Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) Program

Inspire transformational change
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Customized design for your success

The CHRO Program is designed with the needs of busy executives in mind. You will learn through online sessions, including fireside chats and guest lectures from leading researchers and global industry leaders. The flexible format of the CHRO Program allows you to customize your learning journey for maximum career and business impact.

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Flexible

The self-paced modules provide the flexibility to accommodate learning between your busy work schedule. The program can be completed in 9 to 12 months as your schedule and program selections demand.

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Interactive

A community learning experience with a limited cohort size facilitates weekly interactive discussions with peers, program coaches, faculty, industry speakers, and career advisors — allowing you to implement program learnings to real-world scenarios.

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Transformative

The multimodular learning journey experience, including the capstone project, allows you to learn and grow as an executive while enabling you to develop impactful HR strategies to improve your personal and organizational goals.

“Rapid changes in the field of human resources have placed greater expectations on the shoulders of HR leaders. Senior professionals are now expected to be involved in strategizing and developing unique ways to aid the organization’s innovation goals, create a high-performing work environment, and even provide guidance to the executive leadership team. We are delighted to offer this comprehensive program to help HR leaders sharpen their people management skills and create impactful outcomes in their organizations.”
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Matthew Bidwell
Academic Director for the CHRO Program, Wharton Executive Education; Xingmei Zhang and Yongge Dai Professor; Professor of Management, The Wharton School

What you will learn in the CHRO Program

The multimodular program will enable you to:

  • Investigate the application of human resources strategies to organizational approaches

  • Survey an organization’s human and social capital for competitive advantage

  • Relate talent approaches to succession planning and strategic workforce management with internal development and external hiring

  • Explore approaches for career development, hiring processes, and diversity

  • Consider effective principles and practices of leadership

  • Examine aspects of change management

Program highlights

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Customize your learning journey with a choice of electives in topics aligned with your career goals.

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Learn at your own pace with a weekly commitment of three to five hours of sessions and activities.

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Glean insights from renowned faculty and industry experts who are at the cutting edge of innovation.

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Network with accomplished peers from around the globe and gain new approaches to leadership.

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Engage with your success coach to craft your learning journey through regular check-in sessions.

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Benefit from experiential sessions combining theory with real-world case studies and apply learnings.

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Meet multiple cohort peers, industry experts, and faculty during two days of on-campus networking.

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Following successful completion of the program and subsequent open-enrollment programs, subject to further qualification criteria and additional tuition, you have a pathway to apply for Wharton alumni status.

Curriculum

The CHRO Program will enable forward-thinking executives like you to learn from a cutting-edge curriculum that reflects current industry trends. The program is organized into two components — 18 weeks of core modules followed by three online electives of six weeks each.

Capstone project

The capstone project provides a deeper dive into all that you have learned during the program. While leveraging concepts studied throughout the journey, it provides additional engagement with faculty and peers as well as an opportunity for further reflection on the challenges and opportunities you face. As part of the capstone project, you will apply program insights to an HR initiative and prepare an action plan for implementation while being guided by a learning facilitator.

Who is it for?

The CHRO Program is ideal for:

  • Chief HR officers or chief people officers who offer counsel to senior leadership or the board of directors

  • Senior HR leaders across talent, people management, compensation, employee engagement, performance, and operations who are steeped in the complexities of the HR functions

Program eligibility criteria include:

  • A minimum of 10 years of work experience

  • International exposure (preferred)

