FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas has expanded its international footprint by partnering with Tongji University in Shanghai, China, to launch an executive Master of Business Administration program.

An agreement between the two schools was signed on Wednesday, May 23, at Tongji University. The MBA, which begins in January 2008, will focus exclusively on retailing, consumer products and logistics and cover everything from shopping behavior to transportation infrastructure to law and ethics.

“The vision of the executive MBA program is to help Fortune 500 companies remove their greatest barrier of growth in the world’s most important marketplace: development of leadership talent in China,” said Walton College Dean Dan Worrell. “We believe that our educational expertise combined with that of Tongji University creates a world-class program that will help students succeed in this global marketplace.”

Walton College representatives present at the signing with Tongji University included: Worrell; Bill Curington, senior associate dean for academic programs and research; David Hyatt, senior assistant dean for finance and administration; Don Bland, senior managing director of outreach; Joe Ziegler, director of international programs and chair of the economics department; Vernon Richardson, professor and the Ralph L. McQueen Chair in Accounting; Theres Stiefer, director of the Center for Management and Executive Education; and Matt Waller, professor of marketing and logistics and holder of the Oren Harris Chair in Logistics.

American-based business people were also present, including Jim Rice, vice president of Tyson Foods Inc., and representatives from Procter & Gamble and from Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Waller will lead the executive MBA program for the first three years. He said, “American companies are now flocking to China not to produce things; they are already doing that. They are now flocking there because there are 1.3 billion consumers.

“One distinguishing feature of this MBA program is that U.S.-based consumer products companies, logistics service providers and several other companies doing business in China have agreed to place their associates in the program,” Waller said. Students will include expatriates and Chinese nationals working for U.S. companies.

The 16-month program will meet nine times in Shanghai and twice at the University of Arkansas, where students will visit Wal-Mart headquarters to meet with senior executives and tour the home office, stores and distribution centers. While in Arkansas, students will also hear presentations from supplier executives as well as participate in lectures by Walton College professors. In addition, some of the courses will be taught online. The entire program will be conducted in English. For all of the Shanghai meetings, the students will arrive on Friday and leave on Monday, so there will be virtually no interruption to their current job responsibilities.

The executive MBA program will have a capstone project that requires participants to identify $250,000 in cost reduction or profit increase for their company. The project must be documented and approved by an executive sponsor at their respective companies. The lead faculty will periodically provide direct feedback about the project to the executive sponsor as well as to the student. The cost of the program is $50,000 per student with a capacity of 30 students for each 16-month program. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Tyson Foods Inc., Procter & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark, A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, and Accenture are among the companies who have agreed to send students for the initial cohort next January.

Waller will reside in China to lead the first two cohorts of the program. He has conducted extensive research on global supply chain management, is learning Mandarin and is involved with several international businesses.

Additionally, there will be several industry-leading guest lecturers throughout the MBA course, including, but not limited to: Mike Duke, vice chairman of Wal-Mart; Gary Maxwell, senior vice president, Wal-Mart International; Wan-Ling Martello, chief financial officer of Wal-Mart International; Andy Jett, vice president of Procter & Gamble; Jeff Schomburger, Procter & Gamble team president; Andy Murray, global chief executive officer of Saatchi & Saatchi X; Wade Miquelon, CFO of Tyson Foods; Rick Greubel, group vice president of Tyson Foods International; and Josef C. Mueller, executive partner of Retail Industry Lead, Greater China, Accenture. Maxwell is chair of the Executive MBA External Advisory Board.