Finance (BS)

[Music]

Text on screen: Webster Geneva Campus Faculty Spotlight

[Professor Judit Kozenkow sits in front of glass doors with a view of the trees on the Geneva campus.]

Text on screen: Judit Kozenkow, Head of the Business and Management Program

Kozenkow: Hello, my name is Dr. Judit Kozenkow. I'm the Head of Economics and Finance programs here at Geneva Campus of Webster. I have 15 years of work experience in parallel in public and private academia, and also in the business sector and at international organizations. I've worked at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and also at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research. Also, I worked in the business sector, in the financial sector, in strategic and risk management, and I've been still working in consulting at a global consulting firm on research projects linked to global trade trends and foresight.

On my academic side, I've been engaged with Webster since 2016 and before Webster, I did my PhD, completed my PhD in Economics at the Corvinus University of Budapest in Hungary with my research completed at the American University in Washington, D.C. I also completed a few fellowships including a fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C., and also in Geneva at The Graduate Institute. As for teaching, I've, as I mentioned, I've been engaged with Webster since 2016 and teaching core economic courses, including basic economic modeling, micro- and macroeconomics, international economics, managerial economics, value creation at undergraduate, graduate and also doctorate levels elsewhere. I also teach digital finance and would like to bring in some of these new areas also to Webster.

Text on screen: Why Webster Geneva Campus?

Webster Geneva Campus is a great and fantastic location for most of our, many of our programs, undergraduate and graduate programs. But I would like to focus obviously on economics and finance because in terms of economics, Geneva is a perfect spot when it comes to the business sector, engagement with the business sector and also engagement with the international organizations that are related to economics like the World Trade Organization. At my last course this semester, we visited with the students at the World Trade Organization to make the course, open-market experience and trade, a more hands-on experience for the students.

Also, for finance, obviously Switzerland is one of the most well-known and also one of the hotspots of finance and still the leading financial sectors are located in Switzerland. Around the world, Switzerland is well known for its financial sector, and it can be a very nice hands-on experience for students to visit banks, those traditional players, but also fintech companies, digital banks. We recently had a visit also to Swissquote, the digital bank, one of the biggest digital banks in Switzerland, and also to learn about those new, recent, very recent activities that are ongoing in the financial sector.

Text on screen: Why should I attend your classes?

The Economics program is really, really close to my heart because I have my PhD in Economics, and I've been working in using my economic knowledge and broadening that knowledge, it's since this 15 years or even earlier when back at my university studies. Also, my master's degree is in International Economics. I think and I believe that it is also very important for this campus that we are going to revitalize this economic program, make it very hands-on and applied experience for the for the students, organizing visits, but also inviting guest lecturers from the business sector, from International organizations. Also, from all other fields where startups are created and also people with great ideas, that they can also share their career experiences.

They can also share why economics is useful — and I believe this is really useful knowledge nowadays in this rushy, accelerated world when everything is very complex, everything is interconnected — economic skills and this economic thinking can give a very great base knowledge for other programs, as well, or to complement other programs really well. We also encourage students to take, if not major in Economics, but pair it with another major and take it as a minor, because it really can give those skills that are really useful for success in the 21st century.

Text on screen: Webster Geneva Campus