Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración (IESA) is a private non-profit business school. It was founded in Venezuela in 1965, and has since expanded to include campuses in the most important economic centres in the country: Caracas, Maracaibo and Valencia. The school has received international recognition for its ability to educate quality top-level managers in a wide range of topics relating to management science. Influential leaders and managers regularly return to the IESA in order to receive executive training to tackle the challenges of the markets in which they operate. It is one of only four schools of management and business in Latin American and thirty-four in the world to have three major international accreditations which relate to its academic standards, intellectual production and teacher performance.

Hurriyet is a Turkish newspaper founded in 1948 by Sedat Simavi. It has a high circulation number with a news network, which is made up of 52 offices and 600 reporters. Following its establishment, Hurriyet quickly became the most widely read newspaper in Turkey. It has become known for its diverse readership and quality journalism and is currently owned by Dogan Media Group. Hurriyet has now, in an attempt to keep pace with the changing nature of the sector, expanded into printing, distribution, online services, book publishing and TV productions through its domestic and overseas subsidiaries and affiliates. Hurriyet is also the first and only media company in Turkey to have been assigned a credit rating by an international ratings agency.

His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan is the Imam of Nizari Ismailism and the Chairman of the Aga Khan Development Network. Born in Geneva in 1936, he assumed the position of Aga Khan following his grandfather’s death in 1957. He also became the 49th hereditary Imam of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims, as he is a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. He graduated from Harvard University in 1959 with a degree in Islamic History before continuing in his role of Imamat. In this role he stated he wanted to continue the work of his grandfather who had sought to build modern institutions in order to improve the quality of life of the Nizari Ismailis. He also advocated the importance of fostering co-operation and positive relations with different ethnicities and religions. His position also included a large degree of diplomacy, including when President Idi Amin of Uganda expelled Nizari Ismailis from the country in 1972. Prince Aga Khan enlisted the assistance of Canadian President Pierre Trudeau who allowed the Nizari Ismailis to migrate to Canada. Prince Aga Khan has also had an active interest in development programmes and has encouraged Nizari Ismailis to contribute to the progress of the developing world. In 1982 he was presented with the Gold Mercury International Award, which coincided, with his silver jubilee year of Imamat and the launch of many social and economic development projects. He founded the Aga Khan Development Network which has become one of the largest private development networks in the world and co-ordinates 200 agencies and institutions, with staff mostly based in developing nations. It operates in the fields of education, culture, health and economic development focusing on Third World countries, with its network operating in 35 of the poorest countries in the world. He is also a celebrated businessman, owning hundreds of racehorses and valuable stud farms. During the course of his career he has been bestowed with numerous honorary titles, degrees and awards.

The Gulf Daily News is an English language newspaper based in Bahrain. It was founded in March 1978 by the Al Hilal Group and quickly became known as the ‘voice of Bahrain’. The newspaper’s initial aims were to focus on providing news to English speaking residents in Bahrain who were mainly of British, American, Filipino, Indian and Pakistani backgrounds. The newspaper was traditionally pro-government but has since included a number of Islamists and liberals amongst its staff. The newspaper has had many reputable journalists contribute over the years, including Indira Chan, Sara Wickham, Reem Antoon, Eunice Del Rosario, Tariq Khonji and Richard Moore.

Grazia is an Italian weekly magazine targeted at women, whose main areas of focus are fashion, celebrity gossip and news. It was first published in Italy in 1938 and has expanded greatly since its establishment to include editions printed in the UK, France, Australia, Spain, Poland, Greece Serbia, Japan, India, Croatia and Germany, amongst others. It has long been regarded as a reference point for style and quality journalism. It was because of this and the originality of the magazine in its presentation of news that in 2005, a British edition began to be published. In Italy, the magazine is owned by Mondaori and continues to grow in readership and global circulation.

The Friedrich Ebert Foundation is a non-profit German political foundation with some association to the Social Democratic Party of Germany. It is committed to the advancement of public policy issues and social democracy through education, research and international cooperation. It was established in 1925 and named after Friedrich Ebert, Germany’s first democratically elected President. The Foundation’s initial aims were to work against discrimination of workers in education. After being banned by the Nazis in 1933, the Foundation was reinstituted in 1946, later restructuring itself as an independent, charitable organisation. The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Academic Foundation is just one of their many initiatives. It works as one of eleven organisations to promote young talent in Germany. Scholarships are awarded to students with outstanding academic and political achievements. In addition to the scholarship, grantees also receive opportunities and support to nurture their talents. Today, The Friedrich Ebert Foundation has six adult education centres and 13 regional offices throughout Germany. It also maintains branch offices in over 90 countries and carries out activities in more than 100.

Ettela’At is the oldest Iranian Persian-language daily newspaper. It is also the oldest Iranian newspaper, having been founded in 1926. It is one of Iran’s most widely read newspapers and currently the only international Persian newspaper. The paper is noted for being one of the few right wing Arab newspapers with a heavy international focus, as it continuously reports on Iranian events and Iranian persons abroad. Illustrating the right wing nature of the paper was its stance against the 1979 Iranian Revolution where, before the revolution, it published articles defaming Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Following the publication of materials slandering Ayatollah, protesters gathered outside Ettela’At headquarters and were subsequently fired upon by police when they refused to disperse.

Emilio Azcárraga Milmo was a Mexican businessman and the former President of Televisa, the Mexican mass media company. Born in 1930, Milmo’s father was the owner of ‘Radio XEW’, a station that served as a starting block to build the media empire. At 21, he joined his father’s company working as a salesman. His father’s death in 1972 led to Mr Milmo being named Chairman of the Board. Upon his appointment he also renamed the company Televisa and after several years managed to build the company into a media empire. Under his direction he turned Televisa into the world’s largest producer of Spanish broadcast programming. During his leadership he also acquired major Mexican television stations and was actively involved in publishing news stories, advancing video rental and various real estate ventures. The entertainment programs that he chose for Televisa were specifically chosen because they accurately reflected Mexican society, life and culture. Due to his determination and the revolutionary changes he made to Mexican media his leadership style, when reflected back upon, is seen as bold and ambitious. Televisa continues to be the largest mass media company in Latin American today, with his son Emilio Azcárraga Jean serving as President since Mr Milmo’s death in 1997.

Diario Panorama is a Venezuelan newspaper established in 1914. Based in Maracaibo in the state of Zulia, it has been a newspaper of reference since its foundation. It is distributed throughout a large area of Venezuela, with its weekly circulation today numbering over 200,000. Diario Panorama offers readers and advertisers a contemporary newspaper which appeals to a wide range of readers and is renowned for its journalistic ethics and credibility.