A Business School by Business People
Bertil Hult
Swedish
Founder, Hult International Business School
Founding a different way of learning
Bertil Hult wasn’t born a businessman. Growing up in Sweden in the 1940s, he struggled in a system that didn’t allow his dyslexia to be seen as anything other than a limit. Inspired by his own learning of the English language, he went on to found EF Education First, the world’s largest provider of experiential language travel, and become benefactor of the Arthur D. Little Management Education Institute in Massachusetts, USA. In 2003, he became its namesake, and Hult International Business School was born.
1964
The Management Education Institute in Boston is formed by Arthur D. Little Inc., the world’s oldest management consulting firm.
2003
Renamed Hult International Business School, honoring benefactor Bertil Hult’s vision and commitment to educating international business leaders.
2005
Becomes first US school to have its MBA accredited by the Association of MBAs (AMBA).
2014
Forms alliance with Ashridge Business School, merging operationally in 2015.
2014
The MBA curriculum, redesigned in collaboration with business leaders and employers, wins AMBA’s 2014 Innovation Award.
2017
Earns global accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).
2018
Awarded EQUIS accreditation, officially achieving the coveted “triple-crown” status—the first US business school to do so.
2020
In the midst of a global pandemic, Hult launched its first Live Online degrees.
Meet your school president
Dr. Hodges is someone who knows business firsthand. His own career has taken him from management to finance to education, from Europe to Asia and back again. He also knows what’s needed for you to succeed. Not all business schools teach for the real world—offering the tangible skills that employers need, that will empower you to get the job done. At Hult, it’s how we lead.
From one student’s idea to a global movement. For more than a decade, the Hult Prize has been transforming how students envision themselves as leaders of change. Every year, participants compete to solve a challenge that’s impacting billions of lives. Competitors receive coaching and mentorship as they build a team, formulate ideas, create their business, run pilots, and pitch to influential audiences at each round in the hope of winning 1M USD to launch their social enterprise. It’s an educational experience of a lifetime and the ultimate example of Hult’s learning-by-doing philosophy.
Sumana Samuk’s MBA team Green Hands made it to the top three in the Regional Finals in 2017.
“The challenge was restoring dignity to ten million refugees. We focused on Lebanon, which has the highest density of refugees in the world. To us, restoring dignity meant empowering them with the chance to earn a living. We had a simple concept: collect and convert waste plastic bottles into jackets and sell on.”
Hanny, Patricio, and Ikram—team Enpov—were the first undergrad team from Hult to reach the Accelerator Finals in 2019.
“We secured corporate sponsorship to travel to Ethiopia to research and pilot our idea to increase access to the agriculture market. We knocked on doors from businesses to government officials, and our business model evolved significantly. Our research led to us designing a hybrid electric tricycle, and a contact in Sudan built a prototype for us.”
