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Chief Revenue Officer Executive Education Program

Design and operate the engine for predictable, sustainable, scalable revenue

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Certificate Overview:
Professional Certificate in Digital Marketing

Marketing analytics gathers data from across multiple marketing channels, providing marketers with a solid view of how their campaigns are performing based on a series of business metrics. The goal of this practice is to leverage these insightful findings to make better decisions and optimize future marketing efforts.

Certificate Overview

In the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) Program, revenue leaders like yourself will extend your expertise with the knowledge, tools, and skills that you need to break through into the C-suite and become Chief Revenue Officers. You will learn principled and data-driven approaches to developing go-to-market organizations, optimizing customer lifetime value, building revenue operations (RevOps) capabilities, and establishing pricing strategies. In addition, you will also develop the leadership skills to effectively manage high-performing, cross-functional teams and influence senior executives, the board of directors, and investors. After finishing the program, you will be better thinkers, leaders, and have the expertise to excel in a CRO role today—and wherever your career will take you tomorrow.

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The following courses make up the UChicago CRO Executive Education Program:

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Course 1: Go-to-Market Organization Design

Build a dynamic and effective go-to-market organization that has the right capabilities—including roles, and incentives—to realize the financial potential of your company.

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Course 2: Leading High-Performing Teams

Discover techniques to inspire sales teams, navigate complex team dynamics, and address challenges that arise in high-pressure sales environments.

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Course 3: Customer Lifecycle Management

Understand your customers to better manage their journey so that you increase value for them and revenue for your company.

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Course 4: Predictive Analytics

Learn to apply techniques from data analytics to segment and size markets, estimate customer lifetime value, and optimize revenue-generating activities within the enterprise.

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Course 5: Pricing Strategy

Move beyond ad hoc approaches and learn the single most important profitability lever—your product's pricing.

Course 6: Revenue Operations and Strategy

Develop your acumen at revenue operations, a rapidly-evolving field that unifies marketing, sales, and customer success to unlock predictable, scalable revenue.

Course 7: Leadership with Investors and Boards

Grow into a leader at the C-suite level by learning to influence your investors and board of directors.

After completing the Certificate, you will be able to:

  • Develop the soft and hard skills around building your sales organization and aligning your sales, marketing, and customer success functions so that you can steer your organization toward sustainable revenue growth.
  • Adopt innovative approaches to building, managing, and leading teams—particularly those that extend beyond the sales organization—fostering high performance in diverse and uncertain conditions.
  • Leverage data analytics for customer segmentation, estimating customer lifetime value, optimizing pricing, and implementing processes and controls for maximizing profitability at scale.
  • Lead within the executive team, influence boards and investors, and effectively market yourself for future roles at the most senior levels of leadership.
  • Be awarded a credential from the University of Chicago and become part of the UChicago network.

Meet Your Instructors

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Dave Cameron, MSc

Data Science and Predictive Analytics Leader

Dave Cameron is a seasoned data science and predictive analytics leader in corporate and startup spaces. He brings over twenty-five years of experience to the University of Chicago. As a forward-thinking executive, Cameron has built and led teams on analytics thought leadership, statistical and product innovation, data-driven performance marketing, and attribution modeling for consumer acquisition, retention, and profit. He spent over twelve years at Nielsen Holdings, the global measurement and data analytics company, where he served in vice-presidential roles in data science, customer segmentation, and statistical methodology. His prior positions include working as Director of Data Solutions at Merkle, a global performance marketing agency, and his role as Manager of Target Marketing for Ameritech (now AT&T). Cameron takes a strategic and pragmatic approach to solving challenging data problems, balancing learning and innovation with efficiency and automation. He holds an MSc in Applied Statistics from Ohio State and a BS in applied mathematics in computer science from the University of Detroit Mercy.

Sergio Corbo, MBA, PhD

Chief Commercial Officer, Veolia North America

Sergio Corbo is a senior executive who helps Fortune 100 corporations serve customers and deliver measurable results to investors. He currently works as Chief Commercial Officer at Veolia North America, the global leader in energy, water, waste, and environmental services. He also consults with global technology and industrial organizations in areas ranging from corporate strategy to technology deployment and operational excellence. Among Sergio’s representative clients are corporations such as Intel, Eaton, and Siemens and consulting firms such as McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, and Bain & Company. His client portfolio includes global enterprises with over $300 billion in revenues. Previously, Sergio was Chief Marketing Officer at General Electric Energy Management Industrial Solutions, where he directed strategic commercial development and global growth within a ~$8 billion business.

Jeremey Donovan, MBA, MSc, CFA

Executive Vice President, Revenue Operations (RevOps) and Strategy, Insight Partners

Over the past 25+ years, Jeremy Donovan has had an eclectic career spanning semiconductor engineering, product development/management, and sales & marketing leadership. He is the Executive Vice President of Revenue Strategy & Operations at Insight Partners.

Donovan is the author of five books, including the international public speaking bestseller “How to Deliver a TED Talk” and “Predictable Prospecting.” He holds a CFA, a BS, and an MS in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University, an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and an MS in Data Science from the University of Virginia.

