Freeman launches new master’s program in energy

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This summer, the A. B. Freeman School of Business will launch a unique new master’s degree program focused on the advanced skills demanded by recruiters for positions in energy finance, risk management and trading.

The Master of Management in Energy (MNRG) is an intensive one-year program focused exclusively on the business of energy. Launching in July 2011, this timely and differentiated program is targeted at new or recent college graduates who wish to extend their knowledge and skills for jobs in energy finance, sell-side and buy-side analysis, risk management, consulting, and trading.

Master of Management in Energy
The new Master of Management in Energy is an intensive one-year program designed to provide students with the skills needed for positions in energy finance, analysis, risk management, consulting, and trading.

With a unique curriculum that combines rigorous academic training with real-world applications and sophisticated simulations, the program will offer students a systematic approach to understanding energy finance while providing them with extensive hands-on experience using the industry’s most advanced professional trading tools. Graduates of the program will be qualified for positions with energy companies, specialist securities firms, banks and trading organizations.

“We started with the question, ‘What end product does the industry want?’” says James W. McFarland, Lawrence Distinguished Chair in Finance and executive director of the Tulane Energy Institute. “We asked them, they told us, and we built this program from the ground up to deliver that product.”

The MNRG program comprises 13 courses and 34 credit hours. Designed by faculty members from the Tulane Energy Institute in collaboration with industry professionals, the curriculum includes courses on energy fundamentals, finance, modeling, data analysis, economics, trading, accounting, risk management, strategy and portfolio management. Each course was created or completely redesigned for the program, and each focuses exclusively on energy. The curriculum also prepares students to take the Energy Risk Professional (ERP) examination and other certification examinations required by many firms in the industry. Classes will be taught in the Freeman School’s Trading Center, a $3 million simulated trading floor featuring commercial products and data from Thomson Reuters, Trading Technologies, Logical Information Machines, and the CME Group. Teaching the program will be tenured and tenure-track research professors, full-time clinical professors with extensive industry experience, and executive instructors from energy, accounting, banking and trading firms.

Master of Management in Energy
The program was developed with extensive input from industry professionals, many of whom serve as executive professors in the program or judges for the annual Tulane Energy Trading Competition (above).

“We’re going to put students in different risk-taking situations to give them what amounts to an on-the-job training program while they’re still in school,” says Parker Drew, former managing director of commodity sales at RBS Sempra Energy and an executive professor in the program. “When they walk in the door as a new hire, they won’t need a long training program. They’ll be able to adapt and start adding to the bottom line much more quickly than other new recruits.”

“There’s no other program like this one,” concludes McFarland. “We’ve put together an innovative curriculum, we have an outstanding group of faculty and executive professors, and we have leading-edge technology that exceeds the capacity of many commercial energy firms. This program is where employers will find the next generation of energy professionals.”

To learn more about the program, visit http://freeman.tulane.edu/energy. For questions about the curriculum or information on how to apply, contact the Freeman School’s Office of Graduate Admissions at abfadmit@tulane.edu or 800-223-5402.