AU Press Release
Mississauga, Ontario, March 17, 2003 – Two of Canada’s leading management education institutions are teaming up to offer advanced learning opportunities for Certified Management Accountants. Under the terms of a new strategic alliance, Athabasca University’s (AU) Centre for Innovative Management and Certified Management Accountants of Canada (CMA Canada) will work together to provide CMAs with enhanced access to AU’s Executive MBA programs.
The official signing ceremony to launch the CMA Canada and AU alliance takes place tomorrow, March 18, 2003, at 10:00 am EST in CMA Canada’s headquarters in Mississauga, Ontario. Recognizing the CMA designation as a leading international strategic financial management credential, the formal agreement offers CMAs advanced and transfer credit for required financial and accounting courses and electives in Athabasca Executive MBA programs.
Dr. Peter Carr, Executive Director of AU’s Centre for Innovative Management, hailed the new alliance with CMA Canada as “another key step in our mission to produce business leaders with advanced strategic management skills and strong management accounting competencies.
“Our new alliance with CMA Canada reflects the critical importance of financial management, corporate governance, and professional ethics in today’s graduate management education. By bringing together CMA Canada’s international reputation for excellence in the development of strategic financial management professionals and AU’s acknowledged leadership in graduate management education, we’ll be leveraging our considerable strengths to produce exceptional global business leaders.”
Bob Dye, CMA, FCMA, LLD, President and CEO of CMA Canada, said the new partnership with Athabasca University offers CMAs a tremendous opportunity to earn a highly respected MBA degree and further enhance their strategic leadership capabilities.
“The advanced standing being offered to CMAs in Athabasca Executive MBA programs will enable our members to take advantage of their unique management accounting knowledge and skills as they work to acquire a valuable and complementary post-graduate business degree,” said Dye. “Like Athabasca University, we are committed to developing global business leaders who build success through new ideas, new perspectives, and sound strategic financial management capabilities.
“We are proud to establish this new alliance with AU as a means of driving the continuous development of management accounting and optimizing the performance of global enterprises.” Dye added that Athabasca’s innovative approach to providing graduate management education will be highly attractive to CMAs, both in Canada and abroad.
Launched in 1994 as the world’s first online MBA, AU’s Executive MBA has grown to become Canada’s largest Executive MBA with over 1100 students representing Canada’s top 20 companies, and 400 companies world-wide. AU’s online MBA works in the same interactive, collaborative environments as business today.
The high level of asynchronous interaction between academic staff and students makes it possible to share ideas, insights, and skills on a daily basis across geographic and organizational boundaries. This interaction is a crucial ingredient of a graduate management education that has powerful relevance to the real world of business.
With 35,000 members around the world, CMA Canada grants a professional designation in management accounting and is responsible for standards-setting, accreditation and the continuing professional development of CMAs. CMAs work as senior management professionals in organizations of all sizes, applying best management practices in strategic planning, sales and marketing, information technology, human resources, finance, and operations. CMAs bring a strong market focus to strategic management and resource deployment, synthesizing and analyzing financial and non-financial information to help an organization maintain a long-term competitive advantage.
Information:
AU Centre for Innovative Management – Marilyn Wangler, Manager, Marketing and Communications
Tel: (780) 418-7553 – Email: marilynw@athabascau.ca
CMA Canada – David Fletcher VP, Public Affairs
Tel: (905) 949-3106 – Email: dfletcher@cma-canada.org
