Solvay Brussels School - Economics & Management

What is it?

The Executive Master in Finance is a programme specialized in financedisciplines  combining tools, techniques and professional judgment in cutting-edge topics. Our mission is to make sure you will never examine a financial decision without a sustained argument and a critical eye, based on a strong financial literacy.

Designed for practitioners with a harmonious time schedule, it provides a hybrid pedagogy associating practical cases and experience. This approach fosters interactions between the various participants’ backgrounds, while satisfying different motivations: sharpen your skills in finance or add a new dimension to a current background more and more in touch with financial topics.

Finance is devoted to be the hub of multidisciplinary teams. The EMF promotes this role by pooling a variety of backgrounds and experiences linked to finance. Our audience thus comprises high potential professionals in the financial sector, financial managers of industrial companies, finance consultants, corporate lawyers, industrial engineers promoted to managerial functions, as well as attorneys specialized in the capital markets.

Covering the main topics of today’s finance, the programme provides readiness for the CFA and GARP examinations whilst providing a degree accredited by the ACIIA as corresponding to a CIIA Foundation level. Hugues Pirotte, EMF Director

The Executive Master in Finance of Solvay means interactive learning, knowledge sharing, experiences, cases, applications, brainstorming, debates and fun! It is also the guaranty to be trained by senior faculty members who find here an excellent opportunity to communicate their passion. Our mission is to make sure you will never examine a financial decision without a sustained argument and a critical eye, based on a strong financial literacy.

Objectives & Outcomes

The Executive Master in Finance offers a real step-up in finance thanks to a high selection of faculty and a rich variety of topics covered.

Programme’s benefits:

• provides you with a solid knowledge of finance

• addresses cutting-edge issues in finance

• sharpens your managerials abilities in the field

• gives you the analytical tools and new skills to be able to take better financial decisions

• maximises your career opportunities and ads a new strong dimension to your background

• gives you access to the EMF and the SBS-EM Alumni groups, with great networking opportunities

Quality guarantee:

•  Study at the Belgian school of excellence for finance at the heart of Europe

•  Learn from a first-class faculty

•  Exchange best practices with highly motivated participants

•  A rigorous admission process

•  Final exams and presentation of a business case support in front of an academic jury

•  Access to a wide network of finance professionals

Participants Profile

EMF participants come mainly from the industry and the financial sector. They are on average 33 years of age, with 8 to 10 years of professional experience. They typically hold a university degree in Finance, Economics, Engineering, Science or Law.

The programme is particularly suitable for:

• Finance managers of industrial and servicing companies

• Managing directors of SMEs

• Executives in the financial sector

• Consultants and auditors

• Lawyers specialized in financial restructuring (M&As, IPOs..)

Over the seven editions of the master, we had the pleasure to welcome several participants from the following companies, to name but a few:

• Banks: ING, Dexia, Fortis, Axa, Crédit Agricole Indosuez, BNP Parisbas, ...

• Industry : Mobistar, Belgacom, La Poste, DHL, Burgo, CFE , Electrabel, Basell, Honeywell, Tractebel,...

• Financial Services : Fortis Real Estate, CBFA, Euroclear, SWIFT,...

• Consultancy : Bain, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Ormit, …

Programme Content

The Executive Master in Finance is built on 6 core modules of 4 days each covering a specific pillar of today's finance. In addition to the 6 mandatory modules, 2 introductory sessions of 2 days each are organized before the first module, to give or refresh the foundations on Finance and Statistics. As these courses take place end of October already, a catch-up session will be organized before the first core module, for those who registered at a late stage and missed the introductory sessions.

The 6 core modules are:

Module 1 - Corporate finance

This course will examine recent developments in the field of Corporate Finance.  It also provides a solid preparation for the first and second years of the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) professional certification.

Module 2 - Financial Reporting and Analysis

Within the context of the introduction of the IFRS/IAS standards, this course provides an in-depth review of the major accounting standards, with an emphasis on the differences between IFRS, Belgian and other foreign accounting and reporting standards. Special emphasis will be given to issues arising from business combinations and consolidated financial statements. Class sessions will alternate between lectures and case studies. The practical implications of accounting for financial instruments will be presented by professionals.

Module 3 - Derivatives

This module presents the main categories of financial derivatives, with particular emphasis on their valuation via the arbitrage method and their uses within financial markets and companies. In terms of different product types, with either delayed or conditional delivery, the course will analyse value components, price setting and hedging techniques as a function of underlying assets.

Module 4 - International Investments

This course provides a sound knowledge of the fundamentals of modern portfolio theory, asset allocation theory and portfolio construction techniques. It aims at giving a full picture of all steps of the investments process, from risk profiling to performance measurement, along with portfolio modelling and optimisation, rebalancing requirement and active management.

