Held on December 9, the winners – spanning seven countries – were revealed in front of an audience of more than 210 business school leaders, finalists and judges.

Six institutions were recognised, with India’s Athena School of Management taking home the BGA Business School Impact Award for its initiatives on stakeholder impact, particularly in the Global South.

TBS Education in France was recognised in the Best Innovation Strategy category for its ‘The Blind Search’ initiative, whereby students pitch their research project for two minutes to tutors unable to see who is pitching. Inspired by the TV singing competition ‘The Voice’, the program sought to engage, motivate, surprise and entertain students.

The Universidad Externado de Colombia was awarded the Best Lifelong Learning Initiative for its ‘Privilegios Program’ seeking to “enhance relationships” between students, graduates, the business world and the school.

School of Business, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies was awarded the Best CSR and Sustainability Initiative gong for ‘Training Global Talent with CSR Competency and a Sense of Sustainability’.

Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University won the Best Business School Partnership category for its Talent Academy partnership with the Dutch Brazilian Chambers bringing together young professionals from the Dutch business community in Brazil.

A program aiming to foster women’s readiness for boards and eliminating barriers to entry at The School of Business at the American University in Cairo took home the Best Culture, Diversity and Inclusion Initiative award.

Five winners were recognised in the four individual categories.

Damien Demoor from Audencia Business School was awarded MBA Startup of the Year for his maritime CleanTech business GREENOV, which seeks to protect marine ecosystems from acoustic disturbances caused by offshore wind turbines.

MBA Entrepreneur of the Year was jointly awarded to another Audencia graduate as well as Jinlong Ming from the School of Management, Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China.

Serial entrepreneur Jérôme Pasquet was recognised for the PeeK’in solution for hoteliers to return forgotten items to owners, and Jinlong Ming was awarded for his work on construction company Anhui Conch New Materials Technology.

Two graduates of UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, University College Dublin, were recognised for their achievements in the MBA Leadership Award and the MBA Student of the Year categories.

Chartered physiotherapist Kerry McLaverty won the MBA Leadership Award recognising her work at Ireland’s only childrenʼs hospice, with the qualification helping her to oversee record fundraising revenues for LauraLynn year-on-year.

“This year the competition was stronger than ever”

Fardod O’Kelly was crowned MBA Student of the Year for developing a thriving new surgical practice during Covid and expanding access to surgery for children in the west/south of Ireland via a new public/private partnership.

“This year the competition was stronger than ever,” Andrew Main Wilson, chief executive of the Association of MBAs and Business Graduates Association, said.

“The entries who have made the final shortlist in each category should feel proud of their achievements.”

In total, 59 entries from 19 countries made the final shortlist, with 16 entries highly commended by judges made up of AMBA board members, business experts, deans and management leaders.

“Additionally, the students and graduates who have been shortlisted as finalists today have all used their qualifications to achieve a spectrum of impressive results, in terms of the positive impact they have made to business, education and society as a whole,” Main Wilson added.

“It was thrilling to be able to celebrate the AMBA networks achievements in person at our Gala dinner – our first in person awards ceremony since 2020.”

The full list of winners and highly commended is available here.