They were Rolv Petter Amdam (BI Norwegian Business School, Norway), Michael Bibikov (Russia), Per Boje (Denmark), Hans Pohl (Germany), Keetie Sluyterman (University of Utrecht, Netherlands), Mary Rose, Geoff Jones and Tony Slaven (UK).
The meeting in Rotterdam at Erasmus University in June 1994 established the first draft of objectives, the conditions of membership, the structure to be adopted for office bearers and members of the council, and election procedures.
The conference gave its support to the proposals and to the existing planning group to act as a steering committee to bring the European Business History Association into being.
Further planning meetings of the interim council took place in the University of Reading in March 1995 and Matthias Kipping was adopted as the first editor of the EBHA Newsletter.
At that meeting in Reading it was agreed to hold the inaugural conference in August 1996 to be hosted by Ulf Olsson in the University of Gothenburg.
A subsequent meeting in London in July 1996 was held to discuss potential collaboration with Manfred Pohl representing the new established Centre for European Business History based in Frankfurt.
The Alliance is a network under the umbrella of the EBHA and it is open to all European research environments in Business History with at least four Tenured positions within the respective University/Business School.
Today, it consists of eight professors and five PhD and postdoc researchers that share a keen interest in the way history contributes to a better understanding of society and business.
The prime objective of the CBH is to encourage, facilitate and conduct research in all aspects of business history, with particular emphasis on corporate governance, innovation and organisational change.
CBH aims to improve the understanding of business institutions, interactions between companies and society as well as the dynamics of economic development.
A large part of the research focuses on questions about the establishment and development of organisations and markets, primarily within the banking and financial sector of the economy.
From these two perspectives business historians in Utrecht find their strength in the interaction between the scientific debate and individual case studies.
CEGBI’s main areas of research are international business history; global marketing; and governance, entrepreneurship and social enterprise.
The inaugural conference in Gothenburg in August 1996 attracted over 230 participants by which time the initial paid up membership of the new EBHA was 214 members.