VCU’s Executive MBA is building on success: The next chapter
Starting fall 2025, VCU’s Executive MBA program is adding more leadership training and an inside look at business and policy.
By Megan Nash
For almost 30 years, the VCU School of Business Executive MBA (EMBA) program has prepared experienced professionals for senior leadership roles. That won’t change. But starting in fall 2025, the program will introduce new leadership-focused coursework, an expanded credit structure and a new offsite experience.
The 20-month, 39-credit hour program remains structured across four semesters, with a summer break between the second and third. Each semester builds on the next, covering leadership, accounting, economics, finance, management, marketing, statistics and supply chain, with group projects reinforcing classroom concepts. The final semester includes the Strategic Dilemma project, a capstone that brings everything together.
Students also step outside the classroom for local business and plant tours, peer leadership and coaching and off-site visits, including a CEO Day in Richmond’s Scott’s Addition neighborhood and a community project with the Richmond Community ToolBank. In April 2026, the cohort will travel to Japan, continuing the program’s tradition of exposing students to international business environments.
A leadership-driven curriculum
Beginning in fall 2025, the Executive MBA program will expand from 39 to 42 credit hours, incorporating 18 new applied leadership sessions throughout the two-year experience. The additional sessions, developed in partnership with the Institute for Transformative Leadership (ITL), will introduce students to new approaches in leadership development with a people-first mindset.
“In today’s dynamic world, the real key to career success and personal well-being isn’t just technical expertise—it’s becoming a transformative leader who people actually want to work with,” said Chris Reina, Ph.D., associate professor and founding & executive director of ITL. “Exceptional executive leaders stand out by asking insightful questions, creating space for others to thrive, and embracing holistic thinking. Our students learn and practice these skills and at VCU, we forge leaders who have the courage and capacity to care deeply while propelling organizations toward sustained economic growth and prosperity.”
The second-semester group project is also getting a shift in focus. Instead of a team assignment, it will be a leadership-centered challenge, giving students a setting where they can apply their leadership skills in real time.
Bringing business and policy together
The fourth semester will introduce a new offsite experience in Washington, D.C., or New York City, where students will meet with business leaders and policymakers to explore how economic regulations, corporate strategy and government policy come together.
“By infusing the program with a strong and focused emphasis on transformative leadership, we’re creating an exciting, seamless connection between the VCU Institute for Transformative Leadership and our EMBA program, setting our students up to become exceptional executive leaders,” said Butch M. Sarma, Executive MBA program director. “Corporations spend billions on leadership training every year according to research, and our belief is that VCU’s Executive MBA program’s new focus on leadership will empower EMBA leaders to cultivate a new generation of executives who are not only highly skilled and innovative but also deeply committed to fostering people-centered organizations that drive meaningful change and sustainable success.”
For more information on the VCU Executive MBA program, visit business.vcu.edu/graduate-programs/executive-mba/ or contact the program office at [email protected].
Categories EMBA-news, News