Mick Cornett

Executive MBA 2011

On any given day, Mick Cornett works on a variety of different initiatives. As Mayor of Oklahoma City, he works to provide direction and vision to the nation’s 29th largest city with over 4,300 employees. He is also an executive vice president at advertising agency Ackerman McQueen, where he is involved in emerging forms of communication technology. With such a wide range of responsibilities, and wanting to be prepared for future professional endeavors, Mick believes he will benefit from a better understanding of all aspects of business management.

To fill this need, Mick enrolled in the NYU Stern Executive MBA program and says he immediately saw the benefits. “Each of the classes has had a direct, sometimes immediate, impact on my day-to-day ability to interact and make decisions,” he says. One of the most important goals Mick has for his administration is to create jobs through partnerships with both private and public companies. Professor Bruce Buchannan’s course on professional responsibility provided Mick with insight into the many different factors that shape business decisions and the resulting, often inevitable, ethical issues that emerge. Mick is gaining an understanding of the business perspectives of job growth and entrepreneurship that he can take back to the citizens of Oklahoma City. “The course content is both rich and relevant,” he says.

In making the decision to travel to New York City to pursue the Executive MBA program, Mick knew that, in between class weekends, he would need to interact with fellow students and staff from a distance. “I feel connected. The faculty and staff are extremely professional and do an excellent job of running the program. The high level of communication and support is impressive. I could not be more pleased with my decision to attend Stern.”