Executive Master of Public Administration

at Golden Gate University USA

The Golden Gate University (GGU) MBA program will advance your leadership skills and business knowledge using an activity-based learning approach. Faculty members are seasoned professionals in their respective fields and will prepare you to lead in today's complex business environment.

GGU's MBA program builds your business acumen, leadership skills, and contextual knowledge throughout the practical degree design. It provides an integrated perspective of management, and allows you to tailor the program with one of several concentrations to meet your professional interests and goals. Concentrations include business analytics, entrepreneurship, project management and even the option to design your own.

Since launching the MBA program more than half a century ago, GGU has pioneered evening and online programs for working professionals to achieve their career objectives. You can proceed at your own pace in deciding how many courses to take in a given trimester and study fully in-person, completely online or a combination of both.

Students in the program come from the San Francisco Bay Area, the United States and more than 50 countries around the world. With our location in the heart of San Francisco's thriving business community, strong connections to Bay Area business leaders, and a distinguished community of more than 70,000 alumni, the educational experience and the networks available to you are unparalleled.

The Master of Science in Finance is a specialized, technical program providing in-depth exposure to the principles and practices of corporate finance and investment management. The main objective of the program is to provide the specialized knowledge needed to add immediate value to your organization as a financial manager or investment adviser.

Located in the heart of San Francisco's Financial District, Golden Gate University provides networking and internship opportunities through its 68,000-strong alumni network and relationships with the local financial community.

The MS in Finance program has been certified by the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute as a University Affiliation Program. This membership signals to employers that the MSF curriculum is closely tied to the practice of financial management, and helps to prepare students for the CFA exams.

The MS in Finance does not attempt to provide the broad overview of business that is typical of an MBA. Instead, it focuses on the specific areas of compelling interest to financial managers, security analysts, corporate bankers, and portfolio managers. This degree is intended for students who have made a professional commitment to this key business discipline, and who are interested in equipping themselves with a comprehensive array of analytical tools and techniques.

You can choose to earn this degree entirely online or through a combination of online and in-class courses that are taught by the same professors and present the same material as the traditional format.

Learning Outcomes

Graduates of the MS in Finance program will have the knowledge and skills to:

• Evaluate and explain financial decisions regarding the firm’s investment and long- and short-term financing strategies by applying financial theory, quantitative decision-making tools, and analytical methods.
• Apply economic analysis to the firm’s decision-making, taking into account the impact of markets, institutions, and international trends on these decisions. Understand whether or to what extent a financial market satisfies the conditions of an efficient market.
• Define and measure business and financial risk. Describe the relationship between risk and return, and distinguish between expected and required returns. Explain how risk affects the valuation of real and financial assets, and describe techniques for managing risk.
• Evaluate the corporate governance structures of firms and examine the interactions, from a governance perspective, among firm management, financial markets, and stakeholders.
• Describe and evaluate the ethical implications of financial decision-making and financial practices, assess alternative recommendations for solutions to ethical financial problems, and offer appropriate resolutions to those problems.

The Master of Science in Project Management delivers focused graduate study that prepares students for careers in the growing discipline of project management. It is anticipated that by 2020, as many as 11 million project-management jobs will be added by the United States and its 10 major trading partners.

Students will graduate with project management skills emphasizing an integrated relationship with an organization's functional areas. Our degrees and certificates in project management provide formal training that prepares graduates to manage local, outsourced and global projects. Students' improved communication skills will enable them to succeed in multiple diverse communities within an organization.

Faculty with extensive practical experience and who have earned the PMP® designation teach all of our courses. Students are eligible to receive 35 Professional Development Units (PDU) or contact units when each of the following courses is completed: PM 340, PM 342, PM 343, PM 344, PM 346, PM 348.

Learning Outcomes

Graduates of the Master of Science in Project Management program will be able to demonstrate:

• Managerial and leadership skills, e.g., leadership, planning, problem solving, communication, staffing and budgeting.
• The ability to use technology to manage relationships across projects and with business function units, as well as analyze data.
• Project-management skills, including planning, scope management, stakeholder analysis, quality assessment, risk management, team building and scheduling.
• Program and portfolio management skills, including understanding issues in project selection, vendor relationships, outsourcing, finance, purchasing and contract negotiations, as well as regulatory and compliance issues.
• The ability to integrate and apply the above understanding and knowledge into the development of a major applied capstone or internship project.

Our EMBA program is based on 100+ years of proven success developing and delivering programs for working professionals, and was designed to leverage the real-world professional experience and knowledge of the EMBA participants with GGU's renowned active and practice-based learning methods.

As you complete GGU's 16-month Executive MBA program, you will gain confidence not only from advancing your knowledge of business and leadership concepts, but also from mastering and applying what you learn to boost your professional performance.

