Next fall, the Olin School of Business will open three new specialized master’s programs (SMPs) in Business of Sports, Wealth Management, and AI for Business. According to Professor of Finance and Vice Dean of Education, Todd Gormley, the programs are being created to meet the needs of employers and prospective students.

An SMP is a targeted and faster-paced program than a traditional MBA. Instead of a two-year MBA, students can choose to do an SMP, which is typically only one year. Two of the new programs, Wealth Management and AI for Business, are nine-month-long programs, and the Business of Sports program is 16 months, which includes a summer internship. 

“[SMPs] are designed for individuals with very clear areas where they want to upskill, which is different from the MBA, which focuses on leadership skills and provides exposure to all functional areas of business,” Gormley said.

Planning for the programs began in the summer of 2024, and they were approved by the University in summer 2025. Gormley wrote that while faculty led the program design process, industry partners informed the curriculum and skills taught in each program to prepare graduates for real-world business. 

“One shift we’ve heard clearly from students is a growing interest in shorter, more specialized programs that allow them to upskill in a specific area and move efficiently into the workforce,” Gormley wrote. “That includes recent undergraduates who want to strengthen their credentials to land their first job, as well as working professionals who want to pivot or uplevel their careers without committing to a traditional two-year program.”

This Olin expansion is occurring during a time of layoffs and budget cuts across the University and a goal of operating at a $7.4 million deficit for the 2026 fiscal year.  

Durai Sundaramoorthi, professor of practice in data analytics, said that despite this constraint, Olin will continue to advance education. 

“Even during times of constrained resources, it’s critical not to lose momentum in areas that are shaping the future of business education,” Sundaramoorthi said. “That commitment to forward-looking programs is one of the reasons Olin continues to stand out as a leading business school.”

Sundaramoorthi worked closely with a task force of Olin faculty to develop the AI for Business program. 

“Because the degree can be completed in two semesters, it’s an excellent opportunity for seniors and recent graduates to gain in-demand AI skills quickly, as well as for experienced professionals who want to upskill and stay competitive in the job market,” Sundaramoorthi said.

Research and consulting with alumni and industry professionals from organizations including Alibaba, Amazon, Bayer, Schnucks, Syngenta, and Wells Fargo Advisors influenced the decision to make an AI-specific program, Sundaramoorthi said. 

“AI is rapidly reshaping how businesses operate and how jobs are performed,” Sundaramoorthi said. “Today, organizations are looking for graduates who can actually use AI in their day-to-day work — not just understand it conceptually.” 

For the wealth management SMP programs, Olin faculty worked closely with employers to ensure the curriculum covered materials sought in potential future hires, Director of the Corporate Finance and Investments Platform, Timothy Solberg, said. 

“I went out and met with major employers — Edward Jones, Wells Fargo Advisors, Moneta Investment Group, Stifel — and many smaller firms to find out what they were looking for in a WashU grad, and what was important to them,” Solberg said.

The Wealth Management SMP is a redesigned version of the three-semester Wealth and Asset Management Master’s. 

“We took out the heavy technology, the STEM orientation, after consulting with a lot of the employers in the area in the wealth management industry,” Solberg said. “They didn’t need as much technology as they needed direct training in investment management and in understanding investment policy, taxation, and estate planning.”

Major wealth management firms told Solberg that they wanted employees with “behavioral finance” skills to understand why people are making investment decisions.

“The Baby Boom generation is at the point of estate planning and passing on a lot of assets. Up to $14 trillion of wealth in the next five years will be going to children and grandchildren or to philanthropic ventures,” Solberg said. “The wealth advisory firms are very keen on keeping tabs on this money and managing it where appropriate across generations, and so the behavior of the investors is very important.”

While the program’s first class of students has not been formalized, Solberg thinks that the program will attract three main types of people: students who graduated without a degree in business or economics who will have to complete basic prerequisites before entering the wealth management program, students with a business degree, and people who have already worked in the field but want a higher level of understanding.

Director of the Business of Sports Program, Patrick Rishe, worked with other faculty as well as alumni working in sports business to develop the curriculum for the SMP. The new program will combine elements of the current Business of Sports undergraduate minor with new specialized courses.

“We had built this wonderful undergraduate program where we knew we had something special, and so we were fairly confident that if we expanded to the graduate level, we would be able to recruit students and place these students,” Rishe said. 

The Business of Sports program consists of 39 credits of preexisting undergraduate and graduate Olin classes as well as four new classes: Sales Strategies in Sports, Business of Sports Media, Business of Women’s Sports, and Business of Sports Gambling. 

“We will be the only school in America, to my knowledge, that will be offering both a business of women in sports class and a business of sports gambling class,” Rishe said.

Jamie Weinstein, sports sales consultant and former SVP of ticketing/service for the Milwaukee Bucks, and a WashU women’s softball alum, will teach the Sales Strategies in Sports course in the new program

“I’m incredibly excited to return to my alma mater to teach sales strategy — especially in the first year of the graduate program. As a former student-athlete and someone who built a career in sports after earning a graduate degree in sports management, this feels like a full-circle opportunity,” Weinstein said.

Rishe said that the target cohort size for the inaugural class of the Business of Sports program is 15 to 20 students and that, ideally, the program will be self-financing. So far, the program has recruited both students with business knowledge and students with none at all, Rishe said.

However, due to the similarity between Olin undergraduate classes and the SMPs, it is doubtful that current Olin students will be a part of the Business of Sports program, Rishe said. 

“We intentionally wanted this to be a national program, and our recruiting efforts reflect that,” Rishe said. 

Faith Fehrman, a current senior at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin, will be joining the Business of Sports Master’s program in August 2026. 

“Ultimately, I joined this inaugural class because of WashU’s extensive professional network and deep-rooted connections in the sports industry,” Fehrman said. “The faculty’s commitment to helping students cultivate these relationships has made my career aspirations feel truly attainable.”

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article stated that Jamie Weinstein is the vice president of membership and premium service at the Miami Dolphins. That was a former title. The accurate title is sports sales consultant and former SVP of ticketing/service for the Milwaukee Bucks.