February 1989
A government committee initiated by Danish Minister of Education, Bertel Haarder, and chaired by Stig Bøgh Carlsen, managing director of Magasin, suggests the establishment of a "privately owned, research based, international high-level management institute" in Copenhagen to meet corporate needs for executive education not covered by existing Danish business schools.
The initiative is strongly supported by Danish Minister of Industry, Nils Wilhjelm.

June 1989
Organized by Erik Kofod, managing director of Dansk Management Centre (DMC), a group of Danish chief executives discusses the establishment of the Scandinavian Management Institute. Key proposal: A 12-month fulltime MBA program, and executive programs. They represent Baltica, Danisco, Grundfos, Nykredit, Oticon, and The East Asiatic Company. Niels Arnfred, DMC, is appointed project manager.

January 1990
DMC renews its proposal to establish an "independent international elite institute for management development in Copenhagen". DMC envisages a close collaboration with business schools in Copenhagen, Lund, and Århus, and with the Management Institute in Lund (MiL). Suggested offerings:  A full-time MBA program and an Executive MBA program. The latter should involve leadership and experiential learning. Total budget: DKK 60 million.

A team composed of Arthur Stonehill, professor of Oregon State University; Lennart Rohlin, managing director of MiL; Ole Wiberg, a director of the Danish Society for the Advancement of Business Education (FUHU); and Niels Arnfred drafts a curriculum in dialogue with an Advisory Faculty Board from the involved institutions. Finn Junge-Jensen, president of Copenhagen Business School (CBS), supports the initiative.

February 1991
The provisional board of trustees of the Copenhagen International Management Institute (CIMI), holds its first meeting. Goal: To launch the first international Executive MBA program in Copenhagen by 5 October 1992. Henning H. Sparsø, CEO of the East Asiatic Company, agrees to head the provisional CIMI board. Niels Thygesen, professor, Dr. polit., University of Copenhagen, joins the board as representative of academia.

August 1991
The inaugural meeting of the CIMI Foundation is held at DMC. The CIMI Advisory Faculty Board, meeting at MiL, refines the EMBA curriculum with strong focus on Scandinavian leadership values. Detailed planning of the curriculum and the recruitment processes among the involved companies intensifies. Hans Cavalli-Björkmann, chairman of the Southern Swedish Chamber of Commerce, supports the initiative as key to strengthening regional development.

May 1992
Jan O. Frøshaug, president and CEO of Egmont, and member of The International Council of INSEAD, is asked to join the CIMI Board as its chairman. After a lengthy discussion, the Scandinavian focus of the curriculum is diminished and replaced by an international perspective. The vision is to develop a world-class teaching and research Management Institute in Copenhagen.

October 1992
The CIMI Board of Trustees decides to postpone the Executive MBA initiative. Due to a recessionary environment, there is a lack of participants and, therefore, of funds. Peter Christoffersen, president & CEO, Baltica, and chairman of DMC, together with Erik Kofod and Jan O. Frøshaug, continue efforts to create the necessary funding and intake.

January 1993
Henning Dyremose, Danish Minister of Finance, agrees to support the CIMI Foundation with government funding through a grant matching privately collected donations. Fund-raising in Denmark and Southern Sweden takes off, resulting in a total endowment of DKK 7 million. The endowment is granted to CIMI as foundation equity in support of a not-for-profit development of the institute.

February 1993
A consortium consisting of DMC, MiL, and Copenhagen Business School (CBS) guarantees the operating budget of a four-module international Executive MBA program, with strong focus on leadership and experiential learning. The recruitment process in Denmark and Sweden is intensified. Erik Kjaer and Stig Kjerulf, industry psychologists and partners Kjaer & Kjerulf, join CIMI's initiative.

April 1993
A new CIMI Board re-elects Jan O. Frøshaug as its chairman. The board at large appoints an Executive Committee, an Academic Council, and a Marketing Committee from its midst to sustain the development of CIMI between board meetings. An international faculty is recruited, primarily from IMD, INSEAD, and London Business School. Ralf Boscheck, professor, IMD, accepts the role as lead guest faculty.

