The part-time Executive Master’s equips creative leaders with the business skills for the post digital era the industry needs.
Who is the programme for?
- Mid-to-senior professionals in film, television, games, theatre, performance, music, publishing, VFX, animation,CreaTech, cultural heritage, arts, fashion and sports media
- Professionals upgrading business skills for the post-digital era
- Entrepreneurs launching creative ventures
- Freelancers and consultants seeking strategic growth
- Public sector leaders managing creative enterprises
- Investors and business leaders in digital content and streaming
- Experienced creatives transitioning into leadership roles
- Professionals seeking a lateral move to another creative sector.
Programme summary
The Executive Master’s in Leadership for the Creative Industries is a part-time, two-year degree designed to empower creative professionals with the commercial, strategic, and operational skills needed to lead in today’s post digital media and entertainment landscape.
Delivered by Bayes Business School (formerly Cass), the programme blends academic rigour with real-world insight from industry leaders, offering insight into the convergence within the wider sector, and preparing you to drive innovation and transformation with a particular focus on the opportunities and challenges presented by new technologies including AI.
Benefits for you
- Gain strategic leadership skills tailored to the creative industries
- Learn from leading academics and senior industry professionals
- Build a powerful network across creative sectors
- Apply learning directly to your role through a Leadership Impact Project
- Study flexibly with monthly two-day blocks (Friday & Saturday)
- Earn a prestigious Master’s degree from a triple-accredited business school.
Benefits for your organisation
- Develop in-house leadership talent with sector-specific expertise
- Drive innovation and digital transformation in creative teams
- Retain high-potential staff through professional development
- Leverage Apprenticeship Levy funding to cover tuition
- Gain insights from cutting-edge research and industry best practice
- Strengthen strategic capabilities in content, IP and audience engagement.
What you will learn
- Leadership in a post digital era
- Develop your leadership style to its full potential
- Strategic and business model innovation
- Broader understanding of cross sector convergence
- Finance and accounting for creative enterprises
- Intellectual property and rights management
- Talent management and organisational change
- Global creative industry trends
- Brand and reputation leadership.
Programme structure
- Personal leadership development for experts and creatives
- Strategic and business model innovation
- Accounting and finance for the creative industries
- Intellectual property and the creative industries
- Digital disruption & creative entrepreneurship
- Leading people and change in the creative industries
- The global creative industries: challenges and opportunities
- Managing your brand and reputation
- Leadership impact project: creative industries.
This master's programme is unusual in its emphasis on the commercial side of the industry. When I was searching for a mid-career Executive Master’s to focus on the business of entertainment, I found several options in the US but very few in the UK.”
– Deblina Chakrabarty, Distribution, MGM Amazon
A creative leader must also be a business leader in today’s creator economy - that’s why this course is so valuable.”
– Mark Rowland, Chair C21Media; Director, Rose d'Or Awards
Advisory board
- Dr Chris Bain – CEO, Player One Consulting
- David Blake – International Performer, Choreographer and Creative Director
- Deblina Chakrabarty – Distribution, MGM Amazon
- Stephen Elson – Executive Producer, DNEG
- John Glencross – CEO, Calculus Capital
- Glyndwr Jones – Director, Council for Dance, Drama, and Musical Theatre
- Heather Jones – General Manager, Hearst Networks UK / CCO, EMEA
- Seetha Kumar – Council Member, NED | Arts and Humanities Research Council
- Cameron Leslie – Co-founder, FABRIC Nightclub
- Keltie Mechalski – Rights Manager, Penguin Random House
- Elspeth McBain – CEO, Lighthouse, Poole Arts Trust
- Katheryn Needham – CEO, Studio Canal UK
- Professor Andy Pratt – UNESCO Chair in Global Creative Economy
- Janet Reeve – Strategic Fundraising Consultant
- Mark Rowland – Chair, C21 Media; Director, Rose d’Or Awards
- Emma Turner – Head of Film, Animation and Future Skills, ScreenSkills
- Dr Jo Twist OBE – CEO, British Phonographic Industry (BPI)
- Engin Yenidünya – CFO, Mubi; Film Producer, Investor and Investment Banker
Key staff
Katherine Parsons MA – Programme Lead. Former BBC Channel Executive, international media strategist, and Honorary Fellow of Ravensbourne University.
Professor Amanda Goodall PhD – Professor of Leadership. Author of 'Credible: The Power of Expert Leaders'. Learn more about her research in this City research case study and Bayes news article
Ruth Velenski – Head of Corporate Development. Specialist in executive education partnerships and corporate sponsorships.
