in economics, like I did, or maybe an MBA or different certifications,” she says. “The need for a program that focuses on analytics within the finance industry has been known for so many years.” Throneburg, a former adjunct instructor at Queens,
was thrilled when the university reached out for her thoughts about a new program to meet a need in the marketplace — a need particularly prevalent within Charlote, given its status as a major business and finance hub. “I’ve always
seen a higher demand in the analytics space — particularly in the finance industry — than we’ve ever had the talent to meet,” she says. “I loved the idea of having something like this in the Queens portfolio that’s just so clearly relevant to specific career paths.” That’s exactly what leaders in
Queens’ McColl School of Business were hoping for when they started researching options for a new program. “We wanted a program that would be marketable,
that would be respected by employers and a program that would atract students’ interest,” says Katerina Ivanov, Ph.D., director of Master of Science in Finance and Analytics. Ivanov, along with other Queens faculty and staff,
conducted an exhaustive review of programs at similar institutions. They talked with industry professionals like Throneburg, as well as other staff from top companies like Accenture, Ally and Bank of America. They completed plenty
of internal research, too, before deciding that Queens had a unique opportunity to create a brand-new program to level up Queens, Charlote and the greater financial analytics community. The Master of Science in Finance and Analytics was born. “The whole area of financial services has become very
quantitative, and this trend will continue,” Ivanov says. “Banks and other institutions are siting on these large data sets, and they need people who will be able to analyze these data sets, which comes to data analytics skills on the one hand, but at the same time they need people who understand financial theory.” As the program’s tagline describes,
it's “where finance, analytics and storytelling meet.” Leaders describe it as a one-of-a-
kind program in North Carolina (if not broader), which will include courses such as Economic and Financial Forecasting and Machine Learning and AI. The program will take between one and two years to complete, offer courses in a hybrid format, include two in-person residencies and will also feature an experiential learning component. The
program received accreditation in June and will begin classes in the fall. “Our students will be extremely
marketable and competitive for great positions right aſter they graduate,” Ivanov says. “We know employers, especially here in Charlote, want to hire people with a finance and analytics skillset, but there is a gap between the labor demand and labor supply.” HFS Research, a global
business research firm, published a 2022 report revealing the tremendous need for workers with
these skills. Researchers interviewed 200 top accounting and
26 QUEENS MAGAZINE
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
