Adapting to the Contemporary Business World
As the business world evolves, professionals in finance roles need to continuously reskill and upskill to stay on top of the latest industry tools, trends, and terminology.
Certificate Overview:
Professional Certificate in Strategic Financial Management
Volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (commonly known as VUCA) are some of the main factors impacting the business world today. Professionals should equip themselves with the tools they need to make impactful financial decisions in the 21st-century VUCA environment.
Are You Looking to Boost Your Career in the Modern Financial Industry?
If you are a professional in a finance role—financial analyst, financial advisor, consultant in the financial industry, investment fund manager, portfolio manager, venture capital and private equity manager, or capital market professional—you will benefit from this certificate program. Decision-makers such as chief financial officers, financial controllers, risk managers, business development managers, as well as fintech-dedicated professionals and entrepreneurs will also gain valuable insights from the program.


About the Certificate Program:
Leveraging the University of Chicago’s excellence in analytics, behavioral economics, and finance, our ten-month Financial Management is designed to provide you with solid theoretical knowledge of cutting-edge financial topics and practical applications to solve real-world business challenges.
This certificate includes the following courses:
The Psychology of Finance
Psychology influences investors' and financial analysts' behavior and impacts market outcomes. Understand the thinking behind money management and financial trading.
Corporate Financial Strategy
Understand the decision-making process for raising and allocating capital, establishing account management, and identifying key concepts in capital budgeting.
Decision-Making and Risk Management
How can we ensure a better, more logical approach to decision-making without complicating matters further? The answer: risk management.
Fintech
Discover the impact of fintech from multiple perspectives—investor, corporate, and consumer—and learn about the regulation behind it.
Machine Learning for Finance
Collect, organize, and use data to perform advanced financial analysis with algorithms and statistical techniques and tools.
After Completing the Program You Will Be Able To:
- Share solid theoretical knowledge of critical finance-related topics
- Provide a practical application of this knowledge in your work environment
- Foster other soft skills like collaborative teamwork, critical thinking, problem solving, communication abilities, time management, multicultural awareness, remote working techniques, and development and management of international networking
Meet Your Instructors


Borislava Karageorgieva is a corporate finance expert in the area of evaluation of strategic and investment decisions. Karageorgieva has international experience in both the public and private sectors, as well as the financial services, healthcare management, and beverage industries. Her areas of professional focus include regulatory analysis and financial compliance, mergers and acquisitions, angel investing and entrepreneurship, and board governance. Karageorgieva is the co-founder of a startup company in the beverage industry with clients including Kroger in Chicago. Karageorgieva received an MBA from Chicago Booth and is a CFA charter holder.


Chief Behavioral Officer and Co-Founder at User Nudge, Inc., a startup that applies behavioral science and data science to solve business problems in interface design and product operations.


Lara Kattan is a data science educator and curriculum writer. She is currently developing curriculum for institutions such as the University of Chicago and data science learning startups. Prior to embarking on a career in curriculum development, she was a consultant in risk practice at McKinsey & Co. She has an MA in public policy with a concentration in econometrics from the University of Chicago and a BA in economics and political science from Northwestern. Kattan is a lifelong learner and is pursuing an MA in computer science and another in mathematics from DePaul University.


Sebastien Donadio has been working in the FinTech industry for the last decade. He has a wide range of professional experience including serving as Chief Technology Officer at Tradair, where he lead the technology team, as the head of software engineering at HC Technologies, developing quantitative trading software for Sun Trading, acting as Partner at Aientech, a high-frequency trading hedge fund, and working as a technological leader in creating operating systems for the Department of Defense. He also has research experience with Bull, and as IT Credit Risk Manager for Société Générale while in France. Donadio has taught various computer science courses over the past fifteen years at the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Columbia University, the University of Chicago, and New York University. Among these courses are the following: Advanced Financial Computing, Advanced Programming, Computer Architecture, Machine Learning, Operating Systems, Parallel Architecture, and Real-Time Smart Systems.
Career Outlook
As a vital activity for business survival and growth, financial management offers a wide range of prominent job prospects and career paths. Roles in corporate financing hold five of the top ten positions in US News and World Report’s Best Business Jobs for 2021 ranking. As for data-based financial analysis, the increasing demand for advanced functions has led this market to be currently valued at 6.32 billion dollars. The practice of behavioral finance is also growing rapidly, as more financial advisors use techniques in this field to build their clients’ portfolios. Risk management operations follow the same trend, with its market growing at a rate of 18.7%.
476,200
Is the number of new jobs that will be created in business and financial operations between 2019-2029
- Accountant
- Behavioral Scientist
- Business Development Manager
- Business Owner
- Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
- Chief Risk Officer
- Entrepreneur
- Finance Director
- Finance Manager
- Financial Analyst
- Financial Controller
- Fintech Specialist
- Investment Banker
- Investor Relations Manager
- Model Risk Specialist
- Real Estate Manager
- Risk Manager
- Treasurer
Admissions Process
1
Candidacy Fee:
2
Interview
3
Results
Our Admission Committee will inform you of the final decision*.
*(2 business days max)