Global-Minded Graduates Celebrate Success

 

Members of two global programs have graduated from the USC Marshall School of Business.

 

Dean James G. Ellis welcomed students from the 10th Global Executive MBA (GEMBA) program and their families, as well as members of the first class of the Master of Science in Global Supply Chain Management (MS-GSCM) on Jan. 26 at Town & Gown.

 

“Each one of you are ambassadors for our global mission,” Ellis said. “Our Global Supply Chain Management graduates will go on to important roles at the nerve center of the global economy.

 

“Our GEMBA class is largely focused on the Pacific Rim and is only in Los Angeles twice in their 20-month program, so we are particularly grateful to have the opportunity to celebrate their accomplishments,” he added. “All of you do us proud.”

 

GEMBA is jointly offered by USC Marshall and the Antai College of Economics and Management at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Students are rising executives from the Asia Pacific region with at least 10 years of experience — through GEMBA, they undertake a 20-month course of study in several Pacific Rim countries.

 

The program marked its 10-year anniversary in May 2014. Its 37 students from China visited the University Park Campus in January to complete finals and celebrate their graduation.

 

“From a finance perspective, this is only the beginning,” Jun “Jerry” Zhou told his fellow students at Town & Gown. “Choose to be the best. Choose to fight on.”

 

MS-GSCM students received their diplomas from Ellis and Nick Vyas, the program’s academic director and assistant professor of clinical data sciences and operations. The 38 graduates included online students and those who took classes on campus.

 

“The inaugural cohort for MS-GSCM graduated with an amazing degree of success,” Vyas said. “Our goal of diffusing the learning curve for working professionals and positioning them with tools in the global marketplace has already created fantastic results.”

 

 

The entire graduating class is employed, he said, and more than 70 percent has been promoted within existing company ranks since entering the program in 2013.

 

The MS-GSCM program, which is jointly offered with the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, is a 16-month course aimed at professionals wishing to hone their skills in the growing field of logistics. Students may pursue the degree part-time, online or through USC’s full-time, on-campus option.

 

“There are responsibilities that come with being the first,” said class speaker James Prewitt. “We play an important role in supporting subsequent classes. We must mentor them, we must hire them.”

 

Prewitt and his peers have their work cut out for them. According to Vyas, the upcoming cohort has roughly doubled, to 76 students, both on campus and online.