Master of Science in Leadership

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 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.

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.

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 Information Technology Management program is designed for business professionals who want to advance their careers in positions such as Chief Information Officer (CIO), Chief Technology Officer (CTO), and IT Manager. Classes are taught by professionals who also work in the field at major companies in the Bay Area. A dynamic classroom environment helps to teach real-world skills for the strategic application of IT — including cutting-edge applications of technologies such as business analytics, mobile, cloud services, and social media.

Thrive in a Changing Tech Environment
Contemporary Information Technology (IT) managers are organizational leaders who bridge and integrate the worlds of business and IT. They engage business leaders in the ongoing and innovative application of information technologies that enable business success and have the skill sets to function in a complex discipline with many facets.

Build High-Level Skills
The Master of Science in Information Technology Management (MS ITM) program was designed by faculty with experience in leading-edge technologies to develop professionals suited for the top positions in the IT management field. The degree meets the needs of the modern management-level technology professional responsible for the planning, budgeting, design, integration, and deployment of strategic enterprise technologies and programs that contribute to the business organization's success.

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?

Finance Concentration

This concentration is designed to prepare students for a finance specialty. Whatever goal students have in the world of business, from corporate management to consulting and entrepreneurship, the study of finance gives them the grounding in decision-making techniques that will help ensure the financial health of their enterprise in the competitive global market. Students learn capital budgeting, capital structure, investment management, and short-term capital management. Our unique method combines a theoretical knowledge of finance with extensive hands-on learning that uses real-life case studies and our state-of-the art computer labs to give students the abilities to be an effective and competent manager in any organization.

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.

Golden Gate University is located at the nexus of finance and technology in San Francisco's business district. As the finance industry rapidly invents new paradigms in the face of economic change, GGU prepares students to be leaders in the global business world. The Masters of Science in Financial Analytics degree will equip you with the business analytics skills you need to address the challenges of today’s technology-intensive finance industry.

The MS in Financial Analytics is a specialized, technical program that provides in-depth exposure to principles and practices of corporate finance and business analytics. You’ll learn programming, data analysis, business valuation and financial modeling. You’ll leave the program with a highly developed and practiced ability to make strategic decisions using the latest tools in technology, data analysis, business and finance.

Our hands-on faculty are leading practitioners in the fields of business, finance, and technology from the Bay Area and beyond. Our current roster of adjunct faculty hold day jobs at Wells Fargo, J.P. Morgan, Facebook, BridgeBio, RGB Spectrum, and B. Riley FBR, Inc.

Learning Outcomes

Graduates of the MS in the Financial Analytics degree 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, considering the impact of markets, institutions, and international trends on these decisions.
• 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.
• Interpret and analyze individual business problems using data, selecting the best analytic approach and appropriate tools for extracting value from the data available. Use visual outcomes of analytics to communicate effective messages and recommendations for management teams.

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.

Financial Life Planning Concentration

Financial planning has the power to transform lives for the better and much of that power is found in the personal, internal realm. Research in psychology and behavioral finance has given us insights into what it takes to facilitate positive change in clients' lives. This is the new frontier for financial planners and our innovative, research-based program is designed to equip you with the tools necessary to become an effective change agent in your clients' lives. You will survey the landscape and meet the innovators who have been developing the tools and perspectives of financial life planning over the past 20 years. From financial therapy, to coaching skills, positive psychology, therapeutic interviewing, and behavioral finance, you'll expand your knowledge and gain the ability to apply these powerful insights to your work with clients.

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.