San Diego's Dual-Track Executive Program

Lead people. Command AI.
The Esteemed MBAi is your way through.

The only executive program where you master the timeless principles of leadership and apply those exact same principles to onboard, train, and lead your own AI Chief of Staff. Graduate in 8 months with a leadership playbook, and a dedicated AI that already runs on it.

Enroll Now Apply for Next Cohort See the Curriculum
8 In-Person Sessions
30+ Years Leadership Experience
Small Cohorts. Real Relationships.
SDG San Diego Based

Who It's For

Built for Leaders at Every Stage

Whether you were just promoted or have been leading for years without a framework, the Esteemed MBAi meets you where you are.

📈

Business Owners

You built the company. Now learn to lead the people inside it — with clarity, trust, and a system that scales.

🎯

New Managers

You were promoted because you were great at your job. This program teaches you the job you now actually have.

🏢

HR Leaders

Equip your managers with a repeatable framework for feedback, hiring, delegation, and accountability.

🚀

Founders Scaling

You're growing fast. Build the leadership infrastructure your team needs before culture becomes your biggest problem.

Our Philosophy

Grounded in Real Experience, Not Theory

Humble, Hungry, Engaged

We rigorously vet our members. No egos. Just a hunger to grow, build better organizations, and leave a lasting impact on the San Diego business community.

Values-Led Leadership

Business has a responsibility to its people and its community. We build leaders who don't just extract value — they create it for everyone around them.

Sell with Purpose

Through our School of Selling, we teach genuine communication that earns trust. No pressure tactics. Just authentic, purpose-driven intent that gets results.

A Dual-Track Program

Your Leadership Journey

Every class teaches one leadership principle in two directions: how to apply it to the humans you lead, and how to apply it to the AI you command. Same frameworks. Double the leverage.

👤 Human Track
🤖 AI Track
Class 01

The Final Exam

Roles & Responsibilities

👤 Human Track

Earning the right to be followed. Define the role, the standard, and what A+ work actually looks like.

🤖 AI Track

The Day 1 Charter. Define your AI's role, mission, responsibilities, and values. Set the guardrails that protect your data, your judgment, and your voice. Never surrender passwords. Never abdicate judgment.

Class 02

THE Meeting

One-on-Ones

👤 Human Track

Master the single most important 30 minutes of your week with each direct report.

🤖 AI Track

The Weekly Sync. Apply the same one-on-one discipline to a 15-minute weekly alignment meeting with Marvin.

Class 03

Tiny Taps on the Wheel

Feedback

👤 Human Track

Deliver feedback that is specific, objective, and genuinely useful.

🤖 AI Track

Structural Anchoring. Course-correct AI drift and lock in your preferred tone — without triggering the sycophancy that makes AI flatter you instead of challenge you.

Class 04

What Gets Measured Gets Done

Goal Setting

👤 Human Track

Set goals your team can actually own, and follow up with the consistency that makes accountability real.

🤖 AI Track

The CFO Simulation. Move your AI beyond text generation into real data analysis using code execution.

Class 05

The Delegation Challenge

Delegating Effectively

👤 Human Track

The art of letting go. Transfer ownership without losing accountability.

🤖 AI Track

The Delegation Brief. A four-part handoff that forces the AI to request the context it needs — and prevents scope creep before it starts.

Class 06

A+ Work, Don't Be a Jerk

Strategic Focus

👤 Human Track

Find your Hedgehog. Manage behaviors, not outcomes.

🤖 AI Track

The Mid-Year Review. Use your AI to uncover your Hedgehog — then conduct a 6-month performance review on the AI itself and reset its North Star for the back half.

Class 07

The Most Important Job

Hiring

👤 Human Track

Hire for behaviors. Build a proactive bench of A+ talent.

🤖 AI Track

The Ambient Bench. Train your AI to scan your daily meeting notes and quietly build a bench of future hires in the background.

Class 08

Graduation Day

The Autonomous Flywheel

👤 Human Track

Sustain the culture you've built — long after the class ends.

