Meet the USC Marshall MBA Class of 2018

Nicholas Alexander Boyer

University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business

Describe yourself in 15 words or less: Compassionate, resilient, creative, endlessly curious, full of life, positive, adaptable

Hometown: Lewisburg, TN

Fun Fact About Yourself: I have been fluent in four languages other than English throughout my life: Korean, Italian, French, and Mandarin Chinese.

Undergraduate School and Major: Vanderbilt University, Mechanical Engineering

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation: US Navy, Intelligence Officer, Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Special Security Officer, Construction Security Manager, Information Technology Systems Manager

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Helping to find survivors after the 2011 Sendai earthquake in Japan and the subsequent tsunami.

Looking back on your experience, what advice would you give to future business school applicants? It’s OK to take a bit of time to explore new career paths while in business school. Even though you are told again and again that you need to decide your function, industry, and location, be open to exploration. Define your internal desires, interests, and skill sets, and then use that as a grid to evaluate your opportunities. You are more valuable than you think.

What led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA? USC Marshall’s emphasis on the globalization of business focused on the Pacific Rim combined with interdisciplinary learning was very attractive to me. Additionally, this program values innovation, entrepreneurial thinking, and collaboration, all of which create a meaningful program for me.

Tell us about your dream job or dream employer at this point in your life? My dream job is to be a product/brand manager in an interactive entertainment firm with a global reach, leading a team around a product I believe in. There, I would be positioned to leverage my unique combination of cross-cultural insight, strategic data analysis, and creativity to enable teams to successfully create well-designed, highly engaging experiences. My core values include creating psychological safety within teams as well as creative expression, both of which would be served in this role.

What would you like your business school peers to say about you after you graduate from this program?  That interaction with me helped them to become their best self. Also, I would like them to say that I would be a fantastic partner in any sort of business venture due to having deep business insight and acumen combined with uncommon compassion.