Master's in Finance
Quantitative Reasoning Skills to Succeed in Finance - Master's in Finance.
Leeds’ MS in Finance faculty teach you theories and 91ÃÛÌÒ¸ó that govern high-level processes, preparing you for management-level decision-making in any financial environment. You'll have the opportunity to choose from three specialized tracks to augment your skill set: Investment Management, Corporate Finance, and Sustainable Finance.Ìý
“I try to look for those things in the market that don’t have obvious explanations, and then I write a mathematical model that explains how market participants behave in the real world.â€
Brian Waters
Associate Professor | Faculty Director, MS in Finance
Program Details
- GMAT/GRE test scores optional.
- Automatic admission granted to currently enrolled CU undergraduate seniors with a Leeds major or minor who have a 3.0 GPA or higher.
- The 9-month program starts in August.
- Three tracks of specialization: Investment Management, Corporate Finance, and Sustainable Finance.
A Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) Manager is responsible for overseeing the financial planning, budgeting, and forecasting processes to support strategic decision-making within an organization. Their duties include analyzing financial performance, preparing reports and dashboards, and identifying trends or risks to provide actionable insights to senior leadership. FP&A Managers collaborate with various departments to ensure alignment with financial goals and drive business performance improvements. Strong leadership, analytical, and communication skills are essential for success in this role, as they play a critical part in shaping the company’s financial strategy and long-term growth.
Personal financial advisors assess the financial needs of individuals and help them with decisions on investments (such as stocks and bonds), tax laws, and insurance. Advisors help clients plan for short- and long-term goals, such as budgeting for education expenses and saving for retirement through investments.
Investment analysts research and analyse financial data to help guide investment decisions. Their work typically involves assessing the performance of stocks, bonds, commodities, and other investment vehicles, as well as monitoring market trends to identify opportunities or risks.
MS Finance Faculty
Meet our award-winning faculty, recognized for their innovative teaching approach and their cutting-edge research in top academic journals.
ÌýNathalie MoyenÌý
W.W. Reynolds Capital Markets Quasi Endowed Chair • Professor • Faculty Director of the Burridge Center for FinanceÌý
FINANCE
Nathalie Moyen is a Professor of Finance and the W.W. Reynolds Capital Markets Program Chair at the Leeds School of Business of the 91ÃÛÌÒ¸ó 91ÃÛÌÒ¸ó. One central goal of economics is the desire to maximize well-being. As a consequence, it is vital to allocate our scarce resources wisely. When our financial markets function well, they support the firms that can most efficiently transform those resources using technology-embedded capital assets and labor expertise into goods and services that our society values. To understand the role of finance in society, Nathalie studies firms' capital investment and production decisions and the extent to which these decisions depend on the way they are financed. Her research focuses on some of the most salient interactions between real and financial decisions, such as debt overhang, financial constraints, learning from cash flows, precautionary cash savings, and strategic positioning vis-Ã -vis rivals, among other topics.
Katie Moon
Assistant Professor
FINANCE
S. Katie Moon is an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Leeds School of Business, 91ÃÛÌÒ¸ó 91ÃÛÌÒ¸ó. She was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Tulane University’s Freeman School of Business and also a Visiting Scholar at the USC’s Marshall School of Business. Prior to becoming an academic, she worked for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as a Financial Economist. Her representative policy work at the SEC includes Pay Ratio Disclosure and Clawback Compensation Recovery Provision under the Dodd-Frank Act, and Emerging Growth Company under the JOBS Act.Ìý
Brian Waters
Associate Professor • Faculty Director of MS FinanceÌý
FINANCE
Brian Waters is an Associate Professor of Finance at the Leeds School of Business at the 91ÃÛÌÒ¸ó. He received a Ph.D. in Finance from the UCLA Anderson School of Management as well as a B.S. in Economics and a B.S. in Human and Organizational Development from Vanderbilt University. He studies information frictions in financial markets. Past research has examined optimal contracts for impact investing, the timing of bonus pay, biases in executive hiring, and price patterns in real estate markets. Other interests include price and borrowing constraints, trading in decentralized markets, and market microstructure.Ìý
Jaime F. Zender
William H. Baughn Fund Professor
FINANCE
Jaime F. Zender is a Professor of Finance and the Baughn Professor of Finance at the Leeds School of Business, 91ÃÛÌÒ¸ó 91ÃÛÌÒ¸ó. Professor Zender received his undergraduate degree in Economics and Mathematics at the 91ÃÛÌÒ¸ó 91ÃÛÌÒ¸ó, then his M.A., M.Phil., and PhD in Financial Economics at Yale University. He joined the Finance Division at Leeds in 2001, following appointments at the University of Arizona (1999-2001), University of Utah (1988-1999), and Visiting Faculty appointments at the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University (1998-99), and the John M. Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis (1991-92). Professor Zender was a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan and Carnegie Mellon University. He served as the Leeds Finance Division Chair from 2011 – 2017.

"In nine months, the Master’s Program in Finance at Leeds School of Business delivers an in-depth education based on the latest developments in the industry and a foundation of versatile skills. It also provides a gateway to leading professionals in finance, helping you make pivotal connections for the next step of your career."
~ Brian Waters
MS in Finance Faculty
MS News and Updates
Application Deadlines
Round 1:ÌýOctoberÌý6, 2025
Round 2:ÌýDecemberÌý1, 2025
Round 3:ÌýFebruaryÌý2, 2026
Final International Deadline:ÌýMarchÌý4, 2026
Final Domestic Deadline:ÌýAccepting applications until the cohort fills.
Program Start Date: July 2026









