By Business & Finance 
Pictured (from l-r): (l-r) New Academic Director for UCD Smurfit Executive Development (SED) Professor Joe Peppard, UCD College of Business Dean Professor Tony Brabazon and former Academic Director for SED Professor Pat Gibbons.
UCD Smurfit Executive Development has achieved a ranking of 35th globally in the prestigious 2023 Financial Times Executive Education Open Enrolment Rankings.
“To be ranked 35th in the world is an outstanding achievement and speaks to the depth and breadth of our faculty expertise and the premium that our participants place on original thinking and continuous personal development,” said Professor Joe Peppard, who was recently named as the new Academic Director of UCD Smurfit Executive Development.
“The launch of Ireland’s Year of Skills Report earlier this month, highlighted that significant investment in skills, including support for developing management capabilities and adoption of high-performance work practices, is the essential ingredient to ensure that organisations across Ireland can increase productivity, innovation and competitiveness,” continued Peppard.
“As a global leader, UCD Smurfit Executive Development has a track record of enhancing participants’ leadership skills at the highest levels, allowing them to immediately give back to their organisations to advance business and team performance. Satisfaction and reputation are evidenced by growing participant numbers year on year, and with many attendees returning for additional programmes, we will continue to play a significant role in supporting Ireland’s economic growth,” concluded Peppard.
Within the ranking criteria, UCD Smurfit Executive Development is globally ranked 25th place for New Skills and Learning, 28th place for Aims Achieved and 28th place for International Location which highlights the extent to which programmes are run off-site and outside the school’s base country and region bringing diversity of thought to the learning environment.
“In today’s challenging and dynamic environment, excellence of business leadership and the continued upskilling of all leaders is more important than ever,” said UCD College of Business Dean Professor Anthony Brabazon.
“Smurfit Executive Education has developed a global reputation for the quality of its programmes, the quality of its programme participants, and the quality of its faculty expertise, with these factors combining to create a vibrant and transformative thought-leadership and educational environment. UCD College of Business is continually investing in this environment and in further widening the scope of our programme offerings.”
“As Ireland’s global business school, we seek to provide a vibrant nexus of connectivity, flow, and interaction drawing on Ireland’s location as a gateway to Europe, culminating in cutting-edge, rigorous and relevant, executive development programmes.”
As part of the UCD College of Business 2022-2026 strategic plan, an ambitious vision has been developed for UCD Smurfit Executive Development which will see a significant expansion in its offerings in the years ahead at both individual executive and organisational levels.
