The Executive Program for Prospective CFOs

Sharpen analytical skills, effectively manage relationships with internal and external constituencies, and drive strategic direction to lead enterprise transformation and growth, while applying cutting-edge research to the most pressing problems facing finance executives today.

The role of financial leaders today has evolved beyond strictly crunching numbers. Finance officers must be strategic leaders, effective communicators, and risk managers. Chicago Booth has assembled an interdisciplinary team of faculty from the fields of economics, finance, accounting, strategy, and leadership to create The Executive Program for Prospective CFOs.

Led by Randall Kroszner, Deputy Dean for Executive Programs, Norman R. Bobins Professor of Economics, and former Governor of the Federal Reserve System, this program draws upon Booth’s global expertise in finance and strong focus on economic research to address the most pressing issues facing senior finance executives today. The program also includes "fireside chat" keynotes from distinguished practitioners who describe how they have managed strategic challenges in their organizations. Fireside chat keynotes for previous cohorts include Paul Donofrio, former CFO of Bank of America and Karen Gould, former CFO of Turner Construction.

By attending this program, you will:

  • Identify critical attributes needed to create a high-performance environment.
  • Articulate the corporate message internally and externally.
  • Analyze patterns in strategic thinking to identify a growth path.
  • Discover the power of data in making marketing more accountable and understand the strategic and scientific approach to marketing analytics that results in a higher ROI.
  • Develop a strategic plan for M&A execution and implementation.
  • Examine the valuation process for global investments and methods for calculating the cost of capital in an international context.
  • Analyze the sources of financial fragility and regulatory responses.
  • Learn how to harness continuous improvement and disruptive change to benefit the corporation.

“My goal as faculty director is to make this the premier program for senior finance executives who want to sharpen analytics, build strategic leadership and communication skills, manage the changing regulatory environment, and broaden their experience to benefit their companies and individual careers. I hope to attract a select group of executives who will become the next generation of leaders in finance and who will continue to benefit from this high-caliber network long after the program is over.” —Faculty Director Randall Kroszner

Location

Chicago Booth, Gleacher Center, Chicago, IL

This program benefits senior finance executives who have significant experience in upper-level management or finance. This program will be valuable to executives from all industries and companies of all sizes from around the globe. Past participants have come from companies such as The Dow Chemical Company, IBM, AbbVie, Express, Hyatt Hotels, and TOTO USA, Inc.

Applicants should have significant experience in upper-level management or finance. Titles include: CFO, deputy CFO, senior VP, finance director, treasurer, and controller.

 

Randall Kroszner

Norman R. Bobins Professor of Economics
Randall S. Kroszner is Norman R. Bobins Professor of Economics. He previously served as Deputy Dean for Executive Programs at Booth, as well as a Governor of the Federal Reserve System from 2006 until 2009. He chaired the committee on Supervision and Regulation of Banking Institutions and the committee on Consumer and Community Affairs. In these capacities, he took a leading role in developing responses to the financial crisis and in undertaking new initiatives to improve consumer protection and disclosure, including rules related to home mortgages and credit cards. He represented the Federal Reserve Board on the Financial Stability Forum (now called the Financial Stability Board), the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, and the Central Bank Governors of the American Continent and was a director of NeighborWorks America. Dr. Kroszner chaired the working party of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), composed of deputy central bank governors and finance ministers, on Policies for the Promotion of Better International Payments Equilibrium. As a member of the Fed Board, he was also a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee.

From 2001 to 2003, Dr. Kroszner was a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA). He was involved in formulating policy on a wide range of issues, including responses to corporate governance scandals, government-sponsored enterprise reform, pension reform, terrorism risk insurance, tax reform, currency crisis management, sovereign debt restructuring, the role of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and international trade and development.

Since 1990, Dr. Kroszner has taught at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Dr. Kroszner was Director of the George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State. He served as editor of the Journal of Law & Economics and has been associate editor of a number of other academic and policy journals. He was a member of the board of directors at the National Association for Business Economics and the Financial Management Association.

