ESEI Co-Directors Carlota and Jordi Estera on Building a Business School That Actually Works

The Story Behind ESEI: A Personal Beginning

ESEI was not born in a boardroom. It began in 1989 with a deeply personal decision.

Carlota and Jordi’s father was working at a multinational company when their mother fell seriously ill. Faced with two young children and a life that needed rethinking, he stepped away from the corporate world and began teaching, drawing on the practical experience he had built over years in business.

From that decision grew something bigger: a conviction that business education in Spain was too theoretical, too disconnected from real working life, and too insular. He set out to change it.

“Our father was a pioneer,” say Carlota and Jordi. “He launched a business school taught in English, with faculty drawn from the professional world, using the case method and a clear international outlook. He introduced British qualifications and a model where students studied partly in Barcelona and partly in the UK.”

The mission was straightforward from the start: train professionals ready for the real world, with a global mindset and a grounded sense of purpose.

What Makes ESEI Different: Boutique, Not Massive

Today, ESEI describes itself as a boutique international business school and a think tank with global reach. These are not marketing terms. They reflect a deliberate choice about how to operate.

The boutique model means ESEI stays small enough to know its students individually, adapt quickly, and create genuinely personalised experiences. Faculty, alumni, companies, and students work together on real projects, not simulated ones.

The think tank dimension reflects ESEI’s role in driving ideas and debate about the future of business, technology, and social impact. In a world that changes rapidly, organisations need professionals who can think clearly, work across cultures, and act with purpose. ESEI is built to produce exactly that.

Innovation, Leadership and Entrepreneurship: More Than Buzzwords

ESEI places innovation, entrepreneurial thinking, and leadership at the centre of everything it does, but the approach is practical rather than theoretical.

Students work on real projects, collaborate with companies, and apply what they learn from day one. By the time they graduate, they already have genuine professional experience and an understanding of how businesses actually function.

According to Carlota and Jordi, the skills that will define leaders in the coming years are not technical alone. Critical thinking, adaptability, diverse team management, technological literacy, and ethics all matter equally. So do resilience and the ability to keep learning throughout a career. “The leadership of the future will be far more human, digitally capable, and collaborative,” they note.

How ESEI Measures Success

Rather than focusing on rankings or enrolment figures, ESEI tracks success through the paths its alumni take.

The metric that matters most is impact: the projects graduates launch, the teams they lead, and the communities they build. When alumni continue collaborating with each other or with the school years after graduating, the co-directors see that as the clearest sign that ESEI has done its job well.

“The impact is professional, but it is also personal and social,” say Carlota and Jordi.

The Sport Management Master: Built for a Data-Driven Industry

One of ESEI’s most distinctive offerings is its Master in Sport Management, designed to meet the demands of a sector that has shifted dramatically in recent years.

Sport is no longer just about events and traditional marketing. It is now a data-driven industry where artificial intelligence, fan engagement analytics, and digital revenue models are central to how organisations operate and compete.

The programme integrates data-driven decision-making, digital monetisation, new business models in e-sports and streaming, sustainability, and AI applications in areas such as scouting, operational efficiency, and personalised fan experience. Students work with real cases to understand how these tools apply in practice, not just in theory.

The goal is to produce sport management professionals who can lead the technological evolution of the sector and understand sport as a global, hybrid, and digital industry.

Priorities: Short Term and Long Term

In the near term, ESEI’s focus is on consolidating its newest programmes and strengthening partnerships with businesses and institutions.

Looking further ahead, the ambition is to grow as an international hub for talent and ideas, one where technology and social responsibility are woven into the fabric of business education.

Working With ESEI: Where the Synergies Lie

ESEI is actively looking to build partnerships with companies across sport, technology, sustainability, and entrepreneurship.

The ideal partner is one that wants to innovate, attract talent, and collaborate on real student-led projects. ESEI’s student and alumni community is genuinely international, which makes it a strong resource for companies looking to expand into new markets or bring in multicultural perspectives.

The school is looking for partnerships built on real exchange: placements, applied research, joint events, and projects where students contribute meaningfully from the outset.

ESEI and INDESCAT: Connecting Education and Industry

ESEI’s membership of the INDESCAT cluster represents a clear strategic fit. Being part of the cluster connects the school directly to the real needs of the sport industry and opens the door to shared projects that benefit both sides.

For ESEI, it is also about contributing: bringing talent, ideas, and education to an ecosystem that is actively shaping the future of sport in Catalonia and beyond.

“We believe strongly in the power of community and in building bridges between education and business,” say Carlota and Jordi.

A School Built to Last

Thirty-seven years after its founding, ESEI continues to operate on the same core belief that inspired it: that business education should be practical, international, human, and genuinely useful.

Carlota and Jordi Estera have inherited not just a school, but a philosophy. Their task is to carry it forward into a world that looks very different from the one their father navigated in 1989, while staying true to the values that made ESEI worth building in the first place.

For prospective students, partner companies, or anyone interested in what a business school can look like when it puts people before prestige, ESEI is worth a closer look.

This blog post is based on an interview with Carlota and Jordi Estera, co-directors of ESEI International Business School, originally published by INDESCAT in March 2026. Read the original interview here.

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