In the 1990s, MBA - Master in Business Administration - programs won a solid reputation and expanded beyond U.S. frontiers. In Brazil, this movement got momentum with the impressive growth of executive education in management. This paper aims to present and analyze the phenomenon of Professional Masters in Business Administration (MPA, in Portuguese). To describe this phenomenon, we conducted bibliographic and documental research and made interviews with coordinators and key-persons from local programs. Albeit being eventually classified as MBAs, the MPAs' characteristics make them remarkably different from the North American blueprint. By attempting to align with its regional social and economic context, each program followed its own route, generating a landscape characterized by diversity. We believe that the phenomenon this article describes and analyzes can make a contribution to the current debate over business education.
MBA; MPA; business education; executive education; management industry