Take your passion for finance on the global scale to the next level - and prepare for a career in any faction of the finance sector by declaring a Thunderbird Global Finance focus area.

Global Finance

Specialize in Global Finance and prepare yourself to work in a broad range of finance sectors - from Fortune 500 companies and investment banks to start up companies and non-profit organizations like the World Bank and USAID. Be equipped to choose a variety of career paths - as a financial planner, investment banker, financial analyst and more.

To accomplish this, you must complete 12 credit hours of finance-specific elective coursework.


Courses

GF-4110 Corporate Financial Reporting

This course provides an in-depth analysis of corporate financial reporting as a vehicle for communicating information to the firm's stakeholders. Topics covered include revenue and expense recognition, quality of earnings issues, the analysis of cash flows, foreign currency translation, the valuation of debt instruments, derivatives and executive stock compensation.

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GF-5112 Financial Statement Analysis

This course focuses on analyzing financial  statement information in a variety of global decision contexts including security valuation, credit decisions, strategy and competitive analysis, mergers & acquisitions, and litigation support. Financial analysis uses cash flows and ratio measures of a company's operating, financing and investing performance for comparison to past historical performance or with competitors. Accounting analysis uses an understanding of how a company's business and its operating strategy are represented by accounting rules and develops procedures for adjusting accounting measures of performance. Prospective analysis develops forecasts of financial statements to make estimates of a company's equity valuation.

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GF-5211 Investment Banking

This course imparts a basic understanding of the investment banking business as an intermediary in the capital and merger markets and demonstrates how it serves both its issuing clients and investing customers by focusing on several services it provides, how client relationships are established and maintained, and several analytical techniques for solving problems. It is not intended to be vocational and is presented from the perspectives of senior managers and senior investment bankers.

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GF-5250 Multinational Corporate Finance (FORAD)

This course applies the theories of managerial and international finance to the problems of multinational treasury management. Topics include issues and techniques in multinational funds transfers; identifying and measuring foreign exchange and interest rate risk; multinational tax planning; managing foreign exchange and interest rate risk; hedging instruments, including forward contracts, options, and swaps; and financially engineered synthetics. Students also manage the financial functions of a computer-simulated multinational corporation, construct a biennial report summarizing their management results, and present oral reports to a board of directors consisting of professors and invited business professionals.

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GF-5260 Financial Engineering & Derivatives

This course provides the foundation for derivative products used throughout finance. The first part introduces the basics of value and risk used throughout the course.Topics covered include futures, forwards, swaps, options, introductory bond pricing concepts, such as yield-curve, duration, immunization and hedge ratios. The concepts are applied to problems in asset, liability and portfolio management. Students also manage the risk management function of a computer-simulated multinational corporation. This course is highly mathematical.

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GF-5271 Global Securities & Investments

This course surveys the investment management  landscape, and delivers the theory and technology attendant to intellectual and/or career pursuit in this area. Topics explored include the domestic and international aspects of portfolio optimization; emerging markets and global asset allocation; security analysis and selection; stock sorting and screening algorithms; mutual fund performance decomposition and benchmarking; fixed income analytics and metrics; earnings quality; the franchise factor; distress prediction models; behavioral finance models; and financial derivatives from a portfolio management perspective. A respectable floor of numeracy is advisable; a CFA® emphasis prevails.

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GF-5273 Global Portfolio Management

This course is concerned with the theory and practice of optimally combining securities into portfolios (portfolio analysis) and with asset allocation decision making. Considerable emphasis is placed on computer-based simulation and optimization. Students are required to simulate the optimization of a multi-asset portfolio. This course is highly mathematical and requires excellent computer skills.

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GF-5278 Fixed Income Securities

This highly quantitative course includes analyzing risk and return for bonds, mortgage-backed securities, assetbacked securities and fixed income derivatives - e.g. futures, options, and swaps. Yield curve analysis emphasizing the relationships among forward, spot and par curves, and their usage in fixed income portfolio management, will be emphasized. The course largely takes the view of a fixed income portfolio manager. However, participants also will have an enhanced understanding how fixed income fits into a corporation's capital structure and how securitization fits into a financial institution's funding strategy. Practical applications and the use of bond analytic software will accompany each topic.

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 GF-5290 Advanced Topics in Finance: Global Private Equity

This course provides an overview of the private  equity industry globally, its role in economy, its participants, its operations, and its recent development. It covers different phases of the private equity investment process and the players involved at each stage. The phases include: setting up a fund, selection and screening of investments, exploring valuation techniques, structuring a deal, managing and exiting investments. Emphasis will be on the practical aspects of private equity transactions through case studies and interactions with private equity professionals.  This course is not offered every trimester.

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GF-5700 Global Risk Management

This course explores the risk exposures of  international organizations. Generally dealing with accidental loss situations, the course uses case studies developed by the instructor (World Trade Center, Volcanic Eruption Disasters, Dupont Hotel, and others) to enhance the learning process. Topics include: emergency and disaster planning; environmental risk auditing; political risk management; cyber risk exposures; loss control and financing; risks associated with mergers and acquisitions; ocean transportation risks; expatriate risks; and others. Emphasis is on the practical application of Risk Management tools to everyday operations of international organizations.

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