Executive MBA expands with Southeast’s first Consumer Goods and Services Marketing specialty

The Executive Master of Business Administration program in the Davis College of Business is expanding to offer the Southeast’s first Consumer Goods and Services concentration, in response to growing demand in the region for specialized executive education in consumer packaged goods, food marketing, consumer behavior and data analytics.

The program begins its first cohort in February and follows DCOB’s new MBA concentration in the same area, which launched this fall and has seen a great amount of interest. JU has partnered with sponsoring companies such as Southeastern Grocers, Kehe, Pepsico, McCormick, Acosta Sales & Marketing, and Logix3 to create the curriculum for future leaders in the consumer goods and services industry.

“A Consumer Goods-focused EMBA concentration allows our most experienced students to learn first-hand from practitioners who are leaders within the industry or those who have numerous years of practical experience to share their knowledge with our candidates,” said Dr. Don Capener, Dean of the DCOB. “It follows our model of doctoral qualified faculty matched to industry expertise.”

JU’s EMBA program recently celebrated 30 years and is known for producing senior executives making top decisions in the Jacksonville business community. With recent studies such as one by Elanco showing that the world will need to increase its food production by 100 percent by 2050, demand for highly qualified leaders in fields such as consumer goods and services is expected to grow exponentially over the next three decades.

Watch a video about the new EMBA program below:

The closest similar program to JU’s new EMBA specialty is one in Food Marketing at the Haub School of Business at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, which is nationally known for its Executive MBA program. Bruce Kern, CEO of Logix3 LLC, former JU trustee and member of the Executive Advisory Board of the DCOB, teaches at St. Joseph’s during the summer in its program and has been instrumental in bringing in experts to formulate a very thorough and competitive program.

“It is important for our EMBA students to not only receive practical business training, but also be able to specialize. This program will help mold more productive leaders for consumer goods companies,” said Kern. “We will be training executives and future leaders in the Consumer Goods industry here in the Southeast.”

The new EMBA concentration will consist of guest lecturers and instructors who are currently and recently involved in the Consumer Goods industry, providing a unique opportunity for the candidates in the program. Applied learning opportunities and group projects will be very attractive for candidates to work with one another in different areas of the industry and provide practical networking opportunities.

Basic admissions requirements include a minimum of five years of progressive business industry and/or managerial/leadership experience in the Consumer Goods Industry, three letters of recommendation, corporate letter of support and interview with the graduate director.

The program will follow a more expanded schedule spanning 29 months, and will hold on-campus courses once per month to allow candidates from the entire Southeast to enroll and attend. Students will also have an opportunity to attend some courses within DCOB’s Leadership Development EMBA and other sessions through distance learning capabilities.

The deadline to apply for the new EMBA program is Nov. 15, 2015, and the application link is at https://apply.ju.edu/apply. For more information, please see www.ju.edu/consumergoods or email Michael Diamond at mdiamon1@ju.edu.