From day one, you will have the opportunity to connect with a peer group of accomplished, high-energy professionals, in the heart of San Francisco's thriving business district. You will join an active alumni community that is 68,000-strong, and you will benefit from a network of corporate partnerships and entrepreneurs that GGU has forged during its 115-year history in the center of this world-changing business hub.

As a participant in the EMBA program, you will collaborate with and learn from executive coaches and instructors who are influential business leaders and who transform GGU classes into dynamic learning laboratories. More than 80% of our EMBA faculty members are scholar-practitioners, and they will constantly challenge you to enhance your business knowledge and hone your leadership skills by solving real, meaningful and practical business problems.

Learining Outcomes
Graduates of the executive MBA program will be able to:

• Work effectively in teams
• Sell their ideas
• Apply theory to understand real practical situations
• Think “outside the box” and develop novel solutions
• Integrate the functional department issues into a coherent strategic whole
• Analyze and synthesize problems
• Manage the development of their own careers

Graduates will be knowledgeable about:

• Current international and global issues
• Ethical and diversity issues
• Current technology and environmental issues
• Leading change in an organization
• Current management trends

This degree is designed for students who aspire to become financial planners, investment advisers, or money managers, or who may be interested in one of the many elements of this broad and rapidly-growing field. By pursuing a financial planning education at Golden Gate University, students will move into the 21st century equipped with the latest skills, with appropriate professional credentials, and with advanced academic degrees. This course of study also satisfies the educational requirements necessary for the premier Certified Financial Planner™ designation.

The work of the financial planner is best viewed through a "quality of life" lens: How can one assist one's clients in achieving their life goals and realizing their dreams? There are important technical issues to be addressed: What tax structure is best suited for my client? What asset allocation provides the desired risk/return profile?

Many of the critical questions have to do with the kind of life the client envisions, and how the client's emotional and psychological predispositions facilitate or obstruct the development of successful financial plans. It is the overarching objective of the Master of Science in Financial Planning to ensure that our graduates have both the technical skills and the relationship skills needed to create and deliver financial strategies that will support their clients' progress towards their most important life goals.

Online courses allow students to pursue a strictly online financial planning degree. Students can apply for admission, sign up for classes, communicate with professors and other students, and access all course information online at any time. This allows you to study financial planning from the comfort of your home, rather than having to find a financial planning school nearby that fits in your schedule.

Learning Outcomes

Graduates of the master of financial planning degree program will possess:

• The skills and knowledge of financial planning that are represented in the full range of topics covered by the CFP™ examination.
• Interpersonal skills necessary to maintain successful client relationships and to work effectively with colleagues, individually or in teams.
• The quantitative, analytical, and technical skills needed to address complex financial situations.
• The ability to apply their knowledge to real-world problems in financial planning.
• Knowledge of the legal and regulatory environment in which financial planning occurs and familiarity with relevant licensing, reporting, and compliance requirements.
• The ability to recognize the ethical dilemmas that may arise in financial planning practice and familiarity with appropriate responses to those dilemmas, as reflected in the CFP™ Board's Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility.

The Master of Science in Business Analytics presents students with an understanding of the many possibilities for applying data analytics to business problems. Data analytics, and the implications of this strategic discipline, give practitioners new opportunities for discovering insights that can support the strategic goals and decision making of the organization. The discipline has grown so fast that it is impossible to address all of its elements, so this degree should be viewed as a "toolkit" of statistical and analytic theory, processes, tools, and techniques, which can be integrated into the business depending on the discipline and needed outcomes.

The MSBA is relevant to multiple audiences, including: the business manager charged with using data analytics to derive value from data and/or leveraging analytics teams to get that value; the subject matter expert (SME) in a business discipline charged with using analytics on the job; the budding business analytics data scientist requiring understanding of a myriad of data analytics tools from which to draw, and the IT professional responsible for supporting the analytics infrastructure and addressing issues of data security, privacy and ethics. Students completing the MSBA will have earned 39 units including three units of graduate statistics.

The Master of Science in Business Analytics presents students with an understanding of the many possibilities for applying data analytics to business problems. Data analytics, and the implications of this strategic discipline, give practitioners new opportunities for discovering insights that can support the strategic goals and decision making of the organization. The discipline has grown so fast that it is impossible to address all of its elements, so this degree should be viewed as a "toolkit" of statistical and analytic theory, processes, tools, and techniques, which can be integrated into the business depending on the discipline and needed outcomes.

The MSBA is relevant to multiple audiences, including: the business manager charged with using data analytics to derive value from data and/or leveraging analytics teams to get that value; the subject matter expert (SME) in a business discipline charged with using analytics on the job; the budding business analytics data scientist requiring understanding of a myriad of data analytics tools from which to draw, and the IT professional responsible for supporting the analytics infrastructure and addressing issues of data security, privacy and ethics. Students completing the MSBA will have earned 39 units including three units of graduate statistics.

