UB School of Management’s ‘CEO-MBA Series’ Brings Movers and Shakers Into Classroom

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Prominent CEOs and senior executives from various business sectors, including banking and information technology, are signing on to teach graduate-level business courses in the University at Buffalo School of Management as part of the school's new CEO-MBA Series.

Malcolm Burnett, former CEO of HSBC Bank, will kick off the series with a one-week, three-credit course, "Marketing Financial Services," being offered Jan. 8-12, as an elective to students enrolled in the school's full-time MBA and Professional MBA programs.

Although the course is being offered during the students' winter break, it has generated tremendous interest within the School of Management. Forty-five students have enrolled in the course, which will be held in the School of Management's Jacobs Executive Development Center, at the corner of Delaware Avenue and North Street in Buffalo.

Currently serving as CEO of BNKR, a financial-services consulting firm, Burnett will provide instruction on conglomeration, modernization and internationalization initiatives within the changing financial-services industry.

The course will include presentations from several senior industry executives, such as Mark Remington, executive vice president, Citigroup; Joseph Wolfson, president, Cartel WorldNet; Barbara Walter, senior vice president, Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Michael Pinto, CFO/CIO, M&T Bank; Robert Zack, CEO, Merchants Insurance, and Randy Lively, CEO, American Financial Services Association.

The school's CEO-MBA Series was initiated by School of Management Dean Lewis Mandell, who last year team-taught a course on city economics with Buffalo Mayor Anthony Masiello. "The idea is to give students the opportunity to see through the eyes of top executives whose decisions impact large, complex organizations and whole industries," explains Mandell.

According to Mandell, the CEO-MBA series is scheduled to continue in May with the three-credit course, "High-Tech Start Ups," to be taught by UB MBA alumnus Ajit Pendse.

Pendse is founder and former CEO of eFusion, an Internet service company, which was recently acquired for $52 million by ITXC, one of the world's largest providers of Internet voice technologies.