EMTM Profiles by Industry:
Government/Non-Profit

The City of New York. The National Constitution Center. The Department of Health and Human Services. The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Today, successful organizations in every arena depend on outstanding management and up-to-date information systems. Non-profits and governmental agencies are no exceptions. Approximately 5 percent of current students come to EMTM from non-profit organizations and non-military government agencies; others move into those sectors later in their careers.

Students from these diverse organizations benefit from EMTM’s breadth of technology course electives available through Penn Engineering — with multiple options in areas from IT and Telecommunications, to Biotechnology and Medicine, to Nanotechnology, Photonics, and more. Courses are designed to provide the knowledge needed to understand and effectively manage these and other emerging technologies, not to become technical experts.

Core management courses taught by Wharton faculty equip you with the skills to understand all areas of an organization, including Accounting, Finance, Marketing, Operations, Organizational Design, and Strategy. Beyond EMTM’s core courses, management electives such as Leadership, Negotiations, R&D Management and the Strategic Management of Innovation are popular with students in non-profit and government agencies.

In his fourth year of the program, Ali Qureshi, EMTM’06, accepted a position as Director, CAO Advanced Business Solutions, Office of the Chief Administrative Officer, U.S. House of Representatives. The position involved restructuring and consolidating what had previously been a decentralized organization. “Even though many of my peers were more seasoned than I was, I had an edge because I had the program behind me.”

Before starting at his new job, Ali was able to test out different approaches to rebuilding Advanced Business Solutions in the classroom, in his IT Strategy course with Tom Oser. “It was a true intrapreneurship opportunity, and the class became a living laboratory. We discussed staffing, crafted the budget and created a long-term strategic plan. That gave me a rolling start when I came into my job.” Ultimately, Ali accomplished his goals within three months of hiring and ended up managing a team of 60 people. “I still reference my Organizational Behavior & Design text to keep staff motivated. It’s just one of the many important things I learned at EMTM.”

Deborah Close, EMTM’95, now Director of Information Services at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, was a mid-level manager at AT&T when she enrolled in EMTM. Looking back at the impact the program had on her career, she says, “The biggest insight I took away from the program was that, in order to move beyond the junior level or mid-level position in any company, you have to be willing to stretch your thinking; the risk is in sharing that stretched thinking with your colleagues and your boss and your boss’s boss. I came away from the program feeling prepared to do that.”

Representative Organizations
Companies and organizations where EMTM students and graduates have worked include:

If you are interested in EMTM and would like to speak with a graduate or current student in this career field, please contact us.