EMBA Helps Smeal Alum Achieve Success

After being laid off from his job, Tony Pagano decided to invest in his education. Five years later, he had earned his EMBA from the Smeal College of Business at Penn State and founded his own company. Pagano is the founder and CEO of StrataScape Technologies, a next-generation IT service and support firm that is focused on advising, selling and supporting both managed IT services and cloud computing platforms for small and mid-sized companies.

Pagano decided on Smeal because of its diverse student body, experienced faculty and the recognition of a Penn State University degree. “The class was very diverse and spread out with experiences,” Pagano said. “The professors were another big deciding factor. I was so impressed with their knowledge and experiences. The third and maybe the biggest piece, was Penn State’s big networking dimension.”

Pagano accredits the success of his business to what he learned during the EMBA program at Smeal. Revenue for the company in the first quarter is up 275 percent from a year ago. In the next few weeks, the company will also receive word on its first deal of more than a million dollars. “I used that program to essentially jumpstart my business. It was a huge, huge benefit,” he said.

The Smeal EMBA program admits begins in August and spans 21 months of study. The program has four segments and includes two residency weeks at University Park and a Global Immersion Week. Classes for the program are held on alternating weekends and  from 1:30 p.m. until 5:45 p.m. on Fridays and from 8:00 a.m. until 5:15 p.m. on Saturdays.

regions: Philadelphia

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