Columbia taps Matter Ventures co-founder Ford to head Sulzberger Leadership Program

Corey Ford, the co-founder of venture capital firm Matter, will join Columbia University as the new director of The Sulzberger Executive Leadership Program.

Ford, who taught at Stanford’s “d.school,” and is known for launching new media start-ups, will be responsible for implementing the program’s renewed executive leadership curriculum focused on empowering rising leaders in media and journalism to solve strategic challenges in a rapidly changing landscape.

“We’re excited to welcome Corey to lead this renewed effort for the school’s leading executive training program,” said Dean Steve Coll. “Those enrolled in the program will benefit from having an instructor and coach who brings a wealth of expertise on how to design, test, and launch products and business strategies quickly.”

As media organizations grow and change, rising executives and senior managers at these companies face an ever-present challenge that demands a nimble and diverse skillset. The revamped Sulzberger program helps those enrolled meet these challenges by using design-thinking processes and mastering core business concepts to determine a project’s feasibility, viability, and desirability.  The Sulzberger fellows will have an educational experience modeled after competitive MBA programs and will work on real-world media-specific problems without the strenuous time commitment required by traditional MBAs.

“I’m excited to lead the redesigned Sulzberger Program at Columbia Journalism School.  I know that through this work I will be able to continue to impact leaders within journalism,” said Corey Ford. “It ensures that the transformative experience that I offered at Matter not only has the opportunity to continue in a new form but also leverages the world-class community Columbia, Sulzberger alumni, and the NYC media ecosystem has to offer.”

Ford will partner with Raju Narisetti, director of the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in Economics and Business and professor of professional practice, as well as other faculty at Columbia School of Journalism in delivering the program.