August 1993
CIMI leaves its incubator at DMC and moves to no 8, Olof Palmes Gade. The new domicile is owned by FUHU, which supports the EMBA initiative by investing in modern educational facilities including a state-of-the-art auditorium.

October 1993
The first Executive MBA program in Scandinavia begins. The program has 27 participants and will involve 100 days of class sessions and tutoring over 18 months. The size of the intake makes it possible to financially operate without drawing on the guarantee from DMC, MiL, and CBS.

April 1995
The CIMI Alumni Association (CAA) is founded by alumni from the first EMBA class at Arresødal in Denmark. Søren Jonas Bruun, director at 2M Invest, is elected chairman.

May 1996
The Board appoints Niels Arnfred CEO and president of CIMI.

November 1996
In response to a request from Novo Nordisk, the first 6-month Industry Diploma Programs (IDP®) (Management of Drug and Device Development) is developed. The first program has 29 participants and a strong focus on learning through home-company assignments. The program is taught by faculty with industry specific knowledge from international business schools and by experienced executive lecturers. Tom Wylonis joins CIMI as director for diploma programs. Over subsequent years, Industry Diploma Programs (IDP®) for food & beverage companies, newspaper and media, IT software and services, and operational services are developed.

March 1997
The first Steering Board to govern a diploma program (for the medical industry) is established. The board is recruited among leading executives from the industry. Over the next years, Steering Boards are established for all diploma programs. Ian Ratcliffe, MA (psychology), is appointed coordinator of the Leadership Dimension of the EMBA program.

November 1997:
The Board of Trustees, initiated by Svend Holst-Nielsen, president & CEO of Unilever Sweden, decides to change the name from CIMI to SIMI, Scandinavian International Management Institute, in order to underline the transnational scope of the institute and to facilitate an all-Scandinavian intake and company participation.

March 1998:
For the first time, EMBA graduates must write an exam in leadership, thereby academically acknowledging the leadership dimension of the program. The Board of Directors decides for SIMI to remain independent and not join a Scandinavian Executive Development Center planned by Copenhagen Business School (CBS).

November 1999
Through a second fund-raising initiative, SIMI attracts enough funds from private donors and the Danish government to buy its headquarters. Through this transfer of property, FUHU, the owners of the building, contributes significantly to helping SIMI improve its educational and administrative facilities.

February 2000
SIMI introduces the first final examination of home-company assignments into the last module of an Industry Diploma Program (IDP®) (IT software and services).

December 2000 
Industry Diploma Programs (IDP®) now count for over 50 percent of SIMI's turnover. In collaboration with the leading Danish business newspaper, Børsen, the first SIMI Strategy Award is given to the best-in-class implemented business project among the EMBA graduates of the year.

January 2001
In response to a request from Danfoss, a leading Danish manufacturing company, SIMI begins the Program for Leadership Development (PLD) for Asian managers. The program is conducted in Chennai, Bangkok, Beijing, and Singapore.

August 2001 
Industry Diploma Program (IDP®) curricula are strengthened. Industry issues are used as both a learning vehicle and as applied research.

October 2001
SIMI sends its first case, developed as an integrated part of an Industry Diploma Program (IDP®), to the European Case Clearing House (ECCH).

November 2001
A branch of the SIMI Alumni Association is founded in China. Yang Zhi, a director of The Chinese Ministry of Culture, is elected chairman.

April 2002
The Board of Trustees reinforces SIMI's thrust as a resource to industry with focus on growth in quality more important than growth in size and number of programs. SIMI should concentrate on curriculum design, top-international faculty, applied research, and attracting companies and participants from a larger perimeter. The institute should become more visible, get closer to markets outside Denmark, and take initiatives that will sustain its innovative approach to executive education. It also urged SIMI to create stronger links between the Executive MBA program and the Industry Diploma Programs (IDP®).

April 2003
SIMI develops a new structure for its Executive MBA program to make it more attractive for residents outside Denmark. The new structure is scheduled to launch in 2004.

December 2003
Based on a request from companies, patent agencies, and the Danish Patent & Trademark Office, SIMI starts a new certificate program called The Business of Intellectual Property. The first program has 29 participants.

