How to transition from MBA in Finance to PhD in Financial Economics? I want to pursue a PhD in Financial Economics in USA/Canada. I am a software engineer and going to Canada to pursue an MBA in Finance in September from an average public university.

I have studied a lot of high level math courses in Engineering (Undergrad).  I will study many Finance and Econ courses in the MBA program.

I am interested in a PhD from a US university (average public university, not targeting top level).

I am really crazy about this subject. I know that I wasted a lots of time on other things but I still have time and I am very interested in teaching.

What opportunities can I take advantage of during the MBA to maximize my chances of PhD admission?
PhD programs exist to produce researchers, so an admissions committee would like to see that you will be able to produce original research. (In economics, that means journal articles.) So, what would help immensely would be to gain actual research experience. The best way to do that would be to work as a research assistant for someone who is actively publishing research.

It would be fantastic, of course, if you could co-author a paper and get it published in a top journal. But don't worry so much about that. What you're looking for is a chance to work with someone who can then write a letter of recommendation that says they are confident that you will go on to produce quality research of your own, and whose opinion will matter because they have a good track record of publishing their own work.

Add some statistics coursework to your programming experience and you'll be well-positioned to work as an RA. (Even without a stats background, being able to wield Perl or R or some other tool to collect and clean data is valuable.) Or find someone working with agent-based modelling who needs a code jockey. Then, of course, work hard and ask lots of questions.