SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Andersen — the leader in tax, valuation, financial advisory, and related consulting services — and The University of San Francisco (USF) have extended their partnership to create The Enterprise MBA program, in which eligible Andersen employees can earn an MBA in three to five years, fully funded by Andersen on behalf of its employees. Modeled after the USF Masagung Graduate School of Management’s rigorous Part-Time MBA offering, the new program offers a standard MBA curriculum with courses tailored to address the specific professional development needs of Andersen employees in today’s complex, global business environment.

The new program is available to employees of Andersen member firms and collaborating firms, starting with US employees and rolling out worldwide in 2023. Full- and part-time Andersen employees from senior associates to partners — regardless of tenure — are eligible for the program. Participating students must take three to four courses per year, delivered online and asynchronously, to complete the program requirements in five years. The first cohort of nearly 50 students started the pilot program in June 2022. USF welcomed 14 new Andersen students to the program in November 2022 and is targeting another 25-50 for January.

“Andersen strives to be the best professional services firm in the world and this new program is consistent with our dedication to continuous professional development and stewardship,” said Mark Vorsatz, CEO of Andersen. “To be the best in our industry, we have to attract and retain the best talent — that’s why we’re so committed to investing in our people. Working closely with the innovative educators at USF, we’ve built a customized program that reflects and enhances the work Andersen employees do on behalf of our clients every day. As the program grows, we expect it to be a unifying employee experience across our practice areas and global offices.”

Andersen’s offering is unique in the degree to which the firm was involved in course development, and the fact that the program is global in nature, fully funded by the firm, and does not have any kind of clawback, employees should choose enrolled in the program to leave the firm.

“Andersen’s culture is what keeps us together and what sets us apart,” continued intent. “Our investment in our people at all stages is just one component of how we are building and maintaining that culture.”

A Customized MBA to Meet Andersen’s Business Needs

Andersen and USF’s Masagung Graduate School of Management worked together to create a customized program, including content, delivery, modality, structure and timing, and even jointly creating a special elective class on the importance of company culture. In addition, in certain classes, Andersen senior staff may serve as adjunct professors to aid in instruction. Three trimesters of courses are offered each year: from early January to mid-to-late February; from early May to the end of August; and from early-November to mid-December. Given Andersen’s tax-centered business, program courses are offered outside of the busy tax seasons between March 1 and April 15 and between September 1 and October 15.

“This a truly unique and collaborative program and the close partnership between USF and Andersen sets a new standard for the future of corporate education,” said Otgo Erhemjamts, Dean of the School of Management at USF. “It demonstrates how educational institutions and companies can come together to address skill gaps and prepare organizations and their personnel for the rapidly evolving business world.”

Andersen and USF started their collaboration in 2014 when the organizations first partnered to provide Andersen personnel the opportunity to earn a Master of Laws in Taxation (LLM) or a Master of Legal Studies in Taxation (MLST) from the University of San Francisco School of Law . To date, more than 120 employees from 11 countries have graduated from those programs.

“The University of San Francisco, founded by the Jesuits in 1855, has long worked with the business community in and beyond the City to strengthen their talent pool,” stated USF President Rev. Paul J. Fitzgerald, SJ “Our work with Andersen has been a terrific iteration of this work. The alignment of our cultures makes this excellent teaching/learning experience possible. We are especially grateful to Mr. Vorsatz for envisioning this dynamic partnership.”

Andersen Global is an international association of legally separate, independent member firms comprised of tax and legal professionals around the world. Established in 2013 by US member firm Andersen Tax LLC, Andersen Global now has more than 13,000 professionals worldwide and a presence in over 390 locations through its member firms and collaborating firms.

About the USF School of Management

Founded in 1925, University of San Francisco’s School of Management is on the forefront of educating the next generation of conscious, mindful business leaders. Each year those students join the over 40,000 School of Management alumni around the world to create ethical and innovative change in the private, public, and non-profit management sectors. The School of Management is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC) and the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

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San Francisco is arguably America’s most progressive city, so the lopsided recall of three school-board members on Feb. 15 stunned political observers across the country. Voters ousted Alison Collins, Gabriela López and Faauuga Moliga by margins of 59%, 48% and 42%, respectively. Other members were spared because they weren’t on the board long enough to qualify for a recall vote.

It’s not hard for anyone outside of the social-justice-warrior hothouse to understand what happened. Instead of trying to get the city’s schools running after the COVID-19 shutdowns, the city’s school board championed symbolic, far-left political issues that even most San Franciscans — including its liberal political leaders — found distasteful.

“My take is that it was really about the frustration of the Board of Education doing their fundamental job,” said Mayor London Breed. “And that is to make sure that our children are getting educated, that they get back into the classroom. … They were focusing on other things that were clearly a distraction.”

That’s spot on. As the pandemic raged, the board was fixed on renaming 44 San Francisco public schools. It abandoned the effort in April 2021 when the blowback became too much to handle. The effort was absurd, as the board sought to remove names of figures including Abraham Lincoln, naturalist John Muir and Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

To highlight the idiocy, the board tried to change the name of Alamo Elementary School after it “mistakenly assumed that (it) was named for the Texas battle and not for the Spanish word for ‘poplar tree’,” SFist reported. The board also tried to paint over a historical Works Progress Administration mural at George Washington High School — an act that brought comparisons to the Taliban.

More substantively, the board changed a merit-based admissions policy at a top high school and replaced it with a lottery system to promote diversity — something that annoyed the city’s large Asian American community. Most of these battles resulted in litigation — not to mention contentious public meetings centered on the imperfections of 18th century founders.

This ideological insanity obviously diverted attention from basic educational concerns. The city’s schools remained closed. The board and its allied teachers’ union seemed to be in no rush to resume regular schooling, thus allowing the city’s students to fall further behind in their studies. Parents seen with anger, which culminated in the rare recall campaign.

Even political analysts on the mainstream left viewed the vote as a wakeup call for progressives, seeing it as a chance for them to understand that, fundamentally, public schools are about educating students rather than pushing for vast cultural change. But the reactions of the losing parties suggest that they remain in their ideological slumber.

“Don’t be mistaken, white supremacists are enjoying this. And the support of the recall is aligned with this,” López tweeted after her loss. The teachers’ union continued to chide venture capitalists and billionaires, who helped fund the recall campaign. Left-wing commentators saw the vote as the result as part of a conservative political campaign — never mind that Republicans comprise less than 9% of San Francisco’s voter registrations.

The San Francisco recall proves that parents everywhere want their schools to provide quality education — and that elected officials should knock off the fringe nonsense.

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Partners Group Holding AG PGHN, -1.51% said Wednesday it agreed to buy DiversiTech – a Georgia-based manufacturer and supplier of parts and accessories for heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment – from Permira at an enterprise value of $2.2 billion. Permira and management will remain minority investors in the company, which was founded in 1971 and based near Atlanta. DiversiTech employs 1,250 people at 20 locations in the US, Canada and the UK Partners Group said it plans to accelerating new product development, expand through mergers and acquisitions and boost internal manufacturing capabilities. Partners Group managing director Andrew Oliver led the deal. Shares of Partners Group rose 0.7%.

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