Dr. Kroszner serves as the Chair of the Financial Research Advisory Committee of the Office of Financial Research of the U.S. Treasury. He is a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s Academic Advisory Council and of the board of advisors of the Paulson Institute. In addition, he is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is member of the board of trustees of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and a member of the board of directors of the Renaissance Society.

Dr. Kroszner has been a visiting scholar at the Securities and Exchange Commission, the IMF, the Stockholm School of Economics, the Stockholm University, the Free University of Berlin, Germany, the London School of Economics, and the American Enterprise Institute. He was the John M. Olin Visiting Fellow in Law and Economics at the University of Chicago Law School the Bertil Danielson Visiting Professor of Banking and Finance at the Stockholm School of Economics, and the SK Chaired Visiting Professor at Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea.

His research interests include regulation of financial institutions, international financial crises, the Great Depression, monetary economics, corporate governance, debt restructuring and bankruptcy, and political economy. His paper on managerial stock ownership (with Clifford Holderness and Dennis Sheehan) won the Brattle Prize for best corporate finance paper in the Journal of Finance. His book co-authored with Nobel laureate Robert J. Shiller, Reforming U.S. Financial Markets: Reflections Before and Beyond Dodd-Frank (MIT Press) appeared on the Washington Post’s Book World political best sellers list.

Dr. Kroszner is a frequent commentator in the international media. He provides advice to financial institutions, government organizations, and central banks throughout the world.

Dr. Kroszner received a Sc.B. (magna cum laude) in applied mathematics-economics (honors) from Brown University in 1984 and an M.A. (1987) and Ph.D. (1990), both in economics, from Harvard University.

Jean-Pierre Dubé

James M. Kilts Distinguished Service Professor of Marketing and Charles E. Merrill Faculty Scholar
Jean-Pierre Dubé is the James M. Kilts Distinguished Service Professor of Marketing at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Professor Dubé is also director of the Kilts Center for Marketing at Booth, a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a faculty fellow at the Marketing Science Institute. From 2008-2010, he was a research consultant for the Yahoo! Microeconomics Research group. He has been working as a research consultant with Amazon since 2018.

His research interests lie at the intersection of industrial organization and quantitative marketing. He has conducted empirical studies on the formation of consumer preferences for branded goods, price discrimination, advertising, food deserts and nutrition policy, and the role of misinformation in consumer demand. This empirical focus is also reflected in his MBA course on pricing strategies, which is designed to teach students how to apply marketing models and analytics to develop pricing strategies in practice. Several of his recent research projects are in collaboration with companies in the US and in China.

Dubé’s work has been published in the American Economic Review, Econometrica, The Journal of Marketing Research, The Journal of Political Economy, Management Science, Marketing Science, Quantitative Marketing and Economics, the Quarterly Journal of Economics and The Rand Journal of Economics. He is currently Department Editor at Management Science, and has previously served as an area/associate editor for The Journal of Marketing Research, Management Science, Marketing Science, and Quantitative Marketing and Economics. He was the recipient of the 2023 Hillel J. Einhorn Excellence in Teaching Award, the Chicago Booth Class of 2016 Phoenix Award for service to the extracurricular and community activities of the graduating class, the 2008 Paul E. Green Award for Best paper in the Journal of Marketing Research and of the 2005 Faculty Teaching Excellence Award for Evening MBA and Weekend MBA Programs at the Chicago Booth. He was also the recipient of several MSI Research Grants, a Kauffman grant, and a Yahoo! Faculty Research Grant.

Dubé earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Toronto in quantitative methods in economics in 1995, a master's degree in economics in 1996, and a PhD in 2000 from Northwestern University. He joined the Chicago Booth faculty in 2000.

