Contra Costa County serves as an important slice of the massive San Francisco Bay Area pie, a nine-county mega-region in Northern California that’s home to everything from high tech corridors to sprawling vineyards. Contra Costa County and its neighbor, Alameda County, make up the East Bay sub-region within this mega-region.
With a population of 2.8 million, a workforce of 1.3 million, and exports of more than $273 billion, East Bay is a powerhouse in its own right, fueled by the economic strength of the larger Bay Area region. Its success in manufacturing has opened the door to innovations in the life sciences, clean energy, artificial intelligence, and more, and today, it’s a major hub of research, development, and funding. In 2021 alone, companies in East Bay raked in more than $10 billion in VC funding.
Head to Contra Costa County and you’ll find a diverse business ecosystem where partnerships between academia, industry, and government thrive. In Concord, they’re testing autonomous shuttles at the GoMentum Station, the largest closed-course testing facility for connected and autonomous vehicles in the nation. And in San Ramon, the energy goliath Chevron Corporation employs more than 2,000 people who support the company’s operations throughout California.
One-half of the electric East Bay region and an important player in the larger Bay Area, Contra Costa County is poised to support the next big thing to come from the new generation of innovators and entrepreneurs coming out of California’s world class business schools. You could very well be one of them – earn an MBA here in Contra Costa County and you’ll be prepared execute on the kind of ideas that make headlines and disrupt the status quo.
Global Partnerships Stretch From Contra Costa County to Hong Kong and Mainland China
In May 2024, Antioch and Oakley mayors headed to China to talk global opportunities in Contra Costa County.
From its deepwater port to its industrial spaces to its efficient system of road and railways, Contra Costa County is made for global business. So, it only makes sense that Antioch’s mayor, Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe, and Oakley’s mayor, Anissa Williams, were part of a group of Bay Area mayors to visit China to lure new investment and business into the area.
The trip was organized by China Silicon Valley, a Silicon Valley nonprofit that has branches throughout China. Economic development — more specifically, green development —was the theme of this year’s tour, the first one since the start of the COVID pandemic. Attendees talked business opportunities and the value of strengthening their international relationships through sister-city partnerships.
Because the best relationships are those that are nurtured, this year’s attendees from Contra Costa County focused on getting to know Chinese business leaders from some of the largest cities in Hong Kong and Mainland China.
While there, Mayors Hernandez-Thorpe and Williams promoted the region’s economic strengths, the most recent of which includes a plan to bring driverless public transit to East Contra Costa County. The autonomous car company Glydways recently introduced its autonomous vehicles and the major infrastructure project which, once built, will provide a Glydcars-only roadway that will connect Brentwood to Oakley to Antioch to Pittsburg. The company envisions this 28-mile roadway will revolutionize Contra Costa County’s mass transit system.
They also took the time to discuss Contra County’s deepwater port, the expanded marine terminal at AMPORTS (one of the world’s largest automotive shipping companies), and the announcement of the construction of two, new commercial warehouses totaling 450,000 square feet.
Why Contra Costa County Has Some of the Best Online MBA Programs and Campus Options in California
Though you won’t find any MBA programs in Contra Costa County, in the larger East Bay region, they’re plentiful. In Alameda County, UC Berkeley, Cal State East Bay, San Francisco University, and Lincoln University are all home to their own unique MBA offerings. The region is ripe with options in academia, and that includes its share of MBA programs designed for early- and mid-career professionals and executives looking to sharpen their business acumen and gain new perspectives.
Contra Costa County is where your MBA will pay dividends. Its unique position in the San Francisco Bay Area has made it a magnet for business and industry, which means exceptional opportunities to make your mark in the business world. Contra Costa County is nearly equidistant from the major metro areas of San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, and Stockton, all of which are easily accessible via three, major highway systems. Two BART stations and three international airports are within 50 miles, and the Port of Richmond, along with the nearby Port of Oakland, ensure unfettered access to international markets.
Contra Costa County has become a popular region for Bay Area business pros to put down roots, thanks to its affordable housing options and overall lower cost of living in places like Concord, Richmond, and Antioch. As a result, the population of Contra Costa County has increased by nearly 10 percent between 2010 and 2022.
And in Contra Costa County, expansion continues at a rapid clip, revealing new and exciting opportunities for business professionals well into the future. For example, the Northern Waterfront Economic Development Initiative, one of the newest and largest developments currently in the works, is aimed at revitalizing the Northern Waterfront area (which spans from Hercules to Oakley) and, the process, creating upwards of 18,000 new jobs in its five targeted clusters— advanced transportation, advanced manufacturing, biomedical/biotech, agtech & food processing, and clean tech — by 2025.
Accredited Online MBA Programs and Campus Options in Concord, Antioch, Richmond, and Throughout Contra Costa County
The East Bay region of Contra Costa and Alameda counties is a hotbed of MBA programs, offering exciting options like Cal State University East Bay’s MBA, which offers opportunities to specialize in areas like operations and supply chain management; marketing management; and human resources and organizational behavior, and San Francisco Bay University, whose MBA can be customized through your choice of concentration in marketing management, management, or business analytics.
Online MBA programs also plentiful throughout the region. For example, UC Berkeley’s Evening and Weekend MBA and Lincoln University’s MBA can be completed either on-campus or online. Even with all these outstanding options nearby, Saint Mary’s College of California stands out. And, it’s located in Moraga, which makes it the one option in Contra Costa County proper.
Saint Mary’s College of California
School of Economics and Business Administration
Moraga, CA
Website
- Executive MBA
- Online MBA
- Professional MBA (Entrepreneurship, Business Analytics, General Management, Finance, International Management, Marketing)