  • Fluency in written and spoken English

Hear from our participants

The coursework and cohort sessions with the concepts, new terminology, case studies were aligned with my work life. Since receiving my certificate, I have now advanced into a new position and implemen...
Aisha Blackwell
Aisha Blackwell
Interim Chief People & Operations Officer at Young Community Developers, San Francisco, CA
The CHRO Program's comprehensive curriculum and renowned faculty immediately enhanced my HR leadership skills and gave me the confidence to implement innovative and impactful HR strategies in my organ...
Sinan
Sinan Eliguel
Global CHRO & Chief Compliance Officer at Fissler Group
What I really liked is that it has a very tangible and clear curriculum. You can explore things in bite-sized pieces and build on them and see the whole picture as the weeks unfold. It's definitely th...
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Stephanie Pittman
CHRO at Excelitas Technologies Corp
The electives were really what drove me to want to do this, because I wanted to grow into a bigger role, but I didn’t know how to do that. The program has clearly shown me where I need to hone my skil...
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Lori Almeida
Global Chief Talent Officer at Siegel+Gale
If you want to become the head of HR, the CHRO Program gives you practical insights and the tools to be able to function more effectively. The curriculum is spot on for the work that we do as HR profe...
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Todd Connelly
Head of HR at Valley Presbyterian Hospital
The curriculum is a great blend of the business and the HR functional aspects of the CHRO role. Having an expanded network of colleagues that span the globe with whom I can discuss ideas and from whom...
Matt
Matt Wilson
Vice President, HR at Biolase
The CHRO Program is a great opportunity for HR executives who want to advance to a CHRO role and people like me who may be on the business side but do a lot of HR work. You’ll learn tactical tools, wh...
Magdalena
Magdalena Milne
Senior Director, Training Operations and Deployment at KPMG
The CHRO Program provides an excellent opportunity to those looking to expand their knowledge of strategic human resources and leadership. It gave me access to industry leaders and Wharton professors....
Andrew
Andrew Blair
Vice President, HR at ElectraMeccanica
Professor Matthew Bidwell has a unique and simple method of delivering messages and explaining topics. The richness of the information I’ve gathered is such that I have already begun to implement it i...
Rabah
Rabah Bu Hamdan
Group CHRO at National Aviation Services (NAS)
You are not born with a growth mindset; you need to develop it. The CHRO Program is a great way to train your brain and develop your growth mindset. The elective Future of Work gave me a perspective o...
Julia
Julia Pylypenko
HR Director at Raiffeisen Bank

Meet the faculty

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Matthew Bidwell, PhD

Academic Director for the CHRO Program, Wharton Executive Education; Xingmei Zhang and Yongge Dai Professor; Professor of Management, The Wharton School

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John Paul Macduffie, PhD

Professor of Management, The Wharton School

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Andrew Carton, PhD

Associate Professor of Management, The Wharton School

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Nicolaj Siggelkow, PhD

Professor of Management, Co-Director of the Mack Institute for Innovation Management, The Wharton School

Past speakers

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Suzy Walther

Former Global Head of Talent at Bloomberg LP

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Libby Sartain

Former CHRO, Yahoo! Inc and Southwest Airlines

Meet your success coaches

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Allison Wright

Success Coach

Allison Wright is an expert in talent management and organizational design and development. She is an experienced International Coaching Federation-certified coach. Over 20 ye...

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Mark Schumann

Success Coach

Mark Schumann helps business leaders around the world strengthen how they inspire people to create organizational cultures that can make a difference within and beyond the pla...

Pathway to Wharton alumni status

For more than 135 years, Wharton has been the place where visionaries, inventors, and trailblazers get their start. After completing the CHRO Program and subsequent open-enrollment programs, subject to further qualification criteria and additional tuition, you have a pathway to apply for Wharton alumni status.

Executives who successfully complete the CHRO Program have the option of applying to the General Management Program (GMP). The GMP provides further opportunity to enhance your leadership skills and business acumen with a flexible curriculum. The CHRO Program provides one credit towards the six required to complete the GMP and earn alumni status. More details on the GMP is available at Wharton Executive Education.

Upon qualifying for Wharton alumni status, you will be eligible to receive:

  • Full access to become a member of 77+ Wharton alumni clubs

  • Invitation to attend future Wharton global alumni forums

  • A Wharton email address

Certificate

Certificate

Earn a Wharton Executive Education digital certificate upon successful completion of the program. Alumni of the program get exclusive access to a wide range of professionals, events, and networking opportunities. Furthermore, you can also benefit from additional tuition assistance upon enrolling in further online programs from Wharton Executive Education.

Note: After successful completion of the program, your verified digital certificate will be emailed to you in the name you used when registering for the program. All certificate images are for illustrative purposes only and may be subject to change at the discretion of the Wharton School.

Please also note that participation in the Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) Program (a) will not result in a degree from, alumni status with, or earned credit at the University of Pennsylvania or the Wharton School (or, to Wharton’s knowledge, any other institution), (b) will not be recorded on a University of Pennsylvania or Wharton transcript, and (c) does not guarantee or suggest that a participant will be admitted to the University of Pennsylvania, the Wharton School, or to any other university or institution.

FAQs

Connect with a Learning Advisor for a 1:1 Session

Email: wharton_chro@emeritus.org
Phone: +1 567 587 1541 (U.S.) / +44 1313 812895 (U.K.) / +971 80 00321209 (U.A.E.) / +52 55930 20507 (LATAM)

Early registrations are encouraged. Seats fill up quickly!

Flexible payment options available.

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