Christian Leuz

Charles F. Pohl Distinguished Service Professor of Accounting and Finance

Christian Leuz is the Charles F. Pohl Professor of Accounting and Finance at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. He is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a Research Fellow at the Center for Economic Policy Research and Leibniz Institute SAFE, EPIC Scholar, a Fellow at the European Corporate Governance Institute, Goethe Universität Frankfurt’s Center for Financial Studies, and of the CESifo Research Network. He is a co-organizer and a member of the IGM’s European Economic Experts Panel. He studies the role of disclosure and transparency in capital markets and other settings, including sustainability and ESG; the economic effects of regulation; international accounting; corporate governance and finance. His work has been published in many top academic journals including Science, Journal of Finance, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Accounting & Economics, and Review of Financial Studies. He has received several awards and honors, including the Class of 2023 Phoenix Award, the 2022 ACA Prize in Financial Governance, the 2016 and the 2014 Distinguished Contribution to the Accounting Literature Awards, and a Humboldt Research Award in 2012. He is recognized as a “Highly Cited Researcher” by Thomson Reuters and was included in their list of “The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds” five years in a row (from 2014 to 2018). Professor Leuz is an editor for the Journal of Accounting Research and has served on many editorial boards, including the Journal of Accounting & Economics, The Accounting Review, the Journal of Business, Finance and Accounting, and the Review of Accounting Studies.

Born in Germany, Professor Leuz earned his doctoral degree and Habilitation at the Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany. Prior to this position, he was the Harold Stott Term Assistant Professor in Accounting at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a visiting doctoral fellow at the Simon School of Business, University of Rochester.

Gregory Bunch

Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship
Greg Bunch draws on a wealth of experience as an entrepreneur, manager, consultant, alderman, and teacher. He is the founder of Masterplan International Corporation, a strategy consulting firm. He was also a partner at Brandtrust, a brand strategy consultancy. Greg co-founded a healthcare software start-up in the Bay Area. He has served on corporate boards for financial services, healthcare, retail, franchising and marketing firms.

He works with Fortune 50 companies, family businesses and start-ups in the areas of innovation and strategy. He has worked with a broad array of companies including Abbott Labs, American Express, Danaher, Dover, ETS, Harley-Davidson, Hewlett-Packard, Kimberly-Clark, McDonalds, PepsiCo, State Farm and Yum! Brands.

Greg was an alderman in the City of West Chicago, serving on the infrastructure, public safety and development committees.

Greg has lectured nationally and internationally on topics related to strategy, creating customers, and innovation. He earned a bachelor's degree from Wheaton College in philosophy and an MDiv from Harvard University.

Laura Born

Adjunct Professor of Finance
Laura M. Born held the title of Managing Director in Investment Banking at J.P. Morgan Chase until 2007. Over her 16-year tenure, she worked in the Equity Capital Markets, Leveraged Finance and Investment Banking Coverage departments. During her career, she focused on consumer, industrials, auto and financial institution clients. Her transaction experience includes mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, initial public offerings, secondary equity offerings, spin-offs, convertible bond offerings, leveraged finance bank and bond transactions, investment grade bond transactions, and interest rate swaps and derivatives. Additionally, she provided advice on company valuations, strategic direction, capital structure, shareholder payout decisions, rating agency process, equity road shows, and conducted seminars for clients.

She currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Carlson Inc. (hospitality portfolio company that owned TGIFridays, Radisson Hotels and Carlson Worldwide Travel and now operates a private equity platform), and she is also the Chair of the Audit Committee. Since 2023, Born has been a member of the Board of Directors of ezCater.com, a technology company that enables corporate catering services.  From 2020 to 2021, she was a member of the Carlson Travel Inc. board and worked to complete two financial restructurings of the company.  From 2007 to 2021, Laura served as a member of the board of the Trustees for the Columbia Acorn Trust and the Wanger Advisors Trust (small and mid-capitalization equity mutual funds), ten years of which she was elected as Chair of the Board. From 2018 to 2020, she served on the Driehaus Capital Managment LLC Advisory Board (small/mid cap equity asset management firm). 

More recently, Born provided humanitarian assistance in Poland to support Ukrainian refugees via Paracrew.org and the All Hands and Hearts organizations.  Closer to home, Born was a long time board member of the Infant Welfare Society of Evanston (a not-for profit serving low income children and their families in the area) for 15 years. She has been involved in public education initiatives in her public school district, having served as: a Co-Chair of the 21st Century Learning Sub-Committee, a member of the Central School Improvement Plan Committee and a delegate to the New Trier High School Board of Education Caucus.  

