Kyle Geron reflected on how much work went into receiving a Master’s degree from the Global Energy Management (GEM) Program at the graduation ceremony on Jan. 19. “We’ve spend a lot of time in this program,” he said. “Earning a Master’s degree is not just about gaining knowledge, but also teaching ourselves how to think.” Geron estimated that he and his fellow classmates completed 324 discussion posts, 240 hours of classroom lectures, 162 hours of online lectures, and 108 hours of online group meetings to finish the required 12 graduate courses.  Read more

DENVER – Forbes has ranked a Master’s degree in Information Systems (IS) as the best option for job opportunities. In their annual ranking of the top ten Master’s degrees for jobs, the publication listed IS at the top, citing mid-career median pay of over $100,000 and ten-year growth in jobs of 30%. Forbes quotes Katie Bardaro, lead economist at Payscale, saying “people with a master’s in information systems are generally trained to be managers for IT workers… therefore, when you combine management with a growing industry you experience top pay and employment prospects.”  Read more

PIMCO executive a featured guest of CU Denver’s J.P. Morgan Center for Commodities DENVER – When world stock markets plunged on Black Monday in October 1987, one asset class held remarkably steady. “If you looked at the markets and economy through the eyes of the commodity index, people kept drinking their coffee, eating their Wheaties,” Robert Greer, executive vice president and manager of Real Return Products at PIMCO, told a large CU Denver Business School audience at a lunchtime discussion on Jan.  Read more

Colorado added 2,200 payroll jobs in December from the previous month, while the state’s unemployment rate fell for the fifth consecutive month, to 6.2 percent, the lowest level in six years, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employmentreported Tuesday. But the decline in the jobless rate was due more to a drop in the state’s labor force than job gains, the CDLE estimated.  Read more

Fowke delivers an energy outlook at CU Denver’s Global Energy Management program’s CEO Briefing DENVER – Xcel Energy is on track to reduce its carbon emissions by almost 35 percent by 2020 and continues progressive approaches to meeting environmental challenges, customer needs and the demands of today’s two-way energy system, CEO Ben Fowke said at CU Denver.  Read more

Thoughtful plan and snappy presentation impress judges DENVER – Florida State University may have won the NCAA BCS National Football Championship but the school’s veteran student organization had to settle for second best against the University of Colorado Denver— CU Denver took top honors at the 2nd Annual Chapter Business Plan Competition at the Student Veterans of America’s National Conference.  Read more

Global Energy Management hosts robust discussions that drill into one of state’s key industries DENVER – Water recycling remains relatively uncommon in oil fields — less than 10 percent of water used in hydraulic fracturing is recycled — but the practice is gaining momentum as technology and infrastructure evolves. A wide range of energy experts from the academic, business and government worlds met for a robust three-hour discussion about the water-energy nexus on Jan.  Read more