Leadership Accelerator

Your organization's future depends on the strength of its leadership.

Exceptional leaders don’t use strategy, finance, AI, and talent skills one at a time. They use them together. In seven monthly sessions, you’ll build that integrated capability alongside a cohort of cross-industry peers. In the end, you will apply your knowledge to a real challenge from your organization in a capstone presented to faculty.

Key Takeaways

• Integrate strategy, finance, AI, and talent leadership into sound executive decisions
• Evaluate financial health and capital investments to prioritize strategic initiatives
• Execute strategy past organizational barriers and lead change with confidence
• Solve a real business challenge through a capstone project presented to a faculty panel
• Build a trusted network of cross-industry executive peers

Credential: USF Leadership Accelerator Certificate

Who Should Attend

• • Senior managers expanding from functional expertise to enterprise-wide leadership
  • High-potential leaders preparing for broader responsibility and future executive roles
  • Functional executives strengthening their finance, strategy, and AI capabilities to lead across the organization
  • Leaders seeking sustained development who prefer a seven-month cohort experience over a single workshop
  • Organizations building their bench, nominating leaders as part of succession planning

Russell Clayton, Associate Academic Director of the USF Center for Executive and Leadership Education

Russell Clayton helps leaders make better decisions and bring out the best in their people. He is an associate professor of instruction in the School of Management and teaches MBA courses in managerial communication, organizational behavior, and emotional intelligence.

His insights have appeared in the Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review. A favorite among executive learners, Executive MBA students have twice named him Professor of the Year, and he received USF World’s Excellence in Global Teaching and Learning Award in 2026.

Clayton holds a PhD in business administration with a minor in psychology from the University of Mississippi and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Auburn University.

Jon Canger, Adjunct Professor, USF Muma College of Business

Jon Canger has spent his career building the leaders and organizations that execute strategy. He brings more than 40 years of experience in human capital, organizational effectiveness, leadership development, and succession planning at companies including Verizon, Motorola, The Coca-Cola Company, and Marriott International, where he held roles such as chief human resources executive and global head of talent management.

Today, as managing partner of Zennia Research, he helps entrepreneurial leaders build high-performing, scalable organizations. He also serves on the advisory board of the Nault Center for Entrepreneurship at the USF Muma College of Business and teaches in both the Muma College of Business and the USF Department of Psychology.

Canger earned his bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University and his master’s and PhD in industrial-organizational psychology from USF.

Dan Topf, Business Acumen Expert and Performance Improvement Consultant

Dan Topf makes finance make sense. Known for making the complexities of business accessible and understandable, he serves as a lead facilitator for business simulations and business acumen programs, helping leaders connect financial decisions to strategic results.

Organizations across industries trust his approach. His clients include Accenture, Caterpillar, Deere & Company, Microsoft, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Wells Fargo. Before consulting, he was a senior associate in leadership development at The Principal Financial Group and taught as adjunct faculty at Iowa State University and Drake University.

Topf holds the Certified Performance Technologist designation from the International Society for Performance Improvement, where he is a past chapter president. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Loras College and a master’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

This program gives you an integrated approach to leading at the executive level. Over seven months, you will connect strategic decision-making, finance, AI, execution, and talent leadership, then apply them to a real business challenge from your own organization.

You will develop the skills to:

• Make sound strategic decisions under uncertainty while recognizing cognitive bias
• Interpret balance sheets and cash flow to assess financial health
• Evaluate capital investments by risk, return, and strategic priority
• Use AI as a strategic thought partner to drive efficiency and innovation
• Execute strategy past organizational barriers and lead change with confidence
• Lead leaders through feedback, difficult conversations, and performance management
• Present an executive-level capstone solution to a faculty panel

PROGRAM DETAILS

• Dates: Seven Fridays, Dates TBD
• Time: 8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. ET each session
• Format: Hybrid cohort; Modules 1 and 7 in person at USF St. Petersburg, Modules 2–6 live online
• Contact hours: 28
• Investment: $3,995
  Bring a colleague free if you register by Dec. 31, 2026
• Credential: USF Leadership Accelerator Certificate of Completion

Certificate and Pathways

Participants will receive a USF Executive Education Certificate.

Logistics

Detailed program information, including the agenda, parking instructions, and recommended hotel accommodations, will be provided to registered participants prior to the program start date.

All cancellation and substitution requests must be submitted in writing.

Group Pricing and Custom Options

Contact the Center