The College of Continuing and Professional Education at Kennesaw State University has launched a new Corporate Financial Planning & Analysis program. The certificate training course is scheduled to begin April 14 at KSU Center (3333 Busbee Drive, Kennesaw 30144). Chris Grier, senior director, business intelligence & analytics with Arby’s Restaurant Group, will instruct the 43.5-hour program.
“The days of building presentations that simply just report numbers are gone,” Grier said. “Organizations need individuals that can collect, cleanse, analyze and ultimately provide actionable insight on data from all business segments. This is the future of FP&A.”
Grier earned a finance degree from KSU before obtaining an Executive MBA from UGA. He brings more than a decade of field and corporate FP&A and business intelligence and analytics experience to the classroom. Grier has designed the course to enable students to set themselves apart from other corporate finance professionals. Individuals in the course will learn the latest best practices for analyzing trends, building forecasts and creating financial models.
As the three-month course progresses, students will learn to demonstrate a multitude of abilities including financial acumen (gathering and interpreting information, understanding financial concepts and communicating/coordinating work with other professionals) and financial analysis (analyzing information, building financial projections and using technology/software).
Additionally, the program will prepare students for Association of Financial Professionals’ (AFP) new Certified Corporate FP&A Professional TM credential exam. Further information regarding the exam process can be found at fpacert.afponline.org.
Jennifer Henderson, KSU’s FP&A program manager, says the ideal students are finance professionals who want to grow their skills and become a Certified Corporate FP&A Professional to advance their careers, as well as all business professionals who want to learn how to transform their organization’s data into relevant, actionable information.
A free online information session is scheduled for noon on March 24. More information can be found at ccpe.kennesaw.edu or by calling 470-578-6765.
