Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business announced today that it is assisting a university in Kazakhstan in creating its own business school.

The agreement between Duke and Nazarbayev University is a consulting arrangement where some Fuqua faculty members will teach classes within the program during the first few years.

NU will grant its own degrees. The MBA program at Nazarbayev University is expected to launch in September 2012.

Fuqua currently has a presence in Dubai, London, New Delhi, China and St. Petersburg, Russia.

Duke's relationship with NU is a result of Fuqua’s involvement in Russia, which began in 2008.

Seems that Coach K's leadership wisdom remains a draw, despite the down economy.

As of Monday afternoon, the sponsors of the eighth annual Fuqua School of Business and Coach K Leadership conference at Duke University had matched last year's total of 256 registered attendees.

The conference kicks off this afternoon with a timely theme: "Leading in Times of Uncertainty." The conference will bring together a wide range of executives to discuss how they manage, motivate and more.

Scheduled speakers include Abigail P. Johnson vice chairman at Fidelity Investments; James F. McCaffrey, chief strategy officer at Turner Broadcasting System; and Shannon Wallis, global director of leadership development at Microsoft.

Local executives include Michael Capps, president of Cary-based Epic Games, and Jim Whitehurst, CEO of Raleigh-based Red Hat. Get a full list of speakers and other information here.

Tonight's keynote address is "How to Lead in Tough Times" by Bob Seelert, chairman of advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi.

The conference runs through Wednesday. As is tradition, a conference highlight will be watching Duke men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski leading a practice.