MSU business college launches executive education program

BOZEMAN — The Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship at Montana State University will soon offer a new non-degree, post-graduate executive education program known as Jabs Executive Education.

The program is designed to provide professional development opportunities for alumni and industry professionals. The college intends for the program to promote lifelong learning and to help its participants succeed in business.

The Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship has been working to develop Jabs Executive Education for the past year by engaging in market research and identifying the resources necessary to deliver a top-tier experience at MSU, according to Kregg Aytes, dean of the college. 

“This program will offer a bridge to our alumni to encourage them to return to MSU for their life-long learning pursuits,” Aytes said. “But it will also offer an opportunity for those outside the area to come for a top-quality learning experience and then stay and visit Montana for a while.”

Some of the program’s strengths will be the opportunity to learn from esteemed MSU faculty members and area professionals in the innovative Jabs Hall on the MSU campus, as well as the opportunity to engage in numerous learning and recreational opportunities in the Bozeman area.

Three courses will be offered this summer and fall to address professional education needs among accountants and marketing executives in the region and beyond. To develop the three inaugural courses, the college sought input from the Dean’s Advisory Board and the Accounting Advisory Council, in addition to local and regional industry experts. 

Two courses are designed for certified public accountants in public accounting firms who are seeking continuing professional education credits in business management, communications and leadership:

• Growing the Business: Client Development in Public Accounting (June 7-10)

• Navigating the Firm: Leadership Essentials in Public Accounting Firms (Nov. 1-4)

The third course is designed for professionals who are seeking to learn more about digital marketing topics such as search engine optimization (SEO), social and paid media, user experience, web analytics and basic data visualization:

• Managing Chaos: Digital Marketing in the Modern Age (July 12-15)

The cost for each three-day course is $2,800, which includes all educational materials. Discounts may apply. Participants may enroll online on our website.
Karen Cates has been named the director of the Jabs Executive Education program, Aytes said. Cates will lead the design and delivery of these and future courses, seeking to add new offerings and repeat popular ones as the program grows. Cates hails from the Midwest, where she has been an adjunct professor of executive education and an academic director of executive programs at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University for the past 20 years.
Also involved in the program are two program academic directors. Stephen Burnett, Cates’ Kellogg colleague, is emeritus professor of strategy who has more than 30 years of experience in executive education including 27 years working with global public accounting partners in Big Four firms. Jacob Cook, an MSU faculty member since 2007, focuses on developing and teaching courses on digital marketing, analytics and design thinking. He also is co-founder of Tadpull, where he consults nationally to clients around integrated digital marketing strategies and software.

For more information about Jabs Executive Education, visit http://www.montana.edu/business/exec-ed/.
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This story is available on the Web at: http://www.montana.edu/news/16718