by Kate Forman, Programme Director, Masters in Finance
Our newest course this year is The Business of Finance. As part of our Masters in Finance (MiF) programme review, we identified the need to equip students with knowledge of the main institutions in finance and the vocabulary that practitioners use in these areas. As a result this six-session course was created, which is led by practitioners and faculty from six key areas of finance where students are likely to develop their careers. The course also serves as an introduction to the other in-depth practitioner and elective courses that we run later in the year, so that students can direct their attention and efforts towards the areas that are most interesting to them and their future career development.
The course runs throughout the academic year to complement the academic learning and activities. So far we have welcomed a number of guest speakers. Stan Beckers, Executive Fellow of Finance at LBS and the Chair of the School’s AQR Asset Management Institute, gave a fantastic overview of the asset management industry. He shared his insights into current challenges and trends, helping our MiF students to consider how artificial intelligence, gender diversity and ESG are shaping the industry and how this will affect future professionals. Stan also leads our Asset Management practitioner course later in the programme. Dr Jim Strang, Managing Director at Hamilton Lane, spoke on Private Equity and the learning company Cognitir provided fascinating context to students in the sphere of data science, elaborating on how this is shaping finance and business at a terrific pace. We are also still to welcome speakers from the worlds of banking and insurance, as well as a leading CFO.
As with all new initiatives, we are learning all the time. Our students have been great in participating and giving us feedback so that we can continue to develop the course for future years. This is one of the great attributes of LBS and our students. We’re lucky to have such engaged students who are constantly working with us to evolve the programme, ensuring it always remains at the cutting edge.