Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto

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Impact global healthcare and life sciences

The world is watching as the global healthcare and life sciences landscape rapidly evolves and the pace of change accelerates.

Rotman’s Global Executive MBA for Healthcare and the Life Sciences (GEMBA-HLS) program has been helping leaders in the industry to make an impact and envision a better future for the global healthcare and the life sciences landscape.

The program helps build the expertise needed to understand and shape healthcare systems around the world as demands for innovation, access and affordability for healthcare continue to evolve.

— Kevin A. Lobo | CEO, Stryker Corporation

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An International Perspective

The GEMBA-HLS program is an intensive 18-month journey that immerses students in key healthcare and life sciences clusters from around the world with professionals from across the full value chain. Modules take place in 4 cities:

Toronto, the home of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto is an innovation and entrepreneurship hub, ranked as one of the world’s top start-up ecosystems.

The San Francisco Bay Area is a hub of entrepreneurial activity and base for many established healthcare and life sciences firms. 

Singapore offers important insights as an innovative regional and global hub for healthcare services and life sciences commerce.

London, UK offers the opportunity to explore the UK's dynamic universal healthcare system - the world's first - as well as the advanced life sciences industries in the region. 

Not only will you apply best practices from various healthcare systems and global life science companies, you will expand your leadership potential in order to improve healthcare from within.

— Nate Myers, GEMBA-HLS '20 | Director,Strategy & Business Planning, Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare

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A diverse global network

The importance of the natural bonds of friendship that form within the GEMBA-HLS program cannot be understated. The program is designed to attract and cater to diverse senior professionals within the industry.

The qualifications of the cohort are diverse. We have physicians, pharmacists, healthcare professionals on the industry and provider side, and decision makers in government agencies. The ability to build connections, friendships and to diversify your network is invaluable.

— Gopi Nageshwaran, GEMBA-HLS ’20 | Chief Scientific Officer (Ad-Interim), Asia Cluster Franchise Medical Lead, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Singapore

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Additionally, students can engage with the HLS Leadership Network, a network of senior executives carefully selected to reflect a variety of career and life experiences. These advisors will assist students with first-hand knowledge about specific industries, functions, business problems and most importantly, provide advice on their career options, further adding value to their experiences within the program.

Catalyst for Change

The idea of an MBA for someone in the healthcare and life sciences industry might seem surprising. What might a specialized MBA offer to someone in the healthcare and life sciences industries? What is the value of an MBA to someone interested in maximizing patient value?

An MBA at its core is about building leaders. 

Andy Williams, Vice President, Immunology, Janssen Canada reflects on this:

The leadership skills needed going forward in the healthcare market… is about the ability to understand and envision a better future, and being willing to take risk and have the courage to bring those ideas to life.

Heather Chalmers, President and CEO, GE Canada and Rotman MBA ’04 alumna expands further:

The leadership skills that are going to be key for the future are threefold. It is about being a reflective leader, an innovative leader and being a brave leader. It takes a brave leader to challenge the inertia of the status quo to drive innovation in the healthcare system.

These are the reasons why the GEMBA-HLS program is anchored within the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.

At Rotman, the constant interplay of ideas and points of view sparks new ways of approaching problems and illuminates unexpected connections. The School brings together the right minds, resources, and support systems to ignite breakthrough solutions.

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While providing the management fundamentals that tomorrow's leaders need, Rotman also provides the space to explore alternatives, and test conventions. The people who come here to learn, teach and discover share a desire for change - whether that means changing direction, changing traditional thinking or changing the world.

This catalytic energy is the same energy felt throughout the downtown St. George campus of the University of Toronto - just blocks from the medical Discovery District and the local business community. Established in 1827, U of T is a global centre of research and academic excellence and is recognized worldwide as Canada’s leading university — a reputation that adds tremendous value to the Rotman MBA.

Drawing together both established experience and innovations within the healthcare and life sciences industries, the GEMBA-HLS program is suited for those who look to lead the new global landscape in healthcare and the life sciences.

The learnings that I’ve had from the MBA from the professors, from the modules, the classmates, from the classroom discussions itself has changed the way I looked at digital health, and the platforms, and the value chain. I realized that there are areas like finance, accounting, strategy, artificial intelligence - and how important these are to healthcare, other than the clinical practice itself. And all of this integrated together will make success in healthcare.

— Jancy Ali, GEMBA-HLS ’20 | Senior Specialist Obstetrician, Dubai Health Authority, Dubai, UAE.

Want to learn more about Rotman's Global Executive MBA for Healthcare and the Life Sciences program? Reach out to have a chat with us. →

© Rotman School of ManagementThe Rotman School of Management is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AASCB)