In today’s volatile business environment, continuing education isn’t just valuable — it’s essential.
When Kellogg launched its Executive Education Program 75 years ago, it created space for full-time faculty members to teach executives — a novel idea among business schools at the time.
“At the heart of every Kellogg Executive Education program is a belief that the best business education happens at the intersection of rigorous academic research and hard-won real-world experience — and we’ve built our programs specifically around that idea,” says Jake Cohen, associate dean of global Executive MBA (EMBA) and Executive Education. “When an executive walks into a Kellogg program, they’re getting access to the frontier of strategic thinking — insights that haven’t filtered down to the competition yet.”
Executive Education at Kellogg is taught by the same award-winning faculty and clinical practitioners who teach in the school’s top-ranked MBA programs. A vision for ambitious growth — led by Cohen, who arrived in January — will lead to more opportunities for open enrollment students and organizations seeking custom programming. It also means that Kellogg faculty are increasingly exposed to the newest insights from top business thinkers. These connections fuel new research and produce an environment rich for discovery — for both students and faculty.
The current Executive Education portfolio spans nearly a dozen focal points, including digital transformation (artificial intelligence and others), corporate governance and strategic leadership. Lifelong learning at Kellogg enables alumni and leaders throughout the world to navigate the dynamic workplace of today — and tomorrow. Established C-suite leaders and rising managers can take advantage of pathbreaking educational opportunities that range from nondegree three- to five-day programs focused deeply on a specific topic to longer programs offering wider exposure to management and leadership skills and tools. Learning is presented in multiple formats to match executive needs: in person, online and hybrid, with both synchronous and asynchronous components.
“Our flexibility is a direct response to what our clients have told us they need,” Cohen says. “Organizations designing learning and development programs for their leaders face real constraints — time, geography, budget, competing priorities. We’ve built our portfolio so that those constraints don’t become barriers to growth. The result is that Kellogg can serve an executive in Sao Paulo completing a program outside of work hours just as effectively as a cohort of senior leaders spending a week together on our Evanston campus.”
Kellogg students have included executives from nearly three-fourths of the Fortune 500. Many companies enroll large groups of leaders in Executive Education programs to build knowledge and skills at scale, whether through open enrollment or custom offerings.
“Kellogg Executive Education wasn’t just training; it was a turning point in my leadership journey. Three perfectly timed courses — Advanced Strategy, Change Champion and Enterprise Decision-Making — equipped me with the tools and frameworks I needed to excel,” says Deborah Newman, U.S. media and entertainment industry leader at Grant Thornton, which has implemented custom programs in partnership with Kellogg. “The instructors were superstars, the material cutting-edge and the methods truly impactful.”
Executive Education’s options and global reach have neared record levels as professionals worldwide seek to stay ahead. To augment learning opportunities, the school recently tripled the number of nondegree programs offered at its Miami campus (in Coral Gables, Florida). Students there experience the same rigorous curriculum and world-class faculty Kellogg is renowned for, while enjoying the unique cultural and economic opportunities Miami has to offer.
Kellogg empowers leaders to actively shape their industries, and its immersive learning environments foster peer-to-peer learning and a focus on developing adaptable, purpose-driven leaders for complex global challenges, emphasizing actionable frameworks over pure theory.
Whether professionals are looking to enhance their leadership skills, develop innovative marketing strategies or navigate the complexities of family enterprise governance, Kellogg Executive Education continues to provide the perfect environment for professional growth. Kellogg alumni can enroll in weeklong courses at a 30% discount. They also receive 15% off C-suite and year-long programs.
The Ann McIlrath Drake Executive Center
Last year, Kellogg strengthened its commitment to Executive Education by breaking ground on a new building dedicated to executive learning. Construction on the Ann McIlrath Drake Executive Center is moving fast, with an opening date set for fall 2027.
Overlooking Lake Michigan, the state-of-the-art facility will be a significant addition to Northwestern’s Evanston campus. Designed with global collaboration in mind, the building will be adjacent to the Kellogg Global Hub, connected via an underground corridor to create “One Kellogg.” The center will serve as a home base for EMBA and Executive Education programs while also housing courses for all Kellogg students. It is the centerpiece of the school’s Full Circle Campaign, an ambitious $600 million fundraising initiative designed to transform business education for generations to come.
