The opening ceremonies of the International MBA program were held today in Segovia, an old Roman outpost about 1.5 hours from Madrid. The IE Business School has in the past years built a full university here called IE University.
The campus is composed of a converted convent (Convent of Santa Cruz la Real) dating back to 1218. It is believed that Columbus came here in order to further his case to the king of Spain for financing his voyage. It is a truly remarkable campus, something like Indiana Jones meets Wall Street. Surrounding the modern, sleek classrooms are ruins many hundreds of years old. Glass cut-aways in the floor expose even more ruins beneath yet uncovered.
We came for the opening ceremonies, held in the cathedral of the former convent. I must say it was a different experience being served beer and wine in such a surrounding. I wonder if the sisters 500 years ago would have approved.
Either way, the best part of the experience was surely meeting many more of my classmates. I am continually impressed by their intelligence, caliber, and good humor. Surely IE will offer us all a great education. But even more certain is that these new relationships, just now forming, will offer us much much more.
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