CORPORATE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

A balance of core courses by academics and job-oriented courses offered by practitioners helps prepare HEC Paris’ students to face the challenges of the financial management careers :

• Producing, understanding and analyzing the financial information disclosed by organizations;
• Defining, measuring and controlling corporate performance and its key success factors;
• Contributing to controlling risks and securing corporate governance;
• Accompanying the development of companies of all sizes by carrying out operations, such as acquisitions and international expansion.

The program is built on three corner stones, Accounting, Finance and Management. In addition to providing a sound grounding in accounting techniques (advanced financial accounting, group financial reporting, IFRS, auditing, ...), courses and conferences offer a rich and highly varied content on corporate finance (financial analysis, valuation & transactions, short-term finance, investors relations,…) and management/consulting (strategic consulting, business performance, strategic management accounting, project management, …). The French DSCG track additionally comprises specific courses in IS/IT management,  law and taxation.

The scope of the program is being driven by the evolving and increasingly rich nature of finance, accounting, audit and consulting careers. Finance directors have seen the scope of their role extend in recent years, at the service of corporate value creation. This evolution requires future financial management professionals to acquire a broad awareness of management, along with a sound technical foundation.

Beyond Finance positions, the program can provide HEC students with an in-depth understanding of financial management issues that will make a difference in their first placements or professional experience.

Finally, Corporate financial management (IFAC) major offers the students a real international experience on campus; diversity in profiles and backgrounds is promoted and each class is designed as a small class of team players coming from many different countries. The human scale of the program allows students to have easy access and enhanced exchanges with their professors, who consider them as junior professionals, and allows the whole group to move forward together.

The Corporate Financial Management specialization opens access to two high-level vocational certifications:

• The CMA (Certified Management Accountants) is a professional certification issued by the IMA (Institute of Management Accountant). In order to become an IMA member and earn the CMA, two exams can be taken in May-June (Part I Exam = Financial Reporting, Planning, Performance & Control; Part II Exam = Financial Decision Making)
• The DSCG (Diplôme Supérieur de Comptabilité et de Gestion) track offers the possibility to complete advantageous waivers (equivalent units) for the French DSCG, the second step towards the DEC (Diplôme d’Expertise Comptable) –French CPA. Students in this track follow courses In addition to the core courses, mostly in IT-IS Management, Law, French taxation, Advanced group reporting and Accounting for M&A.

This specialization is also characterized by its many partnerships, and rich relationships with the professional world; it can notably count on the support of the following companies: EY, PwC; Deloitte, KPMG, Mazars, McKinsey, Saint-Gobain, Edenred, Euler Hermes, Kepler Chevreux, Finharmony, BNP Paribas, etc. The participation of a large number of professionals and external speakers, and visits to facilities are just some of the activities designed to bring teaching as close as possible to the real working environment.