The Ann Drake Center will offer an unparalleled hybrid executive education experience through technology-enabled classrooms and other learning spaces that bring together students, industry leaders and alumni from around the world. In addition, the facility will house state-of-the-art technology to deliver immersive learning experiences to participants near and far.
Overseeing Ann Drake Center offerings is a team of highly experienced leaders with deep academic and industry knowledge. That includes Cohen, who brings diverse global experiences to Kellogg, having served as a senior associate dean at MIT Sloan School of Management, interim president and dean of the Asia School of Business and dean of INSEAD’s MBA program.
Cohen says he’s excited to watch the Ann Drake Center transform the Evanston campus: “It’s been designed from the ground up to give executives something genuinely rare: a dedicated, immersive environment where they can step away from the demands of their day-to-day roles and focus on growing as leaders. A place to live, learn and build relationships with peers who are navigating the same challenges they are. This kind of environment doesn’t just support education; it enables transformation.”
Comprehensive online programs with global reach
Kellogg Executive Education online programs enable participants to level up their skills efficiently through comprehensive curricula that aren’t just mirrors of classroom learning. The 40-plus Kellogg online programs use a backward design in which students consider the business outcomes they want to achieve and understand how best to get there — creating aha moments and fully applicable ideas and insights across areas including marketing and sales, product, strategy, AI and analytics and leadership and organizations.
For example, Strategic Communications for Leaders prepares managers at all levels to articulate clear visions, promote trust and foster engagement across diverse, multidisciplinary teams. During the six-week program, participants evaluate their executive presence and communication flexibility using self-assessment and feedback. The course is taught by Shana Carroll and Brooke Vuckovic, clinical professors of management and organizations.
“Our online course offers leaders an accessible but powerful way to become more intentional about how they show up and how they’re experienced by others,” Vuckovic says. “It’s application-focused, which means participants get real frameworks and time to practice and reflect with one another on the moments that matter most: communicating with presence, navigating difference, giving hard feedback, leading people through change.”
All online programs offer an asynchronous learning format supported by one to three live sessions with faculty and weekly live sessions with subject matter experts. The asynchronous format eliminates time zones as barriers to learning, and Kellogg has welcomed participants from more than 150 countries, with large numbers from Canada, Mexico, Brazil, India and Australia. A growing number of online programs have also been translated into Spanish, Portuguese and Mandarin, and rising global participation helps ensure offerings are market sensitive.
“We’re actively expanding our presence in Latin America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East,” Cohen says. “Not just to extend the school’s reach but because many of the most interesting business challenges today are global ones, and our clients expect us to be wherever they are.”
Custom Programs for Targeted Learning
Companies have long benefited from Kellogg custom Executive Education programs tailored to their specific business challenges and goals. Any such partnership starts with careful listening and engagement to understand client needs and customize one-of-a-kind learning solutions as part of an outcome-focused relationship. World-class Kellogg faculty thought leaders, practitioners and subject-matter experts collaborate to develop each program and handpick the best-suited academic directors for a holistic learning experience with positive impact at the individual, team and enterprise levels.
Ernest Cu ’84 MBA, CEO of Globe Telecom — the Philippines’ top mobile brand — partnered with Kellogg to create an innovation-focused management accelerator for employees, combining virtual content with in-person live programming in the Philippines.
In choosing to partner with Kellogg, Cu says what stood out to him was the school’s ability to customize training to Globe Telecom’s specific business needs.
“We understand that to sustain our growth and innovation, we need to constantly invest in our most valuable resource — our people,” Cu says. “This program is part of our strategic approach to empowering our employees and providing them with the necessary tools, skills and mindset to grow and lead.”
Continuing to Grow
Executive Education represents a significant ongoing need as leaders across sectors navigate high-stakes geopolitical, business and societal shifts. Kellogg is positioned to continue years of rapid growth in this space, shaping the future of business education while enabling executives worldwide to build new skills to address the challenges ahead.
“We’re making significant, long-term investments based on the belief that in-person executive education — done at the highest level — is more valuable than ever,” Cohen says. “I want Kellogg Executive Education to become the first call a Kellogg graduate, or any executive, makes when they’re thinking about how to develop their organization’s next generation of leaders.”