Oliver Jones

University of North Carolina, Kenan-Flagler Business School

“A globally-minded first-generation student with an insatiable curiosity and a passion for communication.”

Hometown: Raleigh, North Carolina

Fun fact about yourself: I played the drums in an angsty teenage rock band back in high school, and I’m now taking jazz drum kit lessons in my free time.

Undergraduate School and Degree: UNC-Chapel Hill, BA in media and journalism

Where was the last place you worked prior to business school? I worked for my alma mater, UNC-Chapel Hill, as a study abroad advisor and as a graduate student manager for the Romance Languages PhD program.

Where did you intern during the summer of 2023? I interned with Walmart’s pricing strategy team at their Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters.

Where will you be working after graduation? I will be returning to Walmart in the company’s Merchandising Leadership Development Program at their Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters.

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School:

• Foreign Language & Area Studies Fellowship for Japanese
• UNC Kenan-Flagler Core Value Award for Innovation
• First Place: Datathon Case Competition
• Rankin Global Immersion Elective Memorial Fellowship
• Post-Global Immersion Elective Award
• MBA Student Ambassador
• Business Technology Club Board
• International Business Association Board
• Business Communication Center Consultant

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? I’m most proud of placing first in the Data-thon case competition during my first year at UNC Kenan-Flagler.

With a background in journalism and education, the quantitative side of business school really intimidated me at first. I recognized this was a gap I needed to work on. While I took as many data analytics, economics, and finance classes as I could during the first year, I felt the Data-thon would be the perfect “trial by fire” to put these skills to the test. Working in teams of four, we were given 24 hours to accurately predict next year’s demand for around 1.5 million SKUs in over 5,000 stores for a leading automotive parts retailer in the U.S. Our team used Python to organize and clean a massive dataset, identify key variables and build a series of neural networks to generate a demand forecast for each of the SKUs.

What really set our team apart wasn’t necessarily the raw predictive power of our code, but rather our ability to effectively communicate the potential for machine learning to transform the client’s business operations. I still have so much to learn in the data science space, but I was ecstatic to see that my storytelling and communication skills translated well to a high-stakes, quantitatively intensive scenario. Plus, it was so much fun to work with my team – shout-out to Brett Brewster and Riddhi Dhannawat!

 What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? I’m most proud of earning a return offer from Walmart after a successful summer working with their pricing strategy team.

My summer at Walmart felt like culmination of everything that I had learned throughout the first half of my MBA. As a first-generation college student coming from a non-traditional pre-MBA background, I often felt imposter syndrome in the first year, especially when surrounded by so many talented and accomplished peers at UNC Kenan-Flagler.

However, the 12-week internship with Walmart showed me that I had not only developed the skills needed to succeed during my first year at UNC Kenan-Flagler, but also that the soft skills I learned working in journalism and education were highly transferable to a corporate setting. At the end of the internship, I stood in front of Walmart’s senior leadership and presented on the impact of inflation on the company’s value chain and provided actionable recommendations to improve price competitiveness across a variety of merchandise categories. When I was in the moment, it almost felt like I was back in my classroom in Japan, teaching a lesson to my students – I was excited to “teach” to Walmart’s leadership something interesting that I had learned about their business, and I believe this approach to the presentation really paid off.

Why did you choose this business school? After graduating from UNC undergrad and working for the university, I couldn’t pass up the chance to be a triple Tar Heel! In all seriousness, I looked at several business schools during application season, but there was something truly special about UNC Kenan-Flagler; the Carolina Way and the town of Chapel Hill that kept reeling me back in. I was drawn to the school for its “collaborative over cutthroat” approach to business, its world-renowned faculty in finance, marketing and operations, its numerous global opportunities, and the sheer kindness and willingness to help that I experienced from everyone in the UNC Kenan-Flagler community.

On top of that, I was honored to receive a Foreign Language & Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship from the Carolina Asia Center to study Japanese during my second year of business school. I started studying Japanese while working in Hokkaido as an English teacher, and I’m hoping to put my language skills and interest in East Asia to good use in an internationally focused career in retail. I still have a long way to go before I’m able to pass the highest level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, but the FLAS Fellowship ensured that I didn’t have to pick between developing my business competencies or continuing my Japanese studies.

What was your favorite course as an MBA? Again, this is a tough one! I’m torn between so many, but any course taught by Professor Olga Hawn is a good bet. Professor Hawn’s Strategy and Sustainability course provided such a valuable learning experience on a subject that was relatively unfamiliar to me. Her course encouraged me to view business through more than a strictly financial lens, as well as understand how environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues can influence the formulation and implementation of a firm’s strategy. The course was also perfect precursor to Professor Hawn’s Global Immersion Elective on Social Enterprise and Sustainability in South Korea course, where we traveled to Seoul and Busan at the start of the summer to see how ESG initiatives were taking root at firms on the other side of the world.

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is one thing you’d do differently and why? Business school can be competitive, and sometimes my fear of exposing myself to failure led me to opt out of some experiences or recruiting tracks. However, UNC Kenan-Flagler has shown me that through grit, hard work and determination, I can accomplish even my most ambitious goals. I wish I had believed in myself from the beginning the way I do now. To any incoming MBA students: Don’t self-select out of experiences just because failure is uncomfortable. Embrace everything that the next two years have to offer!

What surprised you the most about business school? I think the sheer diversity of backgrounds and experiences represented by our students was most surprising to me. I had this idea in my head that everyone at a top business school came from finance or consulting, and this was certainly not the case.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? Again, there are so many people I could write about for this one. But I have to say I really admire Danny O’Donohue (MBA ’24) for his unrelenting drive and unfailing optimism. I’ve worked on several group projects with Danny across a variety of course subjects, and his ability to be a team player, get the job done and deliver, all while ensuring everyone’s having a good time, makes him an absolute pleasure to work with. The Vanguard Group will be so lucky to have him next year!

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list?

1. Work abroad or lead international teams between Asia and North America. I intend on continuing to study Japanese after graduation to be able to use the language confidently in a professional setting.
2. Find balance. I strive for excellence both personally and professionally, and I don’t want to have to succeed in my career at the expense of my relationships with my loved ones and my interests outside of work, and vice versa.

What made Oliver such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2024?

“When I think of students who embody the values of global engagement and education at UNC Kenan-Flagler, Oliver Jones is top of mind as one of our most globally minded students. The core values of our Global Immersion Electives are curiosity, adaptability, timeliness and empathy. During our Sustainability Global Immersion Elective to South Korea, he displayed those values in spades. From the very beginning of the course Oliver stood out as the student who would engage himself completely in whatever experiences were on the table; from C-suite business meetings to staying overnight at a temple in the countryside, he took full advantage of everything. As a recipient of the prestigious Foreign Language & Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship, Oliver had already displayed a world-class understanding of the importance of developing global competencies as a leader. His FLAS fellowship has allowed him to utilize and grow his global skills even further through participation in exchange studies at the prestigious Keio University in Tokyo, Japan. We are proud of all that he has accomplished and look forward to seeing where his unique global skill set takes him in his future.”

Valerie D. Slate
Director, MBA Global Programs
UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School

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