As Melanie McCreath, EMBA '25, considered the next steps in her career, she felt an Executive MBA would provide her with the type of big-picture strategic thinking and skills she would need to lead with purpose and effect change.

“Modern life and leadership today require range; the ability to think in a non-linear fashion and to reflect on how you interact with, encourage, and inspire others,” says McCreath, who works in business development at Colliers Project Leaders.

“The program forces a lot of introspection, which I found invaluable.

It encourages you to think about who you are, how you want to show up in the world, and how you want to lead moving forward.”

The EMBA provided solid tools and a network she can lean into when looking to creatively solve problems and the ability to “pull seemingly disparate ideas together into new ways forward,” says McCreath, who changed roles and industry during the program.

“The EMBA gave me the confidence and the tools available to succeed in almost any sector.”

She credits the structure of the program’s curriculum and the way the faculty prepared for and managed classes – as well as participation requirements for program participants to actively speak up – with emboldening her to voice ideas and take on new challenges.

“If you looked around the room at the other 58 people in the class when we started the program, you’d see a marked difference between the level of confidence and professionalism for the cohort as a whole from the beginning to the end of the program,” she says.

For anyone out-of-province who is considering an Ivey EMBA, McCreath, who lives in Manitoba, says the need to travel to Ontario on a monthly basis shouldn’t be considered a barrier – in fact, it can be an advantage.

“As a student, when you travel to classes in London or Toronto, the EMBA is your only focus. You’re not balancing it with the demands of home or family life. For a condensed block of time, you can focus solely on the program. The rest of the program is virtual and easily integrated with your life back home.”

Being part of the EMBA flight crew “forces you to be very judicious about how you spend your time and to find windows of productivity whenever you can,” she says. “I wrote a lot of papers on the plane and in airport lounges.”

“But, more importantly, I was able to move outside of my provincial bubble and bring back new and bold ideas, which is invaluable not just for me, but for the community as a whole,” she says.

McCreath says the team at Ivey was encouraging when she explored the possibility of embarking on an EMBA with a young family and pointed her to several resources and alumni who could provide advice and share their experiences.

“I have three daughters, and I wanted to show them that, at any age or stage that they are at, they can reach for their dreams and do the thing that they've always wanted to do.

“It wasn’t easy, and I have a lot of people to thank, but it was so very worth it.”