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Dan Frailey, MBA

3x CRO, former Global Topic Lead on B2B GTM at Boston Consulting Group

Dan Frailey is a three-times CRO, founder of the startup Joy of Thanks, and a revenue and sales enthusiast. Previously, Dan was the global Topic Lead for B2B Go-To-Market Boston Consulting Group’s PIPE private equity practice, where he advised Chief Revenue Officers, CEOs, and other sales leaders to develop and execute their revenue strategies. He created the practice’s global GTM playbook, the GTM FirstLook diligence tool for private equity investors, and various modules, including Agile GTM and Agile Sales. Before his time at BCG, Dan was a CRO and sales leader at BBDO, Groupon, and RuMe.

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Victoria Gustafson, MBA, PhD

Senior Partner, Verde Associates

Dr. Victoria Gustafson is a transformational leader with a passion for business growth. She is a senior partner at Verde Associates, a boutique growth consulting firm. Previously, she worked for IRI and Philips in various key roles. Throughout her career, Gustafson has helped leading brands find growth by bringing together the right combination of people, processes, and technology.

She earned her PhD in Organization Development from Benedictine University, an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and a BA in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Rachael Rohn, MBA

Senior Vice President, Strategic Partner Engagement and General Manager, Americas West, Techstars

Rachael Rohn has nearly twenty years of experience catalyzing business expansion and scalability. She is Senior Vice President of Strategic Partner Engagement at Techstars, a premiere early-stage venture capital firm, where she leads Techstars’ accelerator programs. Before this role, Rohn was President of Customer Value at Compass, a national real estate technology company, where she helped establish the firm’s first customer success programs. Rohn joined Compass in 2017, following 12 years in Chicago tech startup sales and management, including six years with Groupon, where she rose to become Vice President of Sales of its travel business, Groupon Getaways.

Chris Trendler, JD

Managing Director and Head of Portfolio Talent, Madison Dearborn Partners

Chris Trendler is the Managing Director and the Head of Portfolio Talent at Madison Dearborn Partners. This private equity firm has raised over $26 billion in capital since its inception in 1992 and operates in a range of verticals, including software services, financial services, healthcare, and telecommunications. In his role, Trendler is responsible for leading the firm’s talent strategy across the portfolio. Before joining Madison Dearborn Partners in 2021, Trendler was a Partner at ghSMART and Company, where he advised investors, CEOs, and Boards on critical talent issues.

Danielle_Wilkie instructor

Danielle Wilkie, MBA

Startup Advisor and Leadership Coach

Danielle Wilkie is a tech company veteran with a 25-year history of scaling B2B and B2C businesses across various industries, including property management, home improvement, insurance, stock footage licensing, online learning, e-commerce, and residential real estate. She is a coach and advisor to companies and individuals and is launching a startup. Before this work, Danielle was an Executive Officer at Compass as their President of Central US Operations before launching and leading their national Customer Success team. She was previously SVP of Marketing for an NBCUniversal business (Craftsy) in online education and e-commerce. Wilkie was involved with successful startup exits at NetQuote (acquired by Bankrate), ServiceMagic (now Angi), and SafeRent (now CoreLogic).

Who Is It For?

The CRO Certificate Program is most suitable for the following professionals:

  • VP Sales and Sales Director
  • Chief Revenue Officers, with experience in Go To Market (GTM)  
  • Head of Rev Ops, with experience in GTM
  • CMO, Head of Demand Gen, with experience in GTM

Participants are required to have:

  • A minimum of seven years working in managerial positions
  • Experience in international markets is appreciated but not required

Career Outlook

86

%

Of executives say CROs’ revenue operations are critical to growth goals.


Source: Salesforce

#

1

LinkedIn identified CRO/Head of Revenue Operations as the top job on the rise for 2023.


Source: LinkedIn

1.8

x

Is the increase in revenue growth within Fortune 100 companies that have a CRO-like role.


Source: McKinsey & Co

Admissions Process

1

APPLICATION FEE

Pay the (non-refundable) application fee and fill out the application form.

2

INTERVIEW

Schedule a call for an interview with our Admissions team.

3

RESULTS

Our Admissions Committee will inform you of their final decision and if accepted, you will be able to make the tuition payment.

The University of Chicago Approach to Online Learning-img-CEU

The University of Chicago Approach to Online Learning

Our online learning programs are crafted with your specific needs in mind.

Certificate programs combine e-learning with live, interactive sessions to strengthen your skill set while maximizing your time. We couple academic theory and business knowledge with practical real-world application.

Through online learning sessions, you will have an opportunity to grow your professional network and interact with University of Chicago instructors and your classmates.

Why the University of Chicago?

Becoming a member of the University of Chicago community means gaining access to world-class instructors and a cohort of curious, diverse individuals.

Through a firm grounding in core principles and a rigorous approach to problem-solving, our teaching method—the Chicago Approach—will give you the tools you need to make sense of complex data and turn ideas into impact.

Participants will receive a certificate of completion.

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