Born earned a bachelor's degree in economics and political science from Duke University in 1987. She received an MBA in finance and accounting with Honors from Chicago Booth in 1991.

She enjoys Italy, Austin, the mountains, music, traveling, art history, yoga, hiking, and downhill skiing.

Hal Weitzman

Adjunct Associate Professor of Behavioral Science
Hal Weitzman is executive director for intellectual capital at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. He is editor-in-chief of Chicago Booth Review and host of The Big Question, Booth's monthly video panel discussion series. He was a reporter and editor at the Financial Times from 2000 to 2012, the last seven years as a foreign correspondent in South America and Chicago. As well as the FT, his reporting has appeared in The Economist, the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, The Miami Herald, New Statesman, The Irish Times, Slate and Politico.

Hal's experience in South America formed the basis for his 2012 book, Latin Lessons: How South America Stopped Listening to the United States and Started Prospering. His time as a reporter in Chicago led him to write 'Chicago's Decade of Innovation, 1972-1982', a chapter covering the development of financial derivatives, which was published in the 2010 book Regulated Exchanges: Dynamic Agents of Economic Growth.

Hal grew up in Wales. He was an undergraduate at Leeds, gained a master's at Oriel College, Oxford, and was a Frank Knox Memorial Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

His interests include rugby, tea, and gardening.

Susan Lucia Annunzio

Adjunct Associate Professor, Executive Education, Chicago Booth

Acclaimed Leadership Coach, Author, and President and CEO of the Center for High Performance, Lucia Annunzio is known by her clients as the “CEO-Whisperer.” She has spent over 25 years observing, analyzing, and coaching CEO, C-Suite, and Board dynamics. She has discerned that an organization is only as great as the team that leads it and that there is a direct correlation between the way an organization performs and the way its leadership team functions.

Lucia’s work is based on CfHP’s proprietary global research on the factors that accelerate or inhibit profitable growth. It achieved critical acclaim and was presented at such prestigious venues as the World Economic Forum, The International Conference on Knowledge, Culture and Change at the University of Greenwich, and Vacature’s, “Talent Economy” launch event in Belgium.

Lucia is the author of Contagious Success (Portfolio, 2004), a dynamic, best-selling, management book that revealed the global standard for high performance. Contagious Success was voted Fast Company's Readers' Choice. Lucia also authored two additional prominent business books: Communicoding (Fine, 1990; Penguin USA, 1991) and Evolutionary Leadership (Simon & Schuster, 2001; Fireside, 2002). She is frequently quoted in the business press such as the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and CNBC.

Lucia is a former Adjunct Professor of Management at the University of Chicago Booth Graduate School of Business, where she is currently part of the Executive Education faculty and teaches the most popular program, High Performance Leadership. She has been a guest lecturer at INSEAD business school in Fontainebleau, France, Kellogg Graduate School of Management, and Instituto De Empresa in Madrid. She also taught at General Electric’s Crotonville Corporate Training Center.

She is a long-standing member of the Economic Club of Chicago as well as the Chicago Club and the Astor Club. She has sat on various not-for-profit boards including the Joffrey Ballet and the Museum of Contemporary Art. She is currently devoting her philanthropy to National MS Society.

High-Performance Leadership

  • The role of a leader in creating a high performance work environment
  • Critical attributes that drive innovation and financial results
  • Strategies and processes to implement

Straight Talk in Tough Times

  • Communication in a crisis, good times, and unpleasant times
  • How to match actions and words
  • Practical strategies and tools for effective communication
  • Proactive vs. reactive when the unexpected happens
  • Formulate effective messages to different audiences

Persuasion, Communication, and Personal Branding

  • Use narratives as a framework for expressing your ideas and analyze how to structure the way you present them
  • Clearly articulate your strengths, values, and vision as a leader, manager, and colleague
  • Define your “superpower,” or personal value proposition, and practice applying it in scenarios such as interviews, asking for a raise, pitching for a promotion, and motivating a team

