The rise of the MBA politicians

What do William Hague, Hank Paulson and P. Chidambaram have in common?

Answer: they are all MBA graduates who have reached high public office (respectively British foreign secretary, former US treasury secretary and Indian home affairs minister).

There are plenty of management graduates in politics these days.

In Europe, the current Dutch finance minister, Jan Kees de Jager, is an MBA from Nyenrode (which also produced former prime minister Wim Kok). Jean-Louis Borloo, French minister for ecology and energy until last November and higher education minister Valérie Pécresse are graduates of HEC Paris. In the UK William Hague has an MBA from Insead and Cabinet office minister Oliver Letwin and former shadow home secretary David Davis both studied at London Business School. Harriett Baldwin, Tory MP for West Worcestershire, holds an MBA from McGill, in Canada.

Read full article: Financial Times, January 16, 2011