Ascend National Cohort

University of Washington Foster School of Business

Contacts: Michael Verchot and Mayte Manzo,

The application for the 2025-2026 Cohort is now open.

Ascend National Cohort melds Management skills development for senior leadership teams, ensures access to Money through loans and investments, and grows Market access for firms through strategic partnerships with corporations.

What drives Ascend National Cohort´s success?

94% of the participants ranked Ascend´s management education as having a high impact on their business

88% of the alumni say that Ascend´s peer network of business owners had a high impact on their business

Faculty

Benefits for Corporate and large Private Company Partners

Corporations and large middle-market firms across industries use Ascend as a core tool to grow suppliers and contractors. May partners send supplier and contractor companies that need to grow to a regional, national, or global footprint to better their sponsor’s requirements. Other partners send supplier and contractor firms increased opportunities as they improve operations, increase efficiency, broaden their management team, and/or develop succession and sustainability plans.

The companies our partners send win larger contracts, expand their customer base, grow revenues, and secure additional loans and investments within a year of program completion.

Benefits for Participating Businesses

Businesses accepted to the Ascend National Cohort enter with a defined opportunity/challenge that, when addressed, will lead to increased profitability. Over the 6-months of the cohort program, businesses access a fantastic set of resources that address the opportunity/challenge they have identified, including:

  • Business coaching from a successful entrepreneur

  • Assistance from an MBA student

  • Consulting sessions from Accenture, EY, JP Morgan Chase, RSM, and others

  • Six days of in-person instruction at the University of Washington

  • Virtual instruction and small group work on operational excellence, B2B marketing, and organizational leadership

While most business development programs focus on just the business owner or CEO, the Ascend National Cohort is focused on building a strong executive leadership team. The CEO plus 2 C-Suite level colleagues from each company can attend in-person and virtual sessions.

Roadmap

The Impact

“The Ascend program has helped me and Johnson Security achieve significant breakthroughs, more specifically, winning new business with three opportunity partners. Our team is gaining momentum and confidence as we pursue larger contracts. We are hiring new team members as we expand our services to one notable global corporation by 250 percent.”

-Jessica Johnson-Cope, CEO and President of Jonhson Security Bureau

Ascend NYC & National Cohort Alum ‘23

Our Partners

If you represent a corporation, there are many ways to collaborate and to benefit from Ascend National!

Our current list includes-