Executive Education: A deep rooted history in the Rocky Mountains

UCalgary’s executive education programs started when the newly-minted Faculty of Management joined four other western Canadian universities as a partner in the Banff School of Advanced Management (BSAM), an eight-week program out of the Banff Centre that offered intensive exposure to management disciplines.

“It was very successful,” says Ron Murch, senior instructor emeritus at the Haskayne School of Business. “It was very well supported commercially up until the early 1980s when a lot of the executive education profiles started to change.” For one thing, busy executives found it increasingly difficult to get away for two months. “It was getting to be really onerous on the companies,” he says.

Led by faculty member Mike Fuller, UCalgary decided to launch its own program to improve the university’s image within Calgary, build on the city’s entrepreneurial and professional reputation and give the Faculty of Management a competitive edge with other business schools.  The university remained part of BSAM, but starting its own program was controversial. “BSAM took us to the UCalgary Senate and asked the Senate to cancel our program because we were competition,” says Fuller. “One member of the senate commented that competition was better than no competition and that was the end of that discussion.” 

UCalgary’s Executive Development Program (EDP) launched in 1983. The four-week program ran once a year and included exercise and nutritional components. “It evolved relatively quickly from a strictly technical management development program into a leadership program,” says Murch. “There was a very strong orientation toward integrated instruction and understanding your own value systems.”

The first three weeks were in the mountains (Chateau Lake Louise, Emerald Lake Lodge or Jasper Park Lodge), followed by a three-week break and a final week on campus, where the 30 or so participants lived in residence and attended classes in Scurfield Hall. “It wasn’t just drop in and do your class and take off,” says Murch. Faculty and participants lived, ate, socialized and exercised together. “We didn't often refer to them as ‘students’ because we saw them more as equals,” says Murch, who worked with EDP from 1986-1996. “We were learning from each other.”  

Faculty improved their skills by teaching professional managers--and each other. “We decided to have the faculty teach a session to other faculty members,” says Fuller. These Friday morning sessions included alumni and executives and became wildly popular. “Faculty could experiment with instructional techniques and materials and then migrate those into other programs,” says Murch. “Some of the best instructional materials and experiences were a direct result of the class members working with the faculty to bring the practical aspects of their experiences into the classroom.”

In 1994, UCalgary merged its program into BSAM and by 2001, BSAM was discontinued.

As the needs of executives have changed over the years, executive education programs have kept on pace. Fuller admits there were a few misses in the early days but far more successes. Fast forward to today where Haskayne Executive Education serves more than 1300 business professionals per year by offering targeted or customized programs and workshops for executives to learn, practice and apply skills that lead to creating positive change in their organization. Open enrolment programs for individuals provide knowledge in new business disciplines, and participants also get the opportunity to network and expand knowledge from other leaders in the business community, as well as engage in real world scenarios. Custom programs for organizations are designed and delivered to transform the entire organization through the development of leaders' capabilities required to execute organizational strategies. Executive Education has also branched out by offering governance programs for board directors and a municipal program for elected officials.