AIESEC was officially founded in 1948 as a organization which informal activity was helping develop “friendly relations” between member countries. At present time AIESEC is global association presented in 107 countries and territories all over the world.

The founders of AIESEC started building the organization during 1946 – 1948. AIESEC vision is formed in 1948 and later in Stockholm during the first International Congress in March 1949.

In 1949, 89 students participated in “Exchange Programs” and “Exchange” was defined as a AIESEC main activity. Soon, AIESEC became popular and turned into international organization since it was presented at every continent.

Development of exchange was going on well with an annual growth of 22%: by the end of 1960 number of realized exchanges were 2467, and 4232 by the end of 1970.

Seminars were first introduced as part of trainees’ reception experiences, in a proposal from AIESEC in Germany in 1961. It was well received by other countries, and a general set of seminar topics to be addressed was proposed and accepted. They were mainly economic in nature, and for the first time AIESEC was addressing specific issues in its activities-stated clearly in a non-political way.

In 1967, work began on a program called Student Traineeship Exchange System for an effective and fair approach to facilitate flow and standardization of information. Exchange numbers have already reached the 4500 mark and matching that large group of students to the diverse array of traineeships was stretching the capacity of AIESEC.

At the 1974 International Congress in Bordeaux, an important motion was passed: the minimum length of an Exchange traineeship had to be 6 weeks. This measure improved the quality of our Exchanges.

In 1976 an International Theme Programme was established that focused all international, regional, and local seminars on specific topics. This idea continued and grew through various stages.

After this the focus of the organization was on addressing global themes besides the traditional Exchange Program. Themes like International Trade, Management Education, Sustainable development, Entrepreneurship and Corporate Responsability were discussed at local, national and global seminars.

In the 90’s the discussion about the relevance of the organization brought the Exchange Program on the main agenda and more and more effort was put in ensuring growth in this area.

Information systems were developed to make the process faster and easier. Insight I was launched in 1997 and Insight II in 2001. As the focus of the organization was the eXchange program again, the number of exchanges started to grow.

In the 2000’s, the organization saw a steady increase in exchange performance with over 5000 students sent on internship in 2008. The introduction of development internships, as a distinct pool of exchanges, added to the diversity of experiences offered. During this period of time the introduction of further management and measurement tools for exchange have supported countries to increase the number of exchange experiences they are providing.

The 60th anniversary celebrations of 2008 saw AIESEC celebrating the history and achievements of 60 years of activating youth leadership in over 100 countries and territories. There were organized festivals all over the world, and the most remarkable were in London, Tokio, Brussels, Budapest, Sao Paulo and other.