Steven Carvell is a professor at the School of Hotel Administration, where he has taught finance courses since 1986. Carvell’s research is directed toward new approaches to hotel valuation and investment decisions. Recent projects have focused on adjusted present value analysis and the valuation of sequential real options within a hotel valuation framework; the valuation of exotic reservation options in hotels; and determining optimal brand standards for hotel companies. Carvell recently finished a major project designed to identify the determinants of hotel demand in the U.S. He is also involved with evaluating the effectiveness of hotel company business strategies, using strategic benchmarking and economic value added analysis. Carvell is the co-author of In the Shadows of Wall Street (Prentice-Hall, Inc. Paul Strebel and Steven Carvell, 1988). He has published ten articles in academic and professional journals including the Financial Analysts Journal and the Harvard Business Review. His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, Institutional Investor, and Financial World. Carvell has worked for professional money managers in applied strategy in the equity market and served as a consultant to the Presidential Commission on the 1987 stock market crash. He specializes in new approaches to valuation and risk analysis in feasibility studies, hotel debt capacity models, strategic benchmarking, and economic value added analysis. Professor Carvell has conducted numerous specialized Executive Education seminars for some of the largest hotel companies in the world. Carvell holds a Ph.D. from the State University of New York, Binghamton.
Overview and Courses
Speaking and understanding the language of finance are essential skills for leaders and managers throughout an organization; smart business decisions rest on this fundamental knowledge. Without a clear understanding of financial analysis and management, you lack credibility with finance managers and business leaders.
This certificate in financial management consists of courses that demystify financial terminology and concepts, giving you the tools you need to communicate fluently with finance managers and articulate business investment and project proposals to decision makers. Upon completion of the financial management program, you will have a solid foundation in finance that will serve you throughout your career.
Participants in this certificate need one of the following financial calculators to complete four of the required courses: Hewlett-Packard 12C or Texas Instruments BA II Plus. Both are available for purchase directly from Amazon.com. While waiting for the physical calculator to arrive, you may wish to try this online emulator of the HP 12C.
Managing a business means managing its financial resources, regardless of your job title. Your ability to make smart decisions about projects relies on your understanding of timelines and cash-flow calculations to track cash flow and payments, the value of securities and investments, and how to determine overall cost effectiveness. To do this, you need a good working knowledge of a number of financial concepts.
This course introduces you to those concepts and shows you how to perform important calculations using financial calculators and popular spreadsheet applications. You'll develop an intuitive understanding of the concepts and have a chance to practice applying the tools. You will come away with the tools to ensure that your company has the best possible chance of project success through managing its financial resources wisely.
* Participants in this course need one of the two financial calculators below.
- Hewlett-Packard 12C, or
- Texas Instruments BA II Plus
Both calculators are available at most office supply stores and from a variety of online sources. There is also a Texas Instruments BA II Plus app for iPhone and iPad , which meets the calculator requirement for this course.
The key to financial success for any business is choosing the right projects to pursue at the right time, for the right price and with the right financing structure. Your role as a manager includes participating in decisions about which projects make sense for the company and are likely to return a profit.
To do so, there are six concepts you need to understand: net present value, internal rate of return, payback period, discounted payback period, profitability index, and equivalent annual cost. Non-financial managers need to be conversant in how each of these concepts work to be able to offer valuable insight and expertise.
Working through the examples in this course using both a financial calculator and popular spreadsheet applications will help you practice applying the tools and strategies, and will set you up to make project decisions that lead to growth and profitability.
* Participants in this course need one of the two financial calculators below.
- Hewlett-Packard 12C, or
- Texas Instruments BA II Plus
Both calculators are available at most office supply stores and from a variety of online sources. There is also a Texas Instruments BA II Plus app for iPhone and iPad , which meets the calculator requirement for this course.
The course Mastering the Time Value of Money is required to be completed prior to starting this course.Your work in this course will include learning how to calculate the hurdle rate, which is the minimum value a project must return, and then how to forecast the expected return. You will get to know the different asset classes and how to think about them in terms of the associated risks.
The tools from this course will help you measure risk and calculate the weighted average of the required returns as a way to ensure that your company chooses the right capital projects.
