At the University of Central Florida, the intersection of business and space is taking off. Greg Autry, UCF's associate provost for space commercialization and strategy, has spent more than two decades studying the commercial space industry. "I was a serial technology entrepreneur when I went and got my MBA at the University of California, Irvine," he explains. "I began to study the nascent commercial space industry as a context for entrepreneurship research back in 2002." His experience spans teaching at USC and Arizona State, contributing to U.S. space policy, and consulting with major space enterprises.
The UCF Space MBA is designed to equip scientists, engineers and professionals with the management skills necessary to lead complex programs. Autry notes, "All too often, these engineers and scientists suddenly (manage) a $1.2-billion NASA program, and they have no financial training. They don't know anything about accounting. They've never had a leadership class or a project management class." UCF's program provides a full professional MBA curriculum — marketing, finance, accounting and more — delivered online and asynchronously, to meet the needs of working space professionals worldwide. "We want an asynchronous, online solution ... but they're going to be studying marketing, finance and accounting in the context of space," Autry says.
Students gain unique experiential opportunities with top-tier guest speakers, including CEOs, NASA leaders and Space Force officials. "Our finance class is taught by someone who ran NASA's $26-billion budget for two of the last five years," he notes. Space law, policy and entrepreneurship courses draw on real-world cases, allowing students to tackle challenges faced by companies led by Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and others.
Reflecting on the broader impact, Autry says, "Outside of space, there's nothing I would recommend to a young engineer more than getting an MBA. Having those skills makes all the difference in the world." UCF's Space MBA cultivates leaders who can navigate both technical and managerial challenges, preparing graduates to excel in government, industry and beyond.