IBSA was founded as an association (IBSS) in 2002 by a group of persons who realized that in times of increasing globalization companies more and more require managers with an international academic background in management and leadership.
Among them were Prof. Bernd Schilcher, who has been working all his live towards a better educational system in Austria, Dr. Karl-Heinz Dernoscheg, all-times supporter of the Austrian economy and current Director of the Chamber of Commerce of Styria, Dr. Markus Tomaschitz, HR professional and board member of AVL List and Dr. Peter Härtel, head of the “Steirische Volkswirtschaftsliche Gesellschaft” for almost 40 years.
At the beginning IBSA started out with one cohort of students per year.
In 2010 a new academic partner was chosen by entering a co-operation with CLU University in California whose School of Management is headed by an Austrian educational expert, Prof. Dr. Gerhard Apfelthaler. Since then IBSA was able to scale the number of students to more than 50 per year in three different locations (Vienna, Graz, Linz). Since then more than 350 students from 25 different countries have completed their Executive MBA program with CLU in Austria.
Since 2010 IBSA is headed by DI Klaus Kersten, who has been working in the educational sector all his life and who completed the MBA program at CLU by himself in 2012.