Luiss Business School acquires the Amsterdam Fashion Academy: for the first time in its history, the School grows through external lines abroad, strengthening its position as an excellent, dynamic and international Italian reality. Thanks to this operation, Luiss Business School accelerates its high level training for the fashion and luxury sector, the traditional spearhead of Made in Italy. The Amsterdam Fashion Academy (AFA) is a high education boutique founded in the Netherlands in 2013 and is now the only Dutch institution to provide a Bachelor of Arts in fashion and luxury. With about 200 students, 73% of whom come from 20 countries around the world, AFA is at the top of its segment, with a strong focus on the quality of teaching and the relationship between teachers and students, now equal to 6, which represents a unicum in the panorama of university and post-graduate education.
Fashion and luxury: high education and a solid axis Milan – Amsterdam “The acquisition of Amsterdam Fashion Academy represents a historic milestone for Luiss Business School and more generally for our university and our training system,” commented Vincenzo Boccia, President of Luiss. “Thanks to this operation Luiss confirms itself as an extremely dynamic and rapidly expanding reality, with a particular attention to the challenges of training at an international level,” Boccia added. The acquisition will enable Luiss Business School to develop a particularly attractive training offer, with double or joint programmes based in Rome and Amsterdam, as well as to create a solid axis in the fashion and luxury sector between the Hub in Milan and Amsterdam.
“Thanks to this operation, which follows a few weeks after the strengthening on the national territory with the opening of the Hub Veneto delle Dolomiti, Luiss Business School will be able to develop a real international hub, on which to concentrate training activities aimed at young people in Northern Europe in sectors of excellence of Made in Italy: fashion and luxury first and foremost, but also creative industries and family businesses, where Italy and the Luiss Business School represent a point of reference,” added Luigi Abete, President of Luiss Business School. A direct presence at the centre of Europe
The choice of Amsterdam will also allow Luiss Business School to further develop itsnetwork of relationships with the global or European headquarters of multinationals that have decided to locate in the capital of the Netherlands, a trend that will accelerate due to current geopolitical events in Europe. Establishing a direct presence in the centre of Europe will also enable Luiss Business School to develop a centre of excellence for the international recruitment of students for the entire school, which will therefore benefit from both cost and intellectual synergies.
It is planned that in the two-year period 2020-2021 the AFA’s portfolio of offerings will be reviewed and integrated and 15 courses between Master and Executive will start.
Luiss Business School has been assisted by Gemma & Partners, with a team led by partners Antonio Italiano, for financial and fiscal aspects, and Andrea Gemma, and also composed of senior associate Elisabetta Mattozzi and associate Leone Momigliano for legal and regulatory aspects.
(Associated Medias – Giut)
