Financial Times has named Loyola University Maryland's Sellinger School of Business and Management one of the world's top Executive MBA programs. The Sellinger program, which ranked in the top 25 of all U.S. private institutions, scored particularly high in terms of its students meeting the aims that inspired them to enroll - 24th in the world. The Sellinger students also reported an average salary increase of 43 percent. A complete list of the rankings can be viewed on the Financial Times Web site.

"The Sellinger School is committed to shaping ethical businesspeople who can lead in a rapidly changing, increasingly complex global economy," said Karyl Leggio, Ph.D., dean of the Sellinger School. "It is extremely gratifying to me that our commitment has been recognized on an international scale, and I am honored to see the Sellinger and Loyola names listed among programs such as those at Wharton, Columbia University, and Duke University. This honor provides invaluable validation of our efforts to continue to expand our relationships and develop even stronger global learning and networking opportunities for our students."

Loyola is the only school in Baltimore and one of just two in Maryland to be recognized by the Financial Times, the premier resource for ranking EMBA programs. While there are more than 350 executive MBA programs in the world, the Financial Times judged only the best 95 eligible to be ranked. Rankings are based on a wide range of criteria; categories in which Loyola ranked particularly high include:

• Student salary increase: 43 percent
• Student aims achieved: Top 25 worldwide and first among schools in the Baltimore-Washington region
• Diversity: In percentage of female students, the Sellinger School tied for 13th in the U.S. and 25th worldwide.

The Sellinger School's focus on developing ethical leaders who are strategic thinkers attuned to the complexities of the global marketplace has earned its executive programs an exceptional reputation among area business leaders.

"I know that each and every time a McCormick employee pursues an executive MBA at Loyola, we will earn our investment back many times over," said Alan Wilson, CEO of McCormick & Co. Inc., a Maryland-based spice company with operations worldwide. "Our Loyola MBA graduates boast sharpened strategic thinking skills, more creative approaches to problem solving, and a deepened sense of global social responsibility that have a direct impact on our company's immediate performance and achievement of long-term objectives."

Loyola students share Wilson's confidence in the value of Loyola's executive business programs.

"My Sellinger School experience has already had an enormous impact on my personal and professional development," said Chris Doyle, MBA Fellows '10, director of international finance for Marriott International. "I will be graduating in May but already I have received not one, but two promotions. I attribute this achievement in large measure to the big-picture thinking and global perspective I've developed as a Loyola executive MBA student."

Loyola's inclusion in this year's Financial Times rankings was based on data and outcomes for the MBA Fellows class of 2006. The Fellows program is one of two executive business programs at Loyola's Sellinger School. The Financial Times recognition follows the inclusion of the Sellinger School's Professional MBA in U.S. News & World Report's list of the nation's best part-time MBA programs. For more information on Loyola's graduate business programs, visit www.loyola.edu/sellinger.