NEW YORK - Columbia Business School and Dynasty Sports Group, a sports consulting agency founded and helmed by the New Orleans Saints Super Bowl champion, Marques Colston, today announced the creation of a new set of executive education courses that will provide current and former professional athletes with the tools needed to harness their competitiveness and ensure financial success after their careers have completed.
"Being a professional athlete can provide unbelievable access to entrepreneurial and investment opportunities, both good and bad," said Mr. Colston. "We are excited to partner with Columbia to build a program aimed at providing current and former athletes tools to navigate the venture space successfully, while complementing the intangible skills and assets that have separated them as elite level performers and competitors."
"Columbia Business School is truly excited to launch this new initiative. Our goal is to ensure that professional athletes are armed with the business acumen and investment skills to be successful as they pursue a new type of competition on a different playing field," said Dil Sidhu, associate dean of Columbia Business School Executive Education. "Our rich experience in providing executive growth opportunities to senior leaders across the globe, coupled with our deep connections to the investment and entrepreneurial communities, make our Executive Education program uniquely suited to deliver this type of learning to professional athletes. We look forward to the excitement ahead."
"The venture capital industry is always on the lookout for hard-working and disciplined people in both investor and entrepreneur roles, so there is such a natural fit for current and former professional athletes in this community," said Erica Duignan, Founder and Managing Partner of venture investment company 1000 Angels and longtime financial educator to professional athletes. "With deep-rooted desires to make a positive impact on society, professional athletes bring a unique set of resources and energy to the startup community, which can have a transformative effect on the future of society. I cannot think of a better academic institution to partner with to equip the athlete community with the resources and support needed to achieve their goals as founders and investors."
Program Structure The initial month-long courses, titled "Venture Investing for Professional Athletes" and "Entrepreneurship for Professional Athletes," will incorporate in-person lectures on Columbia’s campus in New York City and interactive, live webinar content, as well as feature guest speakers from the investment world, a hallmark of all Columbia Business School programs. The courses will cover topics including but not limited to: The basics of private equity investing; Expected returns from startup investments; Valuations and negotiation strategies; Differences between angel investing and venture capital; Portfolio theory; and, Understanding entrepreneurial finance, growth hacking, and securities. Once completed, these two courses will set participants on a pathway to completing the Certificate in Business Excellence, a recognized achievement in professional development and investment. Certificate recipients earn select Columbia Business School alumni benefits, including induction into an inter-connected and global 44,000-person network.
Interested participants can visit https://go-execed.gsb.columbia.edu/athleteprograms to learn more about the courses and register to attend.
To learn more about the cutting-edge courses offered by Columbia Business School Executive Education, please visit www.gsb.columbia.edu/execed.
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