Meet UNC Kenan-Flagler’s MBA Class Of 2020

William Douglas Leimenstoll

University of North Carolina, Kenan-Flagler Business School

Aspires to create better, greener communities by building places people actually like.”

Hometown: Greensboro, North Carolina

Fun Fact About Yourself: My fiancé and I will be proud owners of the world’s cutest mini aussiedoodle puppy as of Labor Day weekend 2018!

Undergraduate School and Major: UNC-Chapel Hill, Environmental Studies

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; ORISE Research Fellow

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: This is not technically during my professional career, but during my final year at UNC, I had the opportunity to serve as student body president. In that role I successfully lobbied the UNC System’s Board of Governors to protect need-based financial aid funding and also convince my fellow university trustees to allow gender non-specific housing options for incoming students. These accomplishments were undone later by the General Assembly, but directly improved people’s lives for a time.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? Driven to excel but not only for themselves. Everyone I’ve met thus far has been sharp and talented, just like at any top school, yet they’ve also had a deeper interest in succeeding in order to accomplish something larger than themselves. I really admire that combination and am excited to be part of it.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key factor that led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you?  The combined reputation of Kenan-Flagler’s real estate and sustainability concentrations made the decision such a clear one for me. Given my interest in building more sustainable communities, UNC Kenan-Flagler’s strengths aligned perfectly with my career interests.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? The Real Estate Club

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? I spent most of my pre-graduate school career in the non-profit and government world thinking a lot about how communities should be built, but unable to actually make it happen. A dual MBA and master’s in city and regional planning seems like the best way to put my principles into practice and actually build better places for people.

How did you decide if an MBA was worth the investment? As a dual-degree candidate, I’m adding just one more year of classes and tuition. I was also very fortunate to receive a generous scholarship package.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? None. I already was enrolled in Carolina’s Department of City and Planning School when I was admitted to Kenan-Flagler.

How did you determine your fit at various schools? While I chose Carolina’s Department of City and Planning a year before I chose Kenan-Flagler, UNC’s business school was on my mind. Having gone to undergrad at UNC, I knew the culture was one of excellence balanced with empathy and integrity. I have been glad to see this spirit lives on both at the Department of City and Regional Planning and at Kenan-Flagler.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? I’m undoubtedly shaped by having grown up on downtown Greensboro’s Main Street. When I was a kid, no one wanted to be downtown and my parents were viewed as crazy for raising children there. Having a front row seat as the city slowly began to re-energize downtown inspired me to join a community advisory committee for a nearby redevelopment at age eleven. Seeing the complex interplay between developers, politicians, architects, planners and citizens all vying to shape the community was exciting to me. I’ve been aiming to find where I fit within that ecosystem ever since and I now feel sure that the answer is as a developer.

What do you plan to do after you graduate? I hope to work for a residential real estate developer focused on building urban redevelopment projects in the most environmentally sustainable way possible.

Where do you see yourself in five years? I hope to have successfully seen a few developments come to fruition and be starting to think about how to begin my own green real estate venture.

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