New courses enhance EMBA experience

Published June 19, 2014 This content is archived.

Graduates of UB’s Executive MBA program will now be even better equipped for success, thanks to a revised program curriculum.

New half-credit classes in management communications and mergers and acquisitions have replaced a full-credit microeconomics course in the program. The changes were made based on a strategic review of top EMBA programs, industry trends and alumni surveys.

“We’re responding to changes in the marketplace, just as we have done since the program began in 1994,” says Courtney J. Walsh, assistant dean for executive education in the School of Management. “Since then our alumni have consistently told us that the program provides the knowledge and experiences they need to continue to be successful.”

Walsh says the program’s class schedule and forward-thinking program design will continue to attract successful professionals from the U.S. and southern Ontario.

The 2013 and 2014 EMBA classes had a preview of the new curriculum through a series of free, opt-in seminars. Richard Stauffer, vice president of supply chain and operations at Sherex Fastening Solutions in Tonawanda, earned his EMBA in 2013 and attended both seminars.

“Even as executives and junior executives, many of us hadn’t gone through any formal communication training,” he says. “The communications class forced us to change the way we present material — to use PowerPoint as a sales tool rather than just reading documents off of it.”

In addition, Stauffer says the course in mergers and acquisitions provided an opportunity to put skills learned in the classroom to work.

“We always talk about buying companies, but the mergers and acquisitions course took you through the whole process,” he says, “from identifying and evaluating the company, to purchasing and getting it to a place where it’s viable for you.”

EMBA classes are held all day Friday and Saturday every third weekend — with some exceptions for holidays — and participants can complete the program in 20 months.