November 12 and 17-20, 2025
Hybrid format: Virtual + In-Person at the University of Washington, Seattle
Be First To Know: Join the Class of 2026 Waitlist
The Minority Business Executive Program (MBEP) is an immersive, hybrid learning experience tailored for companies with annual revenues of $500K–$2M. This five-day program equips participants with practical tools to scale their businesses and lead with confidence in a dynamic global economy. MBEP welcomes business owners and senior leaders from all backgrounds.
Participants gain new strategies in finance, leadership, operations, marketing, and global growth and return with a renewed sense of purpose and an expanded peer network of diverse business leaders.
Program highlights
- 5-day hybrid format: One virtual session and four in-person days in Seattle
- Focused curriculum on finance, leadership, operations, marketing, and global strategy
- Taught by award-winning Foster School faculty and expert guest speakers
- Peer-to-peer learning with a national network of high-performing business leaders
- Applied tools and frameworks for immediate business impact
- Personalized support from dedicated program managers throughout the experience
Registration & Fees
This program requires advance preparation and study, therefore early registration is highly encouraged. Assignments will be sent to participants prior to the program. It is expected that participants will be free of other duties and will devote their full time during the course of the program.
Registration Info
Registration deadline: October 27, 2025
Program fee: $5,500 due prior to start of program
Curriculum and Faculty
The Minority Business Executive Program combines class sessions, discussions, exercises, and other interactive learning. Participants will gain knowledge, tools, and a valuable network to help them achieve their business goals. Some materials and reading assignments will be sent to participants prior to program start.
B2B Marketing
Many B2B companies fall into the trap of being price takers instead of price-setters. Fearful of missing out on a big customer or losing clients to a bigger company, many small and medium-sized businesses undersell their unique value. This session is designed to help you take the pricing power back.
After this session, participants should have confidence to avoid using low price as a call to action and instead win business sustainably with unique value. Participants will learn a framework for identifying areas where their companies can create, capture, and communicate value to business customers more effectively.
Understanding Financial Statements & Business Performance Evaluation
You will learn to interpret and use accounting data for planning, decision-making, and financial reporting. This session will enhance your understanding of finance principles and practices, including cash flow analysis, capital budgeting, risk, and return.
Testing Business Ideas
Offering new products, services, or lines of business can substantially impact growth. However, making big bets on the wrong ideas can have disastrous consequences. After this session, you will be able to design an experiment to validate whether a potential opportunity is important to focus on next.
Impactful Communications
Poor or miscommunication in a workplace can often lead to frustration and a loss of productivity. In order to be a better communicator, it is important to first understand your own style and know what your tendencies might be. During this session, you will become more aware of your communication style, and learn some techniques to identify the styles of others. With this understanding, you will be able to craft and adjust your style to communicate more effectively.
Competitive Strategy
During this immersive session on business strategy, we will delve into key concepts essential for sustainable growth and competitive advantage. Through interactive exercises, participants will gain practical insights into customer development, strategic positioning, and innovative approaches to product development and distribution channels. By the end of the session, attendees will emerge equipped with actionable strategies to navigate and thrive in today’s competitive business landscape.
Leadership and Teams
Creativity and innovation is the lifeblood of organizations, and building an idea culture is a key way that leaders can maximize their impact while also engaging their team members. Through a combination of lecture, experiential exercises, and discussion, you will learn evidence-based insights on how leaders can help their employees and teams to generate game-changing ideas, while also navigating potential pitfalls that can stifle creativity.
Negotiation Skills
The goal in these sessions is to help you enhance your negotiation skills. You will be introduced to the various theories and processes of negotiation. We will discuss negotiation principles that are based on research from the fields of psychology, social psychology, sociology, industrial organizational psychology, and organizational behavior. These sessions are designed to be relevant to a broad spectrum of negotiation problems that are faced by employees and organizational leaders. Specifically, you will develop the necessary skills to discover optimal solutions to problems faced in negotiations, and the best means to implement those solutions.
Legal Issues in Business
In this interactive session with experienced panelists, you will gain useful knowledge and sound advice related to:
- Contracting Issues – Given the power differences between a global corporation (and their legal team) and a small business, what can business owners ask of corporate clients? How should business owners approach the legal aspects of contracting from the initial contact to the completion of the contract?
- Merger and Acquisition issues – What are some issues entrepreneurs need to think about during due diligence and during the purchase phases.
- International Business – What are some leading issues that companies face as they go global.
- Business Formation – What are relative merits of being a corporation, LLC or partnership?
- HR – Facing labor shortages, what are some resources to tap into?
Facilitated Sessions with Program Sponsors and Alumni
Learn first-hand what the sponsors of the program value from their suppliers. Hear from program alumni on how they are applying their learning from the program and get advice on how best to leverage class connections and their expanded network.
William Bradford
Professor Emeritus of Finance
Jean Choy
Associate Dean, Executive Education and International Initiatives
Associate Teaching Professor of Management
Emily Cox-Pahnke
Associate Professor of Management and Organization
Lawrence P. Hughes Endowed Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Crystal Farh
Professor of Management
Michael G. Foster Endowed Fellow
Faculty Director of the PhD Program
Jeff Shulman
Professor of Marketing
Marion B. Ingersoll Professor
Elizabeth Umphress
Faculty Director of Minority Business Executive Program
Professor of Management
William D. Bradford Endowed Professor
Faculty Director of Consulting and Business Development Center
Some circumstances may require a change in the topic and/or faculty and other subject matter experts.
(Subject to Change)
Bank of America Executive Center (BAEC)
University of Washington Main Campus
4275 NE Stevens Way
Seattle, WA 98195
Program Fees
$5,500 program fee includes instruction, learning materials, and a Certificate of Completion from the University of Washington’s Michael G. Foster School of Business. The program fee does not cover any travel expenses related to attending the in-person class sessions in Seattle, such as airfare, hotel, meals outside of what is provided during the program schedule, or ground transportation.
Payment must be made by check, credit card prior to the start of the program or submit a purchase order for later invoice.
Companies sponsoring 5 or more participants are eligible for a 15% discount. Contact Executive Education for more information: [email protected] or 206-543-8560.
- 30 days before program start date:
- 100% refund for withdrawal
- Participant substitutes are allowed with no administrative fee
- 15 to 29 days before program start date
- 50% refund for withdrawal
- Participant substitutes may be allowed on a case by case basis
- 2 to 14 days before program start date
- No refund for withdrawal
- Participant substitutes may be allowed on a case by case basis
- Less than 48 hours before the program start date
- No refunds or substitutions will be permitted
Michelle Jones
Maia Espinoza
Ose Sesay
Reinaldo Freitas
About the program
Since 2008, the Minority Business Executive Program (MBEP) at the University of Washington has focused on increasing the competitiveness of businesses.
It has accelerated the growth of numerous diverse suppliers to the nation’s leading corporations. Business revenue growth for program alumni averages more than 10%, and our corporate partners continue to see improved performance from the companies they sponsor to attend.
Participant program fee is $5,500 inclusive of all instruction, materials, and events. Application deadline is October 27, 2025.
Benefits
- Uphold your company’s commitment to supplier diversity
- Develop your company’s own supplier base
- Promote innovation and drive competition
- Invest with one of the nation’s leading public business schools
Contact us
Executive Education
[email protected]
206-543-8560