Years before Cansu Akkol got the chance to work with Google, her finance professors recognized her talent. With their coaching, Akkol went on to build an international career in pricing across different sectors and countries — Turkey, Canada, Ireland and now the United Arab Emirates, where she is pricing principal at Google Cloud.
Pornsit “P.J.” Jiraporn, professor of finance, says his work as a researcher is like being an intellectual explorer, going where no one has gone before and creating new knowledge. He specializes in corporate finance and governance, corporate social responsibility, dividend policy and more. His work has been cited by other scholars more than 13,000 times, and he was named to a top-cited researcher list compiled and updated by a team of researchers at Stanford University.
Graduate students attended the Global Careers Institute on Sept. 27 and 28, co-hosted by Penn State Global and Penn State Great Valley. At this professional development event, prominent Penn State alumni shared about their work experience in various countries and networked with students to help them prepare for success in the global marketplace.
Twelve students from six states came together at Penn State Great Valley for a one-week residency for the campus’ online master of finance program offered through Penn State World Campus from March 29 to April 3.
When Akhatay discovered Penn State Great Valley’s Master of Finance – Financial Data Analytics option, he realized he’d found the perfect fit for his undergraduate engineering background and his new ambitions to begin a career in the business world.
The ceremony recognized graduates from the 2021-22 academic years as well as from 2019-20, when graduates were unable to have an in-person commencement.
At this year's convocation celebration, Great Valley honored Minyoung Cheong, assistant professor of management and organization; Richard Wall, adjunct instructor in the management division; Youakim Badr, associate professor of data analytics; and Ashkan Negahban, assistant professor of engineering management for their work and dedication to the campus.
The Financial Data Analytics option dives into big data and analytical problems in the finance world and culminates in a capstone course that immerses students in case analyses of real-world financial analytics problems.
