school will continue to grow in influence in Germany and internationally in the future."

MICHAEL DIEKMANN, Chairman of the Board of Management, Allianz, and Chairman of the ESMT Foundation Board of Trustees

"I have to congratulate all those who have contributed to ESMT. They have succeeded in less than a decade to be in the top ten in Europe which is an incredible achievement. And I must congratulate my fellow friends in the German industry for their responsible leadership on the foundation of ESMT."

GÜLER SABANCI, Chairman and Managing Director, Sabancı Holding

"ESMT has set an ambitious goal for itself, to gain entry into the select group of business schools with an outstanding international reputation for both teaching and research. After a comparatively short period of time, ESMT is well on its way to achieving that goal."

STANLEY BAIMAN, Chairman of ESMT Academic Board and William H. Lawrence Professor Emeritus of Accounting, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

"ESMT is successfully following the objectives set by its founders. In executive education, ESMT is already among the top ten in Europe."

CLEMENS BÖRSIG, Chairman of the ESMT Supervisory Board and former Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Deutsche Bank

"ESMT is ideally placed and even more so after this crisis. This school is in Berlin and there is a growing interest all of a sudden in international circles across continents for the German model, for the way in which political institutions function in Germany, for the behavior of management in Germany. So there is in my view a very promising match of growing interests both in Germany for the characteristic approach of this international school and for the world what a school based in Germany can offer, given the new landscape after the crisis."

MARIO MONTI, Prime Minister of Italy

"Having accompanied ESMT from the very beginning, I am proud to see the positive development of the international business school. With research and teaching relevant to today’s business, ESMT’s faculty is making a significant contribution that goes beyond academia."

HENNING SCHULTE-NOELLE, former Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Allianz

"Located in the capital of Europe's largest economy Germany, ESMT plays an important role as a platform for an interdisciplinary discourse on business and policy issues. In this tradition, ESMT brings together policy-makers, business leaders and academics in a unique setting, contributing significantly to our understanding of complex issues and thus influencing the public debate in Europe and beyond."

LARS-HENDRIK RÖLLER, Director General of the Economic and Financial Policy Division, German Federal Chancellery; former President of ESMT

"The complete renovation of the ESMT Learning Center, the former State Council Building of East Germany, was a challenge and a joy. ESMT boasts not only a historical location in the heart of Berlin, but also a state-of-the art campus. With thoughtful renovation and modernization, ESMT and project partners successfully preserved the GDR's founding work of postwar modernism."

JOHANNES SCHREY, HG Merz Architekten

"ESMT is a premier business school in the second largest economy in the world, Germany. Therefore I feel extremely honored, I feel very happy and I feel very grateful to the people that made it happen."

N.R. NARAYANA MURTHY, former Chairman of the Board and Chief Mentor, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

"ESMT is a place where you can always find lively academic debates and good speakers engaging with a very bright and international group of students."

QUENTIN PEEL, Financial Times Chief Correspondent in Germany

"ESMT was founded to meet the need for high-level, international management education within Germany. I congratulate the school on its success in attracting renowned professors and in educating bright young executives from around the world."

GERHARD CROMME, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, ThyssenKrupp

"Within Europe, Germany had always seemed to me a logical location for one of the continent's leading business schools. From the very beginning, our vision was to create a great teaching institution with research which could bring new insight and to keep our programs at the leading edge."

DEREK ABELL, Founding President of ESMT

Reflections on ESMT’s foundation by Derek Abell