April 2004
SIMI celebrates its 10th anniversary in connection with the graduation of the 10th EMBA class. The celebration is organized in close collaboration with the SIMI Alumni Association. Six Industry Diploma Programs (IDP®) are now offered annually and five business cases have been developed. More than 600 persons from more than 30 countries have earned a SIMI diploma. About 150 executives are involved in Diploma Steering Boards, one third of whom are also involved as advisors on industry issues. The SIMI foundation is in a healthy financial state and prepared to sustain the not-for-profit policy as a resource to industry embarked upon from the outset.

May 2005
The SIMI Board of Trustees undergoes a major change. Kåre B. Dullum, Klaus Friis Hansen, Finn Junge Jensen, and Torsten E. Rasmussen, all long time members of the Board, step down together with Martin Lauth, observer on behalf of SIMI’s long term sponsor, FUHU. The new members of the Board are Lars Frithiof, VD E.ON Sweden and Chairman of the Southern Swedish Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Anders Flodström, Dean of The Royal Technical University, Stockholm, Eva von Hirsch, Telenor, and Vagn Sørensen, President and CEO of Austrian Airlines, Vienna.

December 2005
SIMI supports a Ph.D. project on Management Education for Experienced Business Leaders, offered at the Danish University of Education, Copenhagen. The project is co-sponsored by Industriens Realkredit Fond.

May 2006
SIMI celebrates the inauguration of its new wing, containing a lecture hall with room for 20 people, as well as staff office space.  The DKK 5 million 150 sq. m. enlargement is attached to the existing building via a new entrance and reception area and is partly sponsored by Industriens Realkreditfond, Oticon Fonden, and WILLUM KANN RASMUSSEN FONDEN. 

SIMI Chairman Jan O. Frøshaug presides over the opening ceremony, which features a speech by Mr. Helge Sander, Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation.  Prior to the ceremony, Professor Daniel F. Muzyka, Dean of Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia, Canada, conducts a well-attended seminar with specially invited guests on "Innovation and Entrepreneurship as Winning Performance."

August 2006
Jan O. Frøshaug, Chairman of SIMI since 1992, steps down. The Frøshaug Executive MBA Grant is being installed in honor of Jan O. Frøshaug’s long term devotion to SIMI. The chairmanship is taken over by Kenneth Plummer, Director General of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation.

December 2006
The SIMI Executive MBA program is being accredited by EPAS, the program accrediting body under the European Foundation for Management Development. 12 out of 20 evaluation items were deemed “above standard”. The program is the first Executive MBA program to be accredited in Scandinavia.

The SIMI Board of Trustees decides to see collaboration on a new program,  Nordic Growth Management, as a test case for closer relationships with the Executive Schools at the Royal Technical University (KTH), Stockholm, The Helsinki Technical University (TKK), and The Technical University of Denmark.

December 2007
The Industry Diploma Programs (IDP®) are upgraded to play a key role in SIMI’s business strategy. The aim is to gradually develop industry universes clustering SIMIs offerings towards the actual industry. Besides the Industry Diploma Programs (IDP®) such offerings could be short update programs, case development or reports on industry issues. A new program is offered in the Medical and Healthcare universe to enable SIMI to serve this industry deeper.  Financially, SIMI has its best year ever.

Tom Wylonis, Director of Executive Programs since 1997, steps down and is appointed Adjunct Professor at SIMI.

December 2008
SIMI decides to organize its offerings for selected industries under an Industry Universe heading: Food & Beverage; Energy & Climate; Information & Communication Technology; Medical & Health Care; Media & Newspapers; and Services. The portfolio of programs for a given industry will gradually be expanded in order to serve the industry deeper. SIMI launches its first Industry Diploma Program (IDP®) in the new Energy & Climate Universe, Managing Energy Businesses.

March 2009
The SIMI Board of Trustees appoints a new Dean, Torben Klein, to take over from Niels Arnfred by 1 July 2009. Under the Medical & Healthcare Universe, several new certificate programs are designed, and a new Master of Medical Business Strategy (MMBS) IS launched, building upon the flagship program in this area, Managing Medical Product Innovation (MMPI). One new program each is offered by the Food & Beverage and the Energy & Climate universes.