What is the value of a Lerner MBA?

In this video, faculty and students talk about why a UD Lerner MBA prepares you to seize the opportunities around you. Visit our MBA program page for more information, including upcoming information sessions.

Video Transcript

What is the Lerner Opportunity?

Adam Fleischhacker, Associate Professor of Operations Management, J.P. Morgan Chase Faculty Fellow, UD Lerner College of Business: So the beauty of an MBA degree is that you learn to speak the language of the multiple disciplines, whether they’re more creative disciplines like marketing, to more technical disciplines like finance, or computational disciplines like business analytics. If you’re the one who can cut across the disciplines —bring these people together to work towards a common goal— then you’re the one who’s going to be leading as opposed to following.

Bruce Weber, Dean, UD Lerner College of Business and Economics: I think we all realize the pace of business continues to accelerate, and lifelong learning used to be a nice cliche term, but I think now it’s an essential.

Amy Estey Becker, Academic Advisor, MBA program, UD Lerner College of Business and Economics: Many of our students come with a technical background, whether it’s in banking or marketing or cooking, and they know that there’s a management, a business side that they want to fit into.

Dan O’Brien, Community Supported Agriculture Farmer, Coverdale Farm Preserve, UD Lerner MBA 2013: Food is a business. Everybody eats every single day. It’s something that’s part of everyone’s lives. I have a degree from culinary school, but I felt like I needed more professional experience. I felt like I needed more business acumen, and that’s why I decided to pursue an MBA.

Bruce Weber: So I think that we’ve built an MBA program that both provides the opportunity for depth with concentrations but we also insure that every student that leaves our MBA program is in a position where they would be able, they do have the tools to manage a team successfully.

Shyamala Athaide, student, UD Lerner MBA: The MBA program, and Lerner in general with the different things going on, it helps you grow. You learn the things you’re good at. You learn how to lead.

Opportunity is incorporated into everything we do.

Opportunity, Inc.

Recent News

In Memoriam: William V. “Bill” Gehrlein

William V. “Bill” Gehrlein, professor emeritus of operations management in the University of Delaware’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, passed away on July 17, 2026. He retired from the University in 2013 after a distinguished career dedicated to...

Wendy Smith receives Academy of Management Annals Decade Award

University of Delaware management professor Wendy Smith has spent much of her career examining a challenge familiar to leaders across industries: how to navigate competing demands without choosing one at the expense of another. Now, research that helped advance the...

Lerner Student Samantha Matisoff’s Olympic-Sized Internship

University of Delaware marketing major Samantha Matisoff loved sports — especially soccer and the U.S. Women’s National Team — but her career trajectory remained uncertain. Following her sophomore year, Matisoff added sport management as a second major and never...

UD SYLP Camp Builds Leadership Through Economics

This article was written by Kim Asarta. Before arriving at the University of Delaware for the Siegfried Youth Leadership Program (SYLP) Economics Camp, Joseph Bratteson hoped to better understand economics, leadership and himself. Bratteson was one of many students...

Dan Alia Named 2026 Study Abroad Faculty Director of the Year

Lerner College Visiting Instructor Dan Alia recently earned the Study Abroad Faculty Director of the Year for Winter 2026 from the University of Delaware’s Center for Global Programs & Services. Last summer Alia received a call from Suresh Sundaram, a marketing...