Your new project not only needs funding—it needs the right type of funding. You need to know how to choose between debt and equity funding, and when to consider acquiring funds from capital markets. These outside funding sources will have their own expectations for rates of return, and the cost of this funding is driven by a number of external factors such as the state of the economy and the industry.
Making sound capital budgeting and funding decisions is a vital part of your role as a manager, and this course shows you how characteristics of capital markets impact the process and prospects of raising capital. Learn how to observe external economic data, tips for developing strategies to balance debt and equity at your firm, and how decisions regarding corporate restructuring, mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcy are made.
These concepts, when put into action, will help ensure that you are maximizing the value of your firm using the correct balance of debt and equity.
The course Risk and Return: How to Identify, Measure, and Incorporate Into Capital Budgeting Decisions is required to be completed prior to starting this course.
Every property’s finance function keeps detailed records of the daily transactions involved in the running the organization. Periodically, they create reports that allow management, stakeholders and regulating authorities to have insight into the financial health of the organization. As a manager, you need to understand both the metrics that are reported in income statement, balance sheets, and cash flow statements, and how they relate to each other. You also need to understand how comparing numbers across your company, the industry, and from year to year, can help you assess the overall financial performance of the firm.
The in-depth review of sample case studies in this course will provide you with the tools you need to examine your own property’s reports. As you make budgeting and investment decisions, your knowledge of how vital financial markers indicate relative health in the organization will help drive initiatives to meet your company’s financial goals.
A company’s financial performance, and its ability to grow and thrive over time, can be assessed through ratio analysis, the basic evaluation tool for asset management, solvency and profitability. Whether you are managing the financial performance of a department, unit, or the organization as a whole, working with these ratios can help identify opportunities and allow you to make adjustments to improve performance.
As you become familiar with asset management ratios such as days sales outstanding and days to turnover, you will be able to apply these techniques in comparing your company’s performance against others in the industry and against its own financial history. The ratio analysis tools you learn will help your organization to design and implement initiatives for increased productivity and profitability.
The course Understanding Financial Statements is required to be completed prior to starting this course.
How It Works
Faculty Authors
Scott Gibson is the J.E. Zollinger Professor of Finance at the College of William and Mary Mason School of Business. His current research interests include optimal financing strategies for hospitality firms and the effect of institutional investor trading behavior on securities prices. His research has appeared in hospitality-focused journals including the Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, Journal of Hospitality Financial Management, the Cornell Hospitality Report and top finance journals including the Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Financial Intermediation, International Review of Finance, Journal of Portfolio Management, and Journal of Financial Services Research.
His research has also been featured widely in the financial press, including articles in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, Barron’s, Business Week, Bloomberg, Financial Advisor, and Institutional Investor.
Before returning to his alma mater Boston College where he received a Ph.D. in Finance, Professor Gibson worked as an analyst with Fidelity Investments and as a credit team leader serving a Fortune 500 clientele with HSBC Bank. Lecturing about corporate finance and the creation of shareholder value, he has received numerous teaching awards at the undergraduate, graduate, and executive levels. He has also been named as an outstanding faculty member in Business Week’s Guide to the Best Business Schools. Professor Gibson currently serves as an editorial board member of the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly (CQ).
- Interpret financial information
- Apply common financial analysis frameworks in evaluating new projects
- Consider risk and return in capital budgeting
- Analyze the debt-equity ratio in capital structuring decisions
- Effectively communicate operational and financial strategies

Download a Brochure
Not ready to enroll but want to learn more? Download the certificate brochure to review program details.
- Financial Management Certificate from Cornell SC Johnson College of Business
- 48 Professional Development Hours (4.8 CEUs)
- 34.25 Professional Development Units (PDUs) toward PMI recertification
- 36 Professional Development Credits (PDCs) toward SHRM-CP and SHRM-SCP recertification
- 30 Strategic Business Management credit hours toward PHR, SPHR, and GPHR recertification
- 6 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) toward PHR, SPHR, and GPHR recertification
Who Should Enroll
- Managers
- Directors
- Company officers
- Anyone responsible for the financial success of a business