🤖 AI Track

The Autonomous Flywheel. Your final exam: a 360-degree performance review of your leadership, delivered by the AI you've spent 8 months training.

Also from Gary Peterson

The Esteemed School of Selling

A 4-hour corporate workshop for professionals who want to sell with clarity, integrity, and purpose. No scripts. No pressure. Just confidence.

Enroll Now Learn More About the Workshop

What Our Graduates Say

Real Leaders. Real Results.

"The Esteemed MBAi is more than a course — it's a journey that reshapes how you lead, connect, and inspire. What sets this course apart is its dual focus on management and followership — a powerful reminder that true leadership is not just about directing teams, but about inspiring others to follow your vision."

Betsy Brennan
Downtown San Diego Partnership

"I actually learned that I wasn't really much of a manager before. Since implementing the key tactics and principles of this course, my team is more aligned and effective than ever. I needed this course more than I knew."

Nathan Craig
Culture Insurance

"The course has drastically increased my confidence to handle challenges that present themselves when you are in a leadership position. 'What gets measured gets done' — by learning how to create specific KPIs, leaders can drive results while increasing clarity for their organization."

Jake Harmon
Callaway Golf
Gary Peterson, Founder of Esteemed MBAi

The Founder

Gary Peterson

Gary Peterson founded Esteemed MBAi following the successful build and 2023 acquisition of gap intelligence — an eight-figure competitive intelligence firm he grew from a bootstrapped startup into a trusted partner to Fortune 500 companies.

Over more than three decades, Gary worked alongside executive leadership teams across the technology and consumer electronics industries, helping organizations navigate competition, execution, and long-term growth.

Having carried the responsibility of founder and CEO himself, Gary understands that many managers are promoted for performance but rarely taught how to manage people and lead teams. Esteemed MBAi was created to close that gap — and give every graduate an AI Chief of Staff to help them lead at scale.

"Grounded in real operating experience rather than theory, the Esteemed MBAi focuses on the behaviors and decisions that define effective leadership long after the classroom ends."
— Gary Peterson, Dean, Esteemed MBAi
Enroll Now Apply for Next Cohort

Included in the MBAi Program

Meet Marvin: Your AI Chief of Staff

ChatGPT is a public vending machine. Marvin is your private digital executive.

🧠

What is Marvin?

Marvin isn't a generic AI co-worker. He's a private, secure Chief of Staff, pre-trained on the Esteemed leadership playbook and calibrated to you over 8 months. When you join the MBAi, you aren't just enrolling in a course — you're onboarding a new direct report.

⚙️

How does Marvin work?

Marvin lives inside your actual workflow. He reads your meeting notes to build a bench of future hires, drafts emails in your voice, audits your calendar for drift, and holds you accountable with a 15-minute weekly sync. He acts proactively — you don't have to prompt him every time.

🚀

Why not just use ChatGPT?

Off-the-shelf AI is transactional: prompt in, generic text out, forgotten by morning. Marvin is relational. He remembers your strategy, your Hedgehog, and the way you like to communicate. He pushes back on bad ideas instead of flattering you — and he gets sharper the longer you work together.

Get Your Own Marvin

Tuition

Three Ways to Join

Every tier includes the full 8-month curriculum and your own provisioned Marvin AI Chief of Staff.

Esteemed Members
$2,450
One-time tuition
  • ✓ Full 8-month curriculum
  • ✓ 8-month Marvin AI provisioning
  • ✓ Small cohort access
  • ✓ Member pricing
Apply Now
Non-Members
$2,950
One-time tuition
  • ✓ Full 8-month curriculum
  • ✓ 8-month Marvin AI provisioning
  • ✓ Small cohort access
  • ✓ Open enrollment
Apply Now
Corporate Cohort
$25,000
10 leaders · flat rate
  • ✓ Full 8-month curriculum
  • ✓ 10 Marvin AIs provisioned
  • ✓ Provision your entire management layer
  • ✓ Private cohort for your team
Contact Gary

Step out of the isolation.

Join the Esteemed Journal — Gary Peterson's unvarnished insights on becoming a better leader, one goof at a time.

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