The Association of Business School (ABS) is pleased to announce a formal collaboration with the Association of Asia Pacific Business Schools (AAPBS), by way of a reciprocal membership agreement. Combined the organisations represent nearly 300 business schools and over 500,000 business and management students.

This comes at an exciting time for the ABS as Paul Marshall has recently taken over as Chief Executive and the ABS is also celebrating its 20th anniversary.

This development cements an exciting strategic alliance, which will ensure the two organisations work is aligned going forwards, including: capacity building, joint events, research, publications, membership on committees and added value for each membership base.

Professor Angus Laing, Chairman of the ABS and Dean of the School of Business and Economics at Loughborough University welcomed this development, and said:

“This announcement comes at a pivotal moment in ABS’ development, business and management by its very nature is global and we, as an organisation need to reflect this in our strategic plan, alliances and offerings to our membership. It is a very exciting opportunity indeed.

Asia, is the largest and most populous of the continents and has grown faster than any other region of the world. This, twinned with the globalisation of business and management education, is a powerful combination. This development will ensure that the UK and Asia have a closer bond that the business and management community will benefit from accordingly, as well as providing us with an unrivalled opportunity to develop new ways of working”.

Hirokazu Kono, the President of the AAPBS, Dean, Keio Business School, Japan says:

“It is my honor and privilege to convey my message as President of AAPBS, on the occasion of the relationship between ABS and AAPBS being tightened. It is a significant step forward to a firmer bridge between the United Kingdom and Asia-Pacific in the area of business research and education.

AAPBS member schools need to elaborate on our own research on business systems in the Asia-Pacific region. At the same time, there are a lot to learn from the management ways of the United Kingdom, which is one of the countries with the longest and most prestigious history in the world. I would like to express my gratitude to ABS for offering us a great learning opportunity and to ABS members for your efforts to realize this collaboration. I sincerely hope that our partnership will be a fruitful one for both organisations”.

For further information about the ABS please visit: www.associationofbusinessschools.org