Student Perspectives:

John Woody

“The professors want to teach you something on Friday that you can use when you go to work Monday. That kind of learning and reinforcement certainly stays with you longer than if you just read it in a book. That quick turnaround can’t be overvalued.”

John Woody, MBA 2012
Senior Consultant, Energy and Environmental Economics, Inc. (E3)

Read more

Immediate Impact

The Berkeley-Columbia Executive MBA program focuses on applying knowledge and skills to challenges that managers face in today’s workplace. As a working professional seeking a highly relevant learning experience, you will find that your studies and classroom discussions have direct bearing on choices you are making at work.

Class exercises and team and special projects provide an unparalleled opportunity for you to apply learning to your organization’s current business challenges. The program’s structure—a foundation of rigorous general management skills in the early terms, followed by electives that deepen your knowledge in areas you deem most important to your professional growth—maximizes your ability to learn and apply new skills.

Raising the Level of Conversation

“From the very first class, the program has changed the level of conversation I have with colleagues,” says Oracle Vice President Patanjali Venkatacharya, MBA 2012. “I work closely, for example, with Oracle’s head of Investor Relations. All of a sudden, we’re having conversations in which I’m asking him accounting-related questions that would never have popped into my head before. Our conversation has moved up a notch.”

During a first-term marketing course, Agnes Faure, MBA 2012, the founder of a French arts magazine learned about Lifetime Value to Customers “in a way that was new to me and very clear,” she says. “I can translate this new concept immediately in my business.” Guadalupe Nickell, MBA 2011, of The Nature Conservancy, reports having a successful negotiation during a crucial business meeting, thanks to tools she learned in a negotiations class. “Because of those new skills,” she says, “I know I had a very different kind of conversation—and outcome—than had I relied on intuition alone.”

Value to Employers

The many ways Executive MBA students add substantial value to their company include:
  • Keeping their careers—and their contributions to the firm—firmly on track while they earn their degree
  • Developing management skills that can be put to use immediately and that form the basis for career development
  • Learning from professors who are leaders in their areas of expertise and who are conducting innovative research that is applicable in the practical world of business
  • Gaining insights from a diverse network of classmates, all high-potential executives and entrepreneurs
  • Remaining current with developments in and beyond their own industries

[+] to top