Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Program
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Wharton's Chief Technology Officer Program equips leaders with expertise in technology strategy, trends, and execution. The customized learning journey is tailored for senior executives to evaluate technology trends, hone strategic acumen, and determine the most efficient ways to address the role of a CTO.
Customized design for your success
The CTO Program is designed with the needs of busy executives in mind. You will learn through online and interactive sessions and guest lectures from global industry leaders. The flexible nature of the program allows you to customize your learning journey for maximum career and business impact.
Flexible
The self-paced modules provide the flexibility to accommodate learning around your busy work schedule. The program can be completed in 9 to 12 months as your schedule and program selections demand.
Interactive
A community learning experience with a limited cohort size facilitates interactive discussions with peers, program coaches, faculty, industry speakers, and career advisors — allowing you to implement program learnings in real-world scenarios.
Transformative
The multimodular learning journey experience, including the executive reflection, allows you to learn and grow as an executive while enabling you to develop business strategies to improve your personal and organizational goals.
Who is it for?
The CTO Program is ideal for:
CTOs, aspiring CTOs, and senior executives with experience in technology management who aim to lead the technology strategy of a company
VPs of engineering, software architects, or those responsible for evaluating and implementing new systems
Senior technology executives tasked with developing strategy or identifying and implementing new technologies
Program eligibility criteria include:
A minimum of 10 years of work experience
International exposure (preferred)
Fluency in written and spoken English
Hear from our participants
Curriculum
The CTO Program will enable forward-thinking executives like you to learn from a cutting-edge curriculum that reflects current industry trends. The program is organized into two components — 18 weeks of core modules followed by three online electives of six weeks each.
Executive reflection
Over the course of the program, you will work on a reflection journal by leveraging program insights and apply them to analyze challenges in your current or previous organization. For the executive reflection, you will select an issue currently confronting your organization and develop a set of potential solutions to remedy the situation. You can take advantage of weekly live sessions and the Slack channel to ask questions and discuss ideas with your success coach and cohort peers. At the end of the program, you will make a final presentation, which will be a valuable asset when proposing initiatives to decision makers in your organization.
There are three reflection journal submissions in total — one at the end of each phase:
Week 1: Initiate your project by determining a technology challenge or initiative for your organization.
Week 6: Examine the experiences of implementing technology strategies to address the challenge at an organizational leadership level.
Week 12: Examine the experiences of implementing technology trends to refine the chosen initiative or challenge.
Week 18: Examine the tools, techniques, and methods for implementing the initiative and assess its deployment.
All reflection journal submissions and the final presentation of the executive reflection are required to complete this program.
What you will learn
The multimodular program will enable you to:
Explore strategy, adaptation, and renewal in organizations
Investigate ideation and entry strategies for organizations and ecosystems
Examine implications of technology trends: blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and talent clusters and migration
Survey organizational privacy policies and environmental, social, and governance practices
Relate risk and uncertainty in innovation
Consider effective frameworks and metrics of an organization’s readiness to scale
Investigate new product domains, acquisitions, and strategic partnerships
Program highlights
Customize your learning journey with a choice of electives in topics aligned with your career goals.
Learn at your own pace with a weekly commitment of three to five hours of sessions and activities.
Glean insights from renowned faculty and industry experts who are at the cutting edge of innovation.
Network with accomplished peers from around the globe and gain new approaches to leadership.
Engage with your success coach to craft your learning journey through regular check-in sessions.
Benefit from experiential sessions combining theory with real-world case studies and apply learnings.
Meet peers from multiple cohorts, industry experts, and faculty during the optional two-day on-campus networking event.
Following successful completion of the program and subsequent open-enrollment programs, subject to further qualification criteria and additional tuition, you have a pathway to apply for Wharton alumni status.
Program faculty
Wharton’s world-renowned faculty, along with acclaimed industry thought leaders, will prepare you to face a wide array of challenges. You will leverage their insights and domain expertise to better understand your business and industry and immediately apply the learnings to your organization.
Academic Director for the CTO Program, Wharton Executive Education; Simon and Midge Palley Professor; Professor of Management; Vice Dean of Entrepreneurship, The Wharton School
Jeffrey A. Keswin Professor; Professor of Operations, Information and Decisions; Director, Jerome Fisher Program in Management & Technology, The Wharton School
Richard A. Sapp Professor; Professor of Management, The Wharton School
Deloitte & Touche Professor of Management; Director, Wharton Political Risk Lab; Founder, Wharton ESG Analytics Lab, The Wharton School
Max and Bernice Garchik Family Presidential Associate Professor of Management, The Wharton School
Professor of Management, The Wharton School
Mack Professor; Professor of Management; Co-Director, Mack Institute for Innovation Management; Wharton School Faculty Director for the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business, The Wharton School
Associate Professor of Operations, Information and Decisions, The Wharton School
CIBC Endowed Professor; Professor of Operations, Information and Decisions; Professor of Management, The Wharton School
Professor of Legal Studies & Business Ethics, The Wharton School
Pathway to Wharton alumni status
For more than 135 years, Wharton has been the place where visionaries, inventors, and trailblazers get their start. After completing the CTO Program and subsequent open-enrollment programs, subject to further qualification criteria and additional tuition, you have a pathway to apply for Wharton alumni status.
Executives who successfully complete the CTO Program have the option of applying to the General Management Program (GMP). The GMP provides further opportunity to enhance your leadership skills and business acumen with a flexible curriculum. The CTO Program provides one credit towards the six required to complete the GMP and earn alumni status. More details on the GMP are available at Wharton Executive Education.
Upon qualifying for Wharton alumni status, you will be eligible to receive:
Full access to become a member of 77+ Wharton alumni clubs
Invitation to attend future Wharton global alumni forums
A Wharton email address
Certificate
Earn a Wharton Executive Education digital certificate upon successful completion of the program. As an alumnus of this transformative program, you get exclusive access to a wide range of professionals, events, and networking opportunities. Furthermore, you can also benefit from additional tuition assistance upon enrolling in further online electives from Wharton Executive Education.
Note: After successful completion of the program, your verified digital certificate will be emailed to you in the name you used when registering for the program. All certificate images are for illustrative purposes only and may be subject to change at the discretion of the Wharton School.
Please also note that participation in the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Program (a) will not result in a degree from, alumni status with, or earned credit at the University of Pennsylvania or the Wharton School (or, to Wharton’s knowledge, any other institution), (b) will not be recorded on a University of Pennsylvania or Wharton transcript, and (c) does not guarantee or suggest that a participant will be admitted to the University of Pennsylvania, the Wharton School, or to any other university or institution.
FAQs
Connect with a program advisor for a 1:1 session
Our program advisors have helped senior executives across the world choose the right program for their career goals. Schedule a 1:1 to get a deeper understanding on why the CTO Program is the right fit for you.
Email: wharton_cto@emeritus.org
Phone: +1 567 587 1541 (U.S.) / +44 1313 812895 (U.K.) / +971 80 00321209 (U.A.E.) / +52 55930 20507 (LATAM)
Early registrations are encouraged. Seats fill up quickly!
Flexible payment options available.
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