West Palm Beach, Florida MBA Programs and Business Schools

How can an MBA in West Palm Beach help your career? In 2007, Palm Beach County was the sole Florida county and one of just 44 counties nationwide to earn a triple-A rating from Fitch, thanks to its diverse business sector and sound financials. Moody's and Standard & Poor's also rated the county triple-A. The county seat, West Palm Beach, is a key business center and home to the county's largest manufacturing employer, sugar producer Florida Crystals. West Palm Beach is also an aerospace engineering hub, thanks to the presence of General Dynamics, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and Sikorsky Aircraft.

Communications and media are two other key West Palm Beach business sectors, as AT&T employs more than 1,000 people locally. The city is also headquarters to Palm Beach Newspapers. Ocwen Financial, PNC, and TD Bank are also significant employers making West Palm Beach a financial hub for the area. In addition to the sterling scores from the major rating agencies, noted economic theorist Richard Florida named South Florida one of the 10 "mega-regions of the future," calling out its impressive $428 billion economy and pointing to tourism as a robust South Florida industry; in fact, the city of West Palm Beach, established in 1894, bills itself as "America's First Resort Destination."

Growing Management Jobs in West Palm Beach: Hospitality, Finance, Advanced Manufacturing, Global Business

Students looking to enter the tourism industry in an executive capacity might consider West Palm Beach MBA programs offering a concentration in hospitality and tourism. In a top-level management role, graduates of West Palm Beach business schools might work to balance innovation with the preservation of the city's historic destinations; for example, the city's Hotel Biba has historic landmark status but its cutting-edge design has won it accolades from Travel and Leisure. General and operations managers in West Palm Beach earned a 2010 mean annual wage of $117,930, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (bls.gov), while advertising and promotions managers earned a mean $108,080 and marketing managers earned $98,920.

Those more interested in entering the area's financial sector might attend one of the MBA programs with a concentration in finance; the bls.gov reports West Palm Beach-area financial managers earned a 2010 mean annual wage of $114,580. Graduates of West Palm Beach business schools who studied industrial management could also be well-positioned to assume a leadership role at one of the city's manufacturing companies. Richard Florida noted that another of the region's strengths is its role as a gateway to Central and South America, so MBA students eager to join the West Palm Beach workforce might also be wise to consider a concentration in global management.

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Additional Resources for West Palm Beach, Florida
Bureau of Labor Statistics' Data for West Palm Beach
City of West Palm Beach Website