On March 23, 1963, President
John F. Kennedy visited
Costa Rica and met with the presidents of Costa Rica
El Salvador,
Guatemala,
Honduras, and
Nicaragua. 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, 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. Nicaragua was chosen as the permanent site for INCAE, and on June 20, 1969, INCAE's first campus was inaugurated in the Montefresco neighborhood of
Managua. The site was purchased with funds raised through donations from the private sector and the governments of Central America, the result of a campaign headed by INCAE's National Committee in Nicaragua. Montefresco was chosen from the other options in Nicaragua because of its scenery and cool climate. It was also close to Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. The campus was built with a loan provided by the
Central American Bank for Economic Integration with
United States Agency for International Development funding. INCAE's first fifteen MBA classes graduated in Nicaragua. In 1983, INCAE decided to move its MBA program. The second campus, called the Walter Kissling Gam campus, opened in Alajuela, Costa Rica in 1984. Costa Rica was chosen because of its stable government and existing infrastructure. In 1996, INCAE reopened the full-time MBA program in the Montefresco campus, and in 2000 the Montefresco campus also began to offer the executive MBA program. It has recently opened a campus in
Panama City in Panama. ==Faculty==