The predecessor institution of the International Academy of Management & Economics (I.AME) was the International University Foundation. It was founded by Emmanuel Noli T. Santos with the cooperation and assistance of European educators and expatriates like Dr. Karl Bleisch, Prof. Francois de Perregaux, and Madame Mireille Mayer Mathys. IUF was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission on October 22, 1980 with an International Office in Switzerland.

Because the concept was to establish IUF as a distance learning institution, the British Council, through its Country Representative / Director, the equiv-alent of the US cultural attaché, Ian Rogers, gave pro bono advise and assistance as well as materials on everything we needed to know about distance education with the British Open University or British OU as model.

Since there was no law or education ministry rules and regulations on licensing of distance education at the time, IUF secured accreditation from the International Accrediting Commission for Schools, Colleges and Universities in USA. Dr. George S. Reuter, president of the International Accrediting Commission came to do the inspection, evaluation of infrastructures, curricula, contents, faculty and staff; and setting up of standards and procedures.

The founding Chairman of the Board of Trustees was Dr. Alejandro R. Roces, the secretary of education of then President Diosdado Macapagal; founding president was Dr. Emmanuel T. Santos, and Madame Mireille Mathys served as registrar / admission officer.
One consultant was Atty. Leonardo A. Quisumbing who became undersecretary of defense under President Cory Aquino; senior deputy executive secretary, secretary of labor and employment, and Justice of the Supreme Court under then Fidel V. Ramos. He helped provide guidance in quality standards in both the contents and the delivery system. He himself served as professor of International Legal Transactions.

The pool of lecturers included Augusto Caesar Espiritu, A. B. Silliman; Ll.B. UP College of Law; and Ph.D. in Political Economy, Harvard University. He was delegate to the 1971 Constitutional Convention and Ambassador to Germany under President Cory Aquino; Leonardo A. Quisumbing, A. B., MLQ Magna Cum Laude; Ll.B., cum laude, UP College of Law; Juris Doctor, Cornell University; Hugo Mignot, credit manager, Belgian Societe General in Hong Kong; Dr. Hans Mueller of Germany; Dr. Dieter Schroeder of Germany, etc.



IUF attracted many Filipino and foreign students. Some from Germany like Peter Kohl; some from Asian Development Bank like Jean Pierre Vu, a Vietnam-French head of consulting division of ADB; Edi Kaswadi and Mohammad Surakosumah, ADB international consultants from Indonesia; Mike Velarde, now the famous founder of El Shaddai; Josiah Go and his father Charles Go, and many more.

To avoid misunderstanding with the Ministry of Education and Culture, IUF held its First Commencement Exercises in Hotel Miramar, Hong Kong to coincide with the First Asian Conference on International Management from April 24 to 28, 1982.

In October 1982, IUF co-sponsored with Association of Distance Educators of the Philippines (ADEP) headed by Dr. Adrea O. Fineza the First Asian - American Conference - Workshop on Distance Education held in Manila Hotel. Many American, Canadian, and Australian educators and university presidents came to Manila to attend the conference-workshop. In the evening, the delegates enjoyed Filipino-style hospitality at the Coconut House across the Westin Plaza Hotel.

I.AME DICTUM
“Building A Global University”

I.AME VISION STATEMENT
“We shall make your life better and help you reach self-fulfillment and happiness.”

I.AME MISSION STATEMENT
“To build an institution that is truly great and, at the same time, grand;
To fashion a community of men and women in a center of learning, stimulating one another’s power of thinking, guided by an inspiring faculty;
To nurture an institution producing a total person, rising above the flock;
A leader among the best and the brightest in business and industry, in finance and investment, in government, national economy, and society;

To build an institution with global outreach, universal in outlook, cosmopolitan in
approach, international in vision; To build a center of learning that contributes
Its bits in advancing mankind’s pool of knowledge in perpetual search for truth, justice , freedom, and happiness..”

I.AME PHILOSOPHY
The International Academy of Management
and Economics reaffirms the centrality and primacy of the human person and respect for dignity as the core foundation of human rights – civil and political rights; social, economic and cultural rights.

Society, the State and other institution exist for the individual.

The ultimate objective is the happiness of the individual. Freedom and personal liberty are thus preconditions to the realization of one’s best self, or attainment of the perfection of one’s personality, and enjoyment of the ends of life. Both the institution and the individual should enjoy freedom and liberty; otherwise the fullest development of the human personality cannot be attained. This is the philosophical bedrock on which I/AME operates now and into the future.