The "special body" in Finance that turns 20 years old

Milano, 25 october 2019
The twentieth edition of the Master in Corporate Finance, recognized by the Bocconi community and alsoby the market with the simplest and most immediate acronym "MCF", started. The Master, initiated twenty years ago at SDA Bocconi by a group of finance professors led by Maurizio Dallocchio, Full Professor at Bocconi University and at that time Director of the Corporate Finance Department, soon became a reference pointfor post-graduate education in finance.

The initial project was to create a post-graduate programwith Euro-Mediterraneantraits,for a population of graduates with at least a couple of years of experience, which could have later challenged the Master in finance of the London Business School. The latter was active by many more years and recognized as the forerunner of all the master's degrees in finance in international business schools. The Master in Corporate Finance of SDA Bocconi, initially delivered in Italian, immediately received a great deal of market attention, gathering numerous applications and forming classes with more than fifty participants. The turning point came with the third edition, in which the transformation of the Master into an international program in English was decided. From this edition, MCF entered the restricted and elite circuit of specialized international Masters in Finance. The population of participants expanded to accommodate students from various nations of Continental and Northern Europe, such as Germany, Switzerland, France, Sweden and Norway, and in some cases even students from North America. In subsequent years, thanks to directors who emphasized the positioning in the Euro-Mediterranean area, the Master welcomed many students from the Balkan area, from Greece and Turkey, to the Middle East.

In recent years, thanks also to the facilitation of international student flows and to the greater recognition of the Bocconi brand in the international arena, MCF has further broadened its horizons, regularly acquiring participants from Russia, China and other Asian nations, including those more tothe extremes like Japan, but also attracting students from South America and Africa."In recent years we have completed our transition to a specialist global Master in finance" -says Alberto Dell'Acqua, current Director of the Master -"in the last edition of the MCF we have 35 students from 17 different countries scattered throughout the globe. However, the Italian presence is still recognizable and important, representing on average 25-30% of the students in the classroom. We want to continue to be a point of reference for those who, between the ages of 24 and 32, want to acquire a specialization in finance and start or change their career in this area, even though they do not necessarily have an economic or financial background " . But what is the Master in Corporate Finance nowadays? “The Master in Corporate Finance is today a consolidated and complete program that covers all the relevant topics of modern finance. It is a program that allows you to acquire the basics of financial knowledge and to deepen at the same time the most specialized contents in three thematic areas: managerial & entrepreneurial finance, banking and institutional finance, asset management & markets. In addition, we offer a portfolio of seminars on topics, such as wealth management, hedge funds or fintech, which allow the participant to know and investigate some very specific professional areas of expertise.The character of the Master is then very applicative: the students work, from the first days, with constant applications in Excel and with tools such as Bloomberg and other tools and data sets for finance. Furthermore, MCF benefits from a unique faculty, made up of high profile academics but also of professionals of high standing who hold lectures on professional subjects, bringing their direct experience. Many members of the academic faculty also hold positions of primary importance within the economic and financial community, with rolesin boards of directors, boards of auditors and advisory boards of companies and financial institutions. "MCF is therefore a program that thanks to its historical eritage maintains a strong characteristic of solidity and reliability, which is a guarantee of "having made the right choice" for many, instead of undertaking new programs, a bit "hybrid" in the finance sector and even pretentious, but then fragile and inadequately run in.”states Prof. Dell’Acqua. But what are the ambitions for the near future? "We have a clear goal for the near future: to consolidate ourselves as a leading player within the global arena of post-experience Masters in finance, by accessing the specific Financial Times Ranking.

In this way we will play important games with the most prestigious international Masters, such as the Master in Finance ofthe London Business School. "Finally, what are the characteristics of the ideal candidate for the Master in Corporate Finance of the future?. "In our vision today, who ever comes to attend the Master in Corporate is a person that has the ambition and the desire to become part ofa "special body"inthe field offinance. By analogy,we can cite some effective examples, such as the US Navy medical corp, a specialized medical body of men and women for delicate and urgent medical interventions in military actions, or the most famous US Navy Sealsor the special NOCS department in Italy. To become part of a "special body", it is necessary to lend oneself to a demanding preparation program with constant commitment and concentration. This is the same philosophy with which we designed our Master: an intensive 12-month program, 9 of which in the classroom and 3 of final experiences (internship or international track or applied projects).

The class schedule is tight, the calendar is full of exams and group assignments. The work is a lot and requires dedication and determination, but in the end the candidate is strengthened and is recognized as part of the "MCF special body" and is ready to embark on a career evolution in the world of finance, even accepting the most difficult and demanding challenges, butcertainly more satisfying. "

SDA Bocconi School of Management