|
Since 2007, CareerBuilder has sponsored some of its best and brightest stars in Georgia Tech’s Executive MBA programs. “We agreed to sponsor these employees because CareerBuilder places a tremendous value on education and the impact an individual leader can have on our company,” Presley says.
CareerBuilder’s CTO, Eric Presley, believes educating employees is essential to the company’s rapid international growth and success. “In our business, change is constant,” he says. “We need to develop people who can learn quickly and take their area of responsibility and consider it a mini-business. We believe education is key to this process.
“One of our company values is ‘Disciplined Freedom,’ which encourages extreme creativity in doing business. We believe these Executive MBA programs help accelerate the skills and abilities of our high potential employees by several years and expose them to experiences they may not get in any other way.”
Company Growing Relationship with Tech
Initially, CareerBuilder sponsored three employees in the Global Executive MBA (GEMBA) program and quickly saw a return on its investment. “Within six months, their critical thinking skills and new perspectives on how to solve problems developed quickly,” says Presley.
Their success has led additional CareerBuilder employees to Georgia Tech’s GEMBA and Executive MBA in Management of Technology programs.
Presley believes these programs are an excellent fit for CareerBuilder because of the school’s excellent reputation, top-notch faculty, and “dedication and vision to building a world-class program.”
He encourages other businesses to consider Tech’s Executive MBA programs because they “accelerate growth, develop leaders that can run much larger and more complex organizations, and they’re an investment in the company’s future.”
Program Helps Employee Advance to Vice President
Roger Fugett began the GEMBA program in August 2007 with full support from CareerBuilder. As director of corporate applications, Fugett was comfortable with his technical knowledge and wanted to gain a better understanding of general business operations.
“In order to provide additional value to the company and to position myself for future professional growth, I knew I had to learn to think strategically with a vision towards opportunities ahead,” he says. “The GEMBA program provided the tools and techniques to do that. Choosing a program with a global component was attractive to me because our business is expanding globally.”
In June 2008, almost a year into the GEMBA program, Fugett was promoted to vice president of information technology.
“Before starting the GEMBA program, I knew very little about budgeting and financial planning,” he says. “With the knowledge I have gained, I am now able to drive the IT budget at CareerBuilder, making decisions based on the financial impact and opportunity costs to the business. I am also using my forecasting skills to predict how the business might perform when certain strategies and plans are executed.
“I have gained more confidence when discussing business matters beyond just the technical aspects,” he adds. “I also believe you gain a bit more credibility with your business peers after you complete a program like this.”
Contact Information
Hope Wilson
Director of Communications
404.385.0580
Brad Dixon
Assistant Director of Communications
404.894.3943
