Corporate Valuation

"I have a degree in finance and economics and recently joined the business development team at my company. The Corporate Valuation course helped me to refresh my finance and modeling (NPV, DCF) knowledge. I really loved the course as it provided practical tools and approaches that I can actually use in my everyday work. R-Pharm US is part of a larger pharmaceutical company, R-Pharm JSC, with headquarters in Moscow, Russia. Besides internally developed products, we also consider acquisition of assets from Big Pharma companies such as BMS, Pfizer, and Merck, either in late-stage development or commercial early stages. Our team locates those assets, does the evaluation, present it to the board, and then communicates and negotiates the contracts with the partners. Everybody at Wharton was just amazing — the other students, the faculty, the staff. I enjoyed working in groups on actual cases. Being one of the youngest participants, it was beneficial to listen to more experienced colleagues. Professor Michael Roberts made it very easy to understand and digest all the materials even in the short period of time. I would definitely recommend the program, and I am considering taking another Wharton Executive Education course in the future."

Mariia Johnson

Business Development Lead in Oncology/Immunology, R-Pharm US

"I was interested in the Corporate Valuation course because I serve on the boards of several public companies and valuation is always an important subject in capital allocation considerations, M&A, capital raising, and strategy decisions. The course was excellent: very practical, discussion based, and hands-on. It was much less theoretical and much more about, Here are the tools that you need, heres how to use them, and heres how to think about some of the issues as you use the tools.’ That is exactly what I was looking for in this program. The professor, Michael Roberts, was excellent and very engaging and personable. He was also very good about engaging in extra dialogue during the breaks, and I’ve actually emailed with him about a few follow-up items since I finished the program. This course equipped me with enhanced skills to better understand and evaluate the financial decisions we make at the board level. I am able to ask more informed questions and understand the technical nuances of various valuation methodologies. The other participants in the course were a smart group and there was a lot of diversity in terms of experience, position, and approach. In the breakout sessions it was helpful to see how people approached different corporate valuation situations given their unique backgrounds and experiences. I highly recommend Corporate Valuation . I enjoyed it, I learned a lot, and it was relevant and valuable. It was really an excellent experience for me."

Craig Barbarosh

Vice Chairman/Board Member, NextGen Healthcare, Inc.

"There were multiple reasons I attended Wharton’s Corporate Valuation program. I wanted to continue to grow my financial acumen while gaining a comprehensive understanding of opportunities and risks associated with strategic decisions. Mergers and acquisitions have been a part of my company’s business strategy, so the corporate valuation component will directly help position me for the next phase of my career. I learned from the discussions and interactions with the other students and Professor Michael Roberts while evaluating different business cases. Corporate Valuation also examined different investment strategies, including acquisitions, mergers, and buyouts, and how evaluation and analysis of financial statements can lead to a profitable decision. For me, education is the foundation of success. The insights I gained from attending this program will help me get to the next level."

Bill Fink

Executive Vice President, Head of US Middle Market Banking, TD Bank

"Corporate Valuation is my third Wharton program and by far the most valuable. It’s extremely important to what I do day-to-day since I dedicate 80 percent of my time to growth through acquisitions. A top takeaway was learning a new way to assess the cost of capital — understanding both the operational and financial components. Cost of capital was something that I’ve always taken for granted over my entire professional life over the last 28 years. For Europe, we have been using a cost of capital of 8 percent for a while. It [the Wharton program] was an eye opener for me. I concluded that 8 percent was too much of an average. Now, I am applying what Professor Michael Roberts taught me for each one of the acquisition targets we are looking at, and am getting very different results. For example, we had an automotive target recently where using this more accurate valuation method enabled us to get a sales price 20 percent lower than what we would have done otherwise. We concluded the deal at that price. In the first year [after attending Corporate Valuation ], we already got a major return on investment. I would recommend this course first to CEOs of medium to large corporations, and then to CFOs and COOs of extremely large corporations. Wharton is definitely worth the investment — I have found the faculty insights and the valuation tools shared invaluable."

Pam Scheller

Director of Engineering Operations, ASRC Federal Mission Solutions

"I work for a private equity firm in Lima, Peru, and several of my colleagues are Wharton alumni who encouraged me to attend this program. Corporate Valuation fit very well with my day-to-day activities at Nexus Group. My company’s focus is on buying attractive companies in the LATAM region — we need to pay the right price and we can only accomplish that through the right valuation methodology. At Wharton, I was exposed to great professors, a guest speaker from Morgan Stanley who shared his company’s approach to negotiation, and a diverse mix of program participants. There were people from Finland, Mexico, Peru, and the U.S., and I still have contact with some of the program participants. Professor Michael Roberts not only taught us the theory, but he also applied it in case studies and shared his experiences advising real companies in the U.S. He was a great person for me to learn from and to go into deeper detail with about corporate valuation and business strategy. Since returning from Wharton, I’ve used several of the program’s valuation and negotiation techniques, most recently while negotiating the buyout of a company with a presence in several countries in the region. In emerging markets, investors have a greater risk, so they expect a greater return than in a developed market like the U.S. This concept was proven out in the program when a fellow participant from Finland and I shared our experiences evaluating and buying companies."

Rogério Gonçalves

CEO, Automotive Business, Prevent Group, Germany

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Fernando Gallo

Senior Investment Analyst, Nexus Group, Peru