SFU Offering Technology MBA

The B.C. high tech sector can look forward to a larger pool of management talent now that Simon Fraser University is offering a specialized Management of Technology (MoT) MBA.

The only program of its kind in western Canada, SFU’s MoT MBA is designed to take people with technical and scientific skills and provide them with the management skills they need to move beyond project work into management positions.

“Technology is B.C.’s fastest growing economic activity right now and the sector has severe labor shortages in both technical skills and management skills,” says John Waterhouse, SFU’s dean of business administration. “Our objective is to increase the number of people with management skills who work in the technology sector.”

The MoT MBA involves significant support from B.C. high tech companies. “We’ve created a partnership between the faculty of business administration and 12 high-tech B.C. companies,” explains Waterhouse. Called the MOT Business Council, these companies will provide real business problems for students and faculty to solve, support faculty research in management of technology and provide jobs for students.

High tech workers interested in pursuing a MoT MBA must have at least two years of work experience, a university degree in a non-business area plus either a certificate from SFU’s new one-year, on-line graduate diploma in business administration or a business degree and work experience in technology. Cost for the full-time, one-year program at the Harbour Centre campus, is $15,000.