Management Concentration

The Management concentration is designed for aspiring and current managers who are charged with using data analytics to derive value from data and for leveraging analytics teams to achieve that value. Emphasis in on applying soft skills to meet these needs.

In the MSADA and certificate programs, students can gain essential skills that in-demand accounting professionals need in today's data-rich environment. The MSADA offers concentrations in CPA applied accounting, advanced analytics for accountants, essentials of leadership, or taxation. The Advanced Analytics for Accountants Concentration is a STEM-designated degree program.

Plus, graduate certificates are available in Accounting Data & Analytics, Accounting Foundations, Advanced Analytics for Accountants, and CPA Applied Accounting.

This MSADA program satisfies the 150-hour education requirement to become a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and the CPA Applied Accounting Concentration offers live instruction to guide students through the CPA exam.

Taxation Concentration

A customizable graduate degree concentration designed to prepare CFP-certificated students for success in taxation.

Students who undertake the concentration in taxation will gain expert knowledge of taxation practices and policies. Paired with tax courses are a number of finance classes, which will provide students with a solid base in financial analysis and planning. Paired together, these course offerings allow graduates a firm grasp of both finance and taxes, so that they can implement a financial plan and understand exactly how taxation factors into all the varied aspects.

The Master of Science in Accounting Data & Analytics (MSADA) bridges advanced accounting concepts with data analytics, and will equip students with essential skills and knowledge to compete in the evolving realities of the profession. The MSADA develops students’ understanding of accounting and analytics’ concepts beyond theory through practical application positioning students to become leaders in their field. Students will explore the use of innovative technologies and business automation processes to increase operational effectiveness and efficiencies to drive better decision-making.

In the MSADA and certificate programs, students can gain essential skills that in-demand accounting professionals need in today's data-rich environment. The MSADA offers concentrations in CPA applied accounting, advanced analytics for accountants, essentials of leadership, or taxation. The Advanced Analytics for Accountants Concentration is a STEM-designated degree program.

Plus, graduate certificates are available in Accounting Data & Analytics, Accounting Foundations, Advanced Analytics for Accountants, and CPA Applied Accounting.

This MSADA program satisfies the 150-hour education requirement to become a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and the CPA Applied Accounting Concentration offers live instruction to guide students through the CPA exam.

Taxation Concentration Concentration

This concentration is intended to meet the needs of those who have studied accounting and wish to further specialize in the field of taxation. By requiring an extensive focus on taxation, this concentration develops significant tax knowledge as part of a program that includes creation of a strong accounting foundation. The concentration courses are in tax research, federal income taxation, and property transactions.

Gain Cutting-Edge Leadership Skills

Golden Gate University’s breakthrough leadership programs are based on extensive input from corporate partners, industry groups, leading scholars, and leverage the university’s decades-long successes in developing high achieving leaders in the innovative crucible of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Learn From Instructors Who Teach What They Do

Courses are taught by instructors who also work in some of the Bay Area’s largest and most successful organizations. They bring cutting-edge knowledge from the field to the classroom, teaching skills that are immediately applicable to the real world.

Future-Proof Your Career

The pace of change across industries is quickening. New technologies are disrupting established businesses at an accelerated rate. We are operating in an ever interconnected global world. Jobs once performed by professionals will soon be automated or outsourced. What was certain today well may be uncertain tomorrow. Are you prepared for how management and leadership will evolve as a result?

Business Analytics Concentration

This concentration is designed for the student who must be able to apply data analytics tools and techniques to information that the organization can use for strategic decision-making. Students taking this concentration will be introduced to specialized analytics tools and technologies.

Gain Cutting-Edge Leadership Skills

Golden Gate University’s breakthrough leadership programs are based on extensive input from corporate partners, industry groups, leading scholars, and leverage the university’s decades-long successes in developing high achieving leaders in the innovative crucible of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Learn From Instructors Who Teach What They Do

Courses are taught by instructors who also work in some of the Bay Area’s largest and most successful organizations. They bring cutting-edge knowledge from the field to the classroom, teaching skills that are immediately applicable to the real world.

Future-Proof Your Career

The pace of change across industries is quickening. New technologies are disrupting established businesses at an accelerated rate. We are operating in an ever interconnected global world. Jobs once performed by professionals will soon be automated or outsourced. What was certain today well may be uncertain tomorrow. Are you prepared for how management and leadership will evolve as a result?

Organizational Behavior and Development Concentration

This concentration is designed for the student who must be able to apply data analytics tools and techniques to information that the organization can use for strategic decision-making. Students taking this concentration will be introduced to specialized analytics tools and technologies.