A dynamic business community calls for a dynamic business school
Business education at Foster leverages all Seattle has to offer, including deep relationships with iconic businesses and a vibrant entrepreneurial community. You can come to Seattle, become part of the Foster School, and have the credibility and credentials to work anywhere. Innovation and groundbreaking business models are part and parcel of how business is done here.
Recent decades have seen Seattle establish itself as an iconic, global leader in business and innovation. Meanwhile, Foster has made an unprecedented epic climb in national and global business school rankings. This connection between city and school fuels growth and creates fertile ground for students to find their own path.
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Proven Impact
The Foster Effect
A recent Foster School alumni survey found a significant impact on both alumni careers and the economy of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. The data collected supports two central—and complementary—conclusions:
Foster alumni are successful in the business world
- Employment rate for recent graduates (2008-2015) is near 100 percent.
- More than a third of late career graduates (1946-1979)—and nearly a quarter of all Foster graduates—hold c-level positions.
- Nearly half of Foster grads will have served on a corporate board by the end of their careers.
- One-in-five recent graduates have founded a company in the first eight years out.
- Alumni overwhelmingly feel that the school prepared them for professional success.
Foster alumni success is a powerful economic driver
- Foster graduates have created an estimated 17,000 companies, 910,000 jobs, and more than $100 billion in annual revenues generated.
- More than two-thirds of those companies operate in Washington state.
- Nearly one-third of all Foster alumni have started at least one business.
- A growing number of—especially MBA—students come to Foster from out of state and remain in the region for the majority of their careers.
- Foster alumni transplants have created an estimated 1,283 companies and 68,000 jobs, generating $7.6 billion in revenues for the Washington state economy.
Seattle Alumni Stories
Seattle in the classroom
Leaders to Legends
In this staple breakfast lecture series — open to students, faculty, staff, and guests — the Foster community enjoys access to local, regional, and world-renowned business leaders who shape the way the world does business. Check out recent guest lecturers:
Lessons in Board Governance
Foster’s ties to the business community are vital to courses that teach students the intricacies of board governance and executive leadership.
Some programs, like the Full-time MBA or Executive MBA, offer board governance courses designed to prepare students to be effective board members and to work productively with boards as executives. These courses place an emphasis on board effectiveness in creating value through oversight and strategic leadership within organizations regardless of size and form of business. Students explore boardroom successes and failures with lectures from prominent CEOs and board members who are shaping the energy, entertainment, retail, and technology sectors. Foster even offers a special seminar, Women Board Directors Development Program, to help address the scarcity of women serving on corporate boards.
Companies on Campus
Foster’s connection to the Seattle business community is a live wire — and it’s buzzing on both ends. Companies located in the area make a point of connecting with Foster on campus, creating opportunities for meaningful one-on-one engagement between executives and students.
Recent Corporate Partners on Campus
Students in Seattle
Company Treks
The greater Puget Sound region is home to a host of household names, and the likes of Amazon, Microsoft, Starbucks, Boeing, and beyond frequently open their doors to Foster students for on-site visits, providing valuable on-the-scene context and insights, as well as opportunities for in-person engagement with the leaders and teams shaping tomorrow’s innovations.
Internships
Internships are a key component to business education. Foster has built a solid network that ensures students gain real-world experience, while providing valuable solutions to challenges faced by Seattle’s business community.
Recent Internship posts
Student Consulting Projects
When a Foster student wants to test their mettle, only a real-world challenge will do. For example, the MBA Strategic Consulting Program connects student teams with local companies to deliver creative solutions to critical business challenges, offering insights on strategy, marketing, supply chain, finance, and organizational management to companies including Seattle icons Alaska Airlines, Microsoft, Vulcan, REI, Boeing, and beyond.
Getting accepted into the MBA program is just one step in a holistic journey of self-discovery, and resilience-building, key traits…
It’s been an incredible summer working at Kaiser Permanente Washington as an MBA intern in Finance & Strategy Leadership. During…
Homefield Advantage
Career Services meets Corporate Recruiting
As the #1 business school in U.S. for MBA job placement — boasting a 99% job placement rate — a Foster degree is an invaluable career asset for burgeoning business professionals. Foster MBAs secured positions primarily in technology, consulting, financial services, and consumer products firms, earning an average salary and bonus of $157,050. And for employers, a dedicated staff is here to lend support with a variety of engagement strategies, including job postings, on-campus interviews, career fairs, virtual recruiting, and other networking opportunities.
A local resource for global thought leadership
An internationally known and ranked faculty with expertise in nearly 100 areas of business practice distinguishes the Foster School of Business with cutting-edge research and innovative teaching. Our faculty can be a powerful resource for any organization.
Foster’s Center for Sales and Marketing Strategy aligns important sales and marketing problems with academic research and analysis techniques, resulting in strategies that measurably improve business performance, furthering the creation and dissemination of sales and marketing knowledge.
Through student consulting teams and faculty-led business education courses, Consulting and Business Development Center grows jobs and revenues with a focus on businesses owned by people of color, women, LGBTQ, veterans, and underserved communities. Since 1995, the CBDC has generated more than $210 million in new revenue and retained over 200,000 jobs.
The Northwest is a magnet for entrepreneurs due to its research powerhouses, support for early-stage entrepreneurs, sources of capital, and talented pool of workers. The Buerk Center celebrates this ecosystem with a series of innovation and startup competitions open to students at accredited colleges and universities across the Cascadia Corridor — Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia.
Founded in 2009, the Center for Leadership and Strategic Thinking is a preeminent academic source for education and research in the fields of leadership and strategic thinking. A trusted partner to corporations and institutions seeking evidence-based leadership development interventions, its mission is to advance the science and practice that connects leadership and strategic thinking for high performance impact.
Foster’s Global Business Center (GBC) develops global business expertise by hosting and sponsoring events, educational study abroad programs, global business case competitions, and certificate programs. Home to one of only 17 federally-funded Centers for International Business Education and Research (CIBER), the GBC works in partnership with the U.S. Department of Education to contribute to the international understanding and competitiveness.
Nearly half of Foster faculty serve on editorial boards for top academic journals, providing thought leadership on categories including accounting, finance, management and organization, information systems and operations management, and marketing. And as the third most-productive research faculty in the world, Foster is a boundless source of guidance and insight for business on the regional, national, and global stage.
A Two-Way Street
The best relationships are mutually beneficial
For Seattle businesses, a boundless source of inspiration and expertise, an incubator and proving ground, an indispensable resource for new talent and future leaders resides mere minutes away at UW’s historic Seattle campus. And for business students, a wealth of opportunities, mentorship, and career-building experiences lays just two light rail stops from Husky Stadium.
Foster offers unparalleled access to an international hub of the innovation and industries shaping our modern world. Business executives, thought leaders, and alumni are all fixtures on campus, providing a wealth of insights and connections to class after class of future leaders and innovators. After all, at Foster, opportunity is all part of the experience.
To see this reciprocal relationship in action, listen to what students and business leaders say about the mentor programs offered by several degree programs and centers at Foster:
Learn more about the programs featured here:
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