HEG-FR Deepens Ties with Suffolk University’s Sawyer Business School

The business schools are collaborating on two one-week leadership programs in the Boston area this month. Thematic focus: impact and sustainability.

April 6, 2023 | Boston & New York

Two study tours this month are bringing students from the School of Management Fribourg (HEG-FR) and Suffolk University’s Sawyer Business School (SBS) closer together in a deepening transatlantic partnership.

From April 1 to 6, 2023, a group of eleven professionals pursuing an Executive MBA at HEG-FR participated in a study tour on the theme “How to Lead with Purpose and Global Impact: Sustainability and Scalability.” During their stay, the HEG-FR students took part in sessions with Suffolk professors and their peers at SBS to learn about sustainability and social impact in US entrepreneurship. They also heard from professors, VCs, entrepreneurs, and other major players from across the local innovation ecosystem, including representatives from MassVentures, MIT, Greentown Labs, and Novartis.

A second study tour, made up of twelve students in the HEG-FR Master of Science in Business Administration, will take place on the same topic from April 20 to 26. Later in the spring HEG-FR will host a group of Suffolk MBA students in Fribourg, giving SBS students an opportunity to explore Swiss entrepreneurship and innovation.

These tours are the latest step in a growing partnership between the two schools. In March of 2022, Rico Baldegger, Dean and Professor at HEG-FR, and Amy Zeng, Dean of SBS, signed a five-year agreement between their schools aimed at deepening collaboration between the Swiss and Boston-area business education ecosystems. The agreement grew out of a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) program established the year before, which brought MBA students at HEG-FR and SBS together to solve real-world business challenges facing several Boston-area startups recruited by Swissnex.

Suffolk University Sawyer Business School was founded in downtown Boston in 1937 by Gleason Leonard Archer, a writer and radio broadcaster. The school offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in a number of areas including accounting, finance, marketing, management studies, and public administration.

School of Management Fribourg is part of the Universities of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES-SO). It offers bachelors and masters degrees in business administration as well as certificate and EMBA programs. Founded in 1991, the public university serves approximately 850 students hailing from Switzerland and abroad.