Module 5 - Risk Management

This part of the programme has been designed to address the growing interest in risk management issues resulting from the Basle Banking Regulatory Reforms. This course also provides valuable preparation for the GARP professional certification.

Module 6 - Insurance Management

In recent years the insurance industry has faced a period of rapid change and consolidation, with recent natural and man-made disasters triggering additional balance sheet pressures. However, the convergence between the insurance and banking industries, the emergence of insurance as an asset class and the fast rate of growth of life insurance markets have also made this a time of opportunity. This course will review the basics of property/casualty insurance, life insurance and re-insurance. It will also address the challenges that these business lines raise for the Asset-Liability Manager and discuss all relevant regulatory issues. The course will conclude with an examination of insurance purchasing by corporations as part of their corporate risk management.

Faculty

The faculty is composed of academic professors with a professional expertise and practitioners:

E. Briys
Eric Briys is co-founder of Cyberlibris (www.cyberlibris.com). Former investment banker, he worked at Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers where he headed the insurance strategies groups.

A. Chapelle
Ariane Chapelle has developed her career between the academic world (at the SBS-EM and at the London Business School) and the financial industry, where she held responsibilities in Internal Audit, Credit Risk and Operational Risk Management.
From December 2009, she is “Head of Insight and Framework Analysis” for Operational Risk at Lloyds Banking Group.

A. Farber
Previously Dean of the Faculty of Social Science, Politics and Economics – SBS, André Farber is Professor of Finance at the SBS-EM. He has been Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago, Cornell University and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He holds a PhD in Management Science from ULB. He has been president of the European Finance Association.

G. Hübner
Georges Hübner (Ph.D., INSEAD) is the Deloitte Professor of Financial Management, co-chair of the Finance Department at HEC-University of Liège. He is also Associate Professor of Finance at Maastricht University, Visiting Professor at the SBS-EM, and Affiliate Professor at EDHEC. He is the founder and scientific director of Gambit Financial Solutions, a financial software spin-off from HEC-Liège.

M. Massart
After graduating from the SBS-EM in 1974, Michel Massart joined PricewaterhouseCoopers and became a partner in 1984, active in audit up to 1997. He then became managing partner of the corporate finance department of PwC, specializing in M&A, valuations and company reorganizations.
He is currently professor of advanced accounting at SBS-EM and director and chairman of the audit committee of Millicom International Cellular S.A.

H. Pirotte
Hugues Pirotte is Professor of Finance at the SBS-EM. He also lectures at the Luxembourg School of Finance and the Swiss Accountancy Academy. He is the CEO and co-founder of FinMetrics, a Swiss consultancy and software development firm in risk management. He holds a PhD in Finance from the University of Lausanne.

Y. Swan
Yvik Swan graduated from the Département de Mathématique of the ULB in 2002. In 2004 he obtained a master’s degree in Statistics and Operational Research from the I.S.R.O., and in 2007 he received his PHD in Statistics at the ULB. He is currently a research fellow of the FRS-FNRS.

N. Tuchschmid
Nils Tuchschmid is professor of Banking and Finance at Haute Ecole de Gestion (HEG), in Geneva. He is also an invited professor at HEC Lausanne University and a lecturer at the University of Zürich and at the SBS-EM.
Prior to joining HEG, he worked for various Swiss financial institutions, among other BCV, Credit Suisse and UBS.

C. Vaessen
Celine Vaessen has a Master in Management Sciences and an Executive Master in Finance from the SBS. As an investment banker for Credit Agricole CIB, she is in charge of Financial Institutions coverage in Benelux since 2006. She teaches regularly Finance to MBA and executive students of the SBS.

Admissions

The Admission Committee will make a first judgment based on the dossier submitted by the applicant. In case of uncertainty, candidates will be invited for an interview with the Academic Director.

The following admission requirements will be applied:

• Hold a university degree

• Have minimum three year-professional experience

• Be English proficient

More specifically, candidates are expected to fulfil at least one of these two conditions:

• to hold a university degree with a major in Finance or in Economics or

• to have consistent professional experience in a field related to Finance.

Registrations

Registrations take place from April to end of November on a rolling basis. Please contact the programme manager to know more about the selection process.

As we have set a numerus clausus of 30 participants per year, if you plan to apply in the late stages of the application period (November), please do not hesitate to put an option on your name (free of charge) to make sure that a seat is available for you. Please click here to view the full course calendar.

The application form and relevant instructions can be downloaded here.

Applications have to be sent to:

Anna Calgaro – Programme Manager
Av. F.D. Roosevelt, 42
1050 Brussels
Belgium
Email: Anna.Calgaro@solvay.edu / masterfinance@solvay.edu