Why pursue an Executive MBA for Strategic Leadership from UT?
Just ask our graduates—and read about their successes.
“Over the last year,“ Mark Clark says, “we've increased our international business 60 percent as a result” of implementing my Organizational Action Project.
Read more.
“Immediately after graduating, I saw my six-figure salary first double, then triple. I've never looked back on my UT EMBA experience as anything but a massively successful undertaking.”
— Ron Senkowski, Executive Producer, Walt Disney Internet Group
“In 1993, I was named managing director for FedEx operations in the Caribbean region. It was a turnaround challenge and I was eager to prove my worth. I distinctly remember one shareholder meeting that I attended in Bermuda with our lawyer, our accountant, and five investors from Bermuda. The financials were just terrible, and I tried to wow them with my turnaround plan. To my surprise and disappointment, all five investors sold their investments immediately after the meeting.
“On the return plane ride from Bermuda, I called the director of the Executive MBA program at the University of Tennessee and asked to be enrolled. I was admitted and promptly turned the Caribbean region into a learning laboratory. Every week, I got useful and insightful ideas and skills to assist me in running the business better. Indeed, the education I received from the Executive MBA program was instrumental in helping me to turn around that and several other businesses and led to my rapid promotion from a middle management responsibility for the smallest district to a senior management position of the largest division within FedEx.”
—Ken May, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer, FedEx Kinko's
“I credit the Executive MBA program, specifically Srini's sessions on lean, for the knowledge that helped our company win a $12.5 million contract.”
—Chris Leichtweis, CEO, Safety and Ecology Corporation
“I got so much out of the EMBA program: camaraderie, meeting new people, new family, learning, networking, global eye-opening. It pushed me farther than I thought I could go. I have no clue where my undergraduate diploma is—it’s buried in a box somewhere. But this one will go up on my wall.”
—Cliff Dole, Best Buy, Richfield, MN
“I’ve traveled quite a bit on business and as a tourist. But the international trip that we did as part of EMBA was something that you don’t get on the business side and you don’t get on the tourist side. The people we met with, the information that was shared with us during the course of that trip, those were things that were unique. So I really enjoyed the international residency.
One of the things I had hoped to get out of the program was a broader perspective. I definitely feel now that I see business in a different light than I did previously. I can see things from a CEO’s perspective, with that type of strategic vision. And I feel that I now have the tool set to be able to do anything I want to do in a business environment.”
—Tony Harris, JTEKT North America, Morristown, TN
“To me, the University of Tennessee EMBA program’s greatest advantage was the fact that its curriculum bridges the gap between textbook and reality. Every assignment was structured around what was actually taking place in our own businesses. From the outset, the professors’ stated goal was that they would ‘teach us to think like our boss’s boss should be thinking.’ In my case, that was our chairman of the board. Indeed, this was the most valuable benefit that I derived from the program.”
—Mike Burchardt, Senior Vice President, Hillcrest Health System
An Executive MBA degree from UT makes a difference in the real world for our graduates. Here are a few of their stories.
“Our return has been over $2,000 for every dollar spent.”
Bev Cawthon, Vice President of Business Operations, Aegis Sciences Corporation
“I’ve never been so invigorated! The curriculum is fabulous.”
John Boll, CEO, GA Richards Group
“Going through UT’s Executive MBA program was one of the most rewarding years of my life.”
Bill Breeding, Jr., Former Mayor, Johnson City, Tennessee