Finance Track

This course sharpens corporate valuation and corporate financing skills in a wide variety of cases and contexts. It is intended to extend the theoretical knowledge gained in financial management GCOM 7060 to numerous applied settings, including mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings, capital structure decisions, and leveraged buyout/private equity investments. Prerequisite: Restricted to M.S. in Commerce students.

New graduate Commerce course: Special Topics in Finance

This course teaches analytical consulting competencies focused on the fast-paced financial industry: 1) process automation: automating repetitive tasks to increase individual productivity; 2) financial business intelligence: accessing and manipulating information stored in organizational databases; 3) financial engineering: designing and implementing financial algorithms that make financial decisions. 

GCOM 7730 explores three main topics: (1) mergers & acquisitions, (2) non-distressed corporate restructurings in the form of leveraged buyouts and private equity, and (3) distressed corporate restructuring/bankruptcy. The course is largely case-based and extends concepts and principles learned in GCOM 7060 and GCOM 7710 to practical applications. Students also participate in two negotiation exercises during the term.

This course develops the concepts and tools needed to build and analyze investment portfolios for a wide range of investors, including sovereign wealth funds (SWFs), pensions, endowments, family funds, high-net-worth individuals, and even small investors, taking into account a broad array of investing objectives. The course covers risk/return tradeoffs and valuation in the equity, fixed income, and derivative markets.

This course develops an analytical framework by which individuals and institutions can make real estate investment and financing decisions. It emphasizes theory, concept building, financial modeling, and practical real estate applications and uses the case method to illustrate the implementation of an analytical framework. 

This course introduces students to sustainability reporting and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues, attempting to give a more expansive view of organizations’ financial, social, and environmental performance. Students will critically evaluate current sustainability metrics, attempt to quantify and compare firms’ sustainability efforts, and discuss the challenges behind adopting rigorous, universal sustainability standards.

Commerce for the Common Good courses (e.g., Race in Commerce; Value, Gender & Ambition at Work; Reimagining Global Capitalism)

The course provides an overview of the fundamentals necessary to conduct data analytics with Python, including understanding Python objects, data types, structures, packages, and data flow statements and reading, writing, manipulating, and plotting data. Students perform predictive analytics via machine learning using industry-standard packages.

Students learn how to communicate effectively with data and data structures. This includes how to evaluate potential sources of data; aggregate data values from multiple sources; and compile creative, professional, and descriptive visualizations from that data. Students learn the best type of chart or figure for different situations and how to format those visualizations to maximize the impact to the viewer.

This course provides students with an introduction to how to effectively fill the role of project manager. It covers a blend of conceptual knowledge and practical skills necessary for the effective management of complex projects.

This course provides a broad overview of management consulting and other related advisory services professions while also helping students develop skills that are broadly applicable in these professions as well as in other fields (business, politics, not-for-profit, etc.). Working both individually and in teams, students gain an appreciation of what makes consulting and advisory services unique from other areas of business.