Business school campus

The Business School

More Than 30 Years of Experience in Executive Education in Switzerland
Rochester-Bern Executive Programs (RoBe) is a recognized business school in the Swiss market for continuing education at university level. It is our vision to contribute to a better and more sustainable world by inspiring, equipping, and connecting responsible leaders. Founded as a subsidiary of the universities of Rochester (U.S.) and Bern in 1994 and organized as a Swiss foundation, we work together with professors from top business schools from all over the world.

Explore RoBe

Rochester-Bern organizes a variety of educational programs for individuals and companies, which can earn degrees from either or both of the partner universities.

Partner Institutions

Organized as an independent foundation, Rochester-Bern is affiliated with two universities, one with its parent institution, the Simon Business School at the University of Rochester, and the other with the University of Bern, where it is headquartered.
University of Rochester

University of Rochester

The University of Rochester was founded in 1850 and is among the leading private institutions of higher learning in the United States. Rochester faculty and alumni/-ae have included 13 Nobel Prize winners and 13 Pulitzer Prize winners.

The Simon Business School is one of the seven schools at the University of Rochester. It is named after William E. Simon, a financial entrepreneur and former U.S. Treasury Secretary, who believed strongly in the principles and ideals of the school.

The Rochester-Bern Executive MBA program, as part of the Simon Business School, carries with it the reputation of one of the world’s top graduate business schools, which has awarded MBA degrees since 1962. It has been fully accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International since 1966.

Mainbuilding University of Bern

University of Bern

The University of Bern was founded in 1834 and is one of ten universities in Switzerland. It consists of eight faculties and has a distinguished reputation in economics.

The cooperation with the University of Rochester dates back to the well-known monetarist Karl Brunner who worked at both universities in the early 1970s. The founder of the Rochester-Bern Executive MBA is Claudio Loderer, former Director of the Institute for Financial Management at the University of Bern and former student of Karl Brunner – with a Ph.D. from Rochester.

International Focus in Education

Discover why the University of Bern wants to strengthen its international relations and why RoBe is part of it.

Foundation Board of the Business School

Since its foundation in 1994, Rochester-Bern Executive Programs has been run by Foundation William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration in Switzerland and is financially self-supporting.

Foundation board members are business leaders or academics; they do not have any financial stake in the program. The foundation’s activities are monitored by an advisory board of alumni/-ae that provides guidance and support.

As of 2021, the foundation board consists of the following members:

Prof. Dr. Sevin Yeltekin
President, Simon Business School, University of Rochester
Prof. Dr. Claudio Loderer
Vice President,
University of Bern
Dr. Odile Hettler
Odile Hettler Consulting
Prof. Dr. Ravi N Mantena
Simon Business School, University of Rochester
Molly Mesko
Simon Business School, University of Rochester
Prof. Dr. Virginia Richter
University of Bern
Prof. Dr. Ahron Rosenfeld
Ben-Gurion-University
of the Negev
Prof. Dr. Philip Valta
University of Bern

International Excellence

#8
In the World for Finance

Financial Times 2020

#2
In the World for Economics

Financial Times 2020