Central American Institute of Business Administration

On March 23, 1963, President John F. Kennedy visited Costa Rica and met with the presidents of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. In the meeting, the presidents requested Kennedy’s assistance in establishing a business administration program that would produce future managers. On April 10, President Kennedy wrote to George P. Baker, Dean of the Harvard Business School, thanking the school for taking interest in the initiative. Dean Baker sent three professors, George Cabot Lodge, Henry Arthur and Thomas Raymond, to gauge the level of support from the business community and society at large in each of the Central American countries for the project. Francisco de Sola, a Salvadoran business leader, took the leadership role in consolidating support for the project. On December 13, 1963, a provisional administrative committee was appointed to head the project that would be known as the INCAE Project. Francisco de Sola was named Chairman of the Administrative Committee, a position he would hold for the next twenty years. INCAE’s first academic program was the Advanced Management Program, PAG for its name in Spanish. Between the first of July and the seventh of August, 1964, 45 executives from countries in the region gathered in Antigua, Guatemala, for the program. The first PAG was taught by Harvard Business School professors. In subsequent years some PAG students attended Harvard University’s International Teacher Program (ITP). Some of them later went on to complete doctoral programs at Harvard Business School and returned to become part of INCAE’s faculty. In 1969, INCAE’s first MBA was awarded.