Global Investments and Cross-Border M&A

  • Adapt capital budgeting to global opportunities
  • How to incorporate political, expropriation, currency, and other international risks into the valuation process for global investments
  • How globalization affects the cost of capital and what explains differences in firms’ cost of capital around the world

Strategy Formulation and Implementation

  • Why bother with strategy? What can strategy do? What happens if we don’t have a strategy? How can we think about reaching our goals?
  • Separating business success into strategy, leadership, and luck: learn how to understand your role in each
  • The role of top management in setting strategy: what is the real challenge great strategists see?
  • Develop two simple tools: a set of four generic questions that apply to all businesses, and a set of six powerful patterns that can be used to think about the way strategies are developed
  • Apply this strategy framework to identify a logical path for growth

Strategic Risk Management and Financial Fragility

  • Analyze sources of financial fragility and regulatory responses reshaping financial markets
  • Assess implications of the Federal Reserve’s and other central banks’ extraordinarily accommodative policies for volatility, “currency wars,” asset price bubbles, credit flows, inflation, and prospect for economic growth
  • Learn the components of effective risk management
  • Draw lessons from recent and historical crises to better prepare for and manage through future crises

Marketing Analytics to Drive Growth

  • Understand the role and meaning of marketing analytics
  • Learn how optimal marketing decisions and investments are made
  • Discover the scientific power of data analysis in marketing decision-making linked to higher ROI
  • Master the right questions to ask and make your marketing team accountable in the data-driven age

Acquisition Strategies and Merger Implementation

  • The M&A process: strategy, valuation, and execution

The Entrepreneurial Leader: The Importance of Innovation in a VUCA World (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex & Ambiguous)

  • Framework for innovation and entrepreneurial thinking
  • How to harness continuous improvement and disruptive change

 I believe that this course is a must for those individuals seeking to become CFOs. The course content and professors at Chicago Booth really help to open your mind to new concepts and ideas. I came away from the course armed with 'gems' that I can apply from day 1 in my current role.

- Elliott Wood, Finance & Planning Leader, IBM Latin America


Excellent, well-rounded, well-structured program. More finance executives should take this.

- Mayank Agrawal, Softward Group CFO, IBM India/South Asia


The program is great. I revisited some of the key concepts important to my role in an updated format. And also had the opportunity to learn from others' experiences.

- Carlos Montenegro, Head of Planning and Finance, Sao Carlos Empreendimentos


Excellent course! Great instructors who communicated their messages clearly and with purpose. I would highly recommend this course.

- Robert Rusch, Director – Finance and Accounting, American Transmission Co.


Great content and professors. Engagement with peers provided many opportunities for learning.

– Yolanda Daniel, VP Finance, W.W. Grainger, Inc.


I think the program is a success and fills a gap in the market. The international experience in the room enhanced the content and learning experience.

– David Gillespie, General Manager, Planning, Investment, and Funding, Jemena Ltd.


I truly enjoyed the program and believe it will be very successful. It was my first experience at the University of Chicago and will definitely not be my last one.

– Randy Ahuja, Managing Director, Verto Partners LLC


The distinguished faculty at Booth provided the depth and variety of perspectives and frameworks which will help future CFO's in how they think about the organizational, strategic, and financial management of their firms, through good times and bad.

- Abu Zeya, Finance Director, Halliburton


The program was very well designed. Topics were relevant to my current position as well as useful in my continued growth toward my next position.

– Todd Bryant, Vice President, Controller, RLI


This program generates opportunities to develop new skills and improve the capability to integrate a global finance view to create value.

- Orlando Gutierrez, Operations & Finance Manager, Corporate Boards, The Kroger Co.


This was a great program offering solid balance of theory and application. The focus on strategy throughout the program was excellent to focus on the 'how' you apply the learning in real life.

- John Murphy, Sr. VP, Chief Accounting Officer & Controller, DIRECTV


Upcoming Courses

Date Fee
May 20-24, 2024 $12,500 APPLY NOW
November 4-8, 2024 $12,500 APPLY NOW

This program runs twice a year, typically in May and November.