Michelle Gilroy

Yale School of Management

“Passionate learner striving to explore the world and understand my place in it!”

Hometown: West Chester, PA (but most recently lived in Dallas, TX prior to coming to New Haven)

Fun Fact About Yourself: My first role at American Airlines was at the Charlotte Airport (American’s second-largest hub) and my badge allowed me to drive at the airport! I could take any of the AA-owned trucks or vans and drive directly next to, behind, and around aircraft on the ramp and active taxiways – it was always a terrifying but fun experience!

Undergraduate School and Major: Clemson University – Financial Management

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: American Airlines / Senior Analyst, Customer Experience Consulting – Workforce Strategy

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: When I joined the Workforce Strategy team with American, the team was focused on modeling and planning airport staffing needs, but there was little done to help airport leaders execute on that plan. By the time I joined the team, the goal was to shift the focus towards better execution.

Because of my experience creating employee shift bids (i.e. the work schedule from which frontline employees choose their shift every 3 to 4 months), I had a good understanding of what airports needed and how effective a stronger partnership and exchange of information could be. I pitched the idea for – and later took the lead on – the first major step toward that goal: providing the spoke airports with a tool they could use to build bids that better met operational and financial goals. My solution was “Bid Builder,” a simple-to-use spreadsheet where GMs could create and alter the bid inputs with a real-time graph that clearly illustrated the impact of changes on both operational coverage and cost.

I was able to pitch and sell the tool to the Managing Directors of each domestic region. After multiple WebEx training seminars and countless help calls for over 60 Airport General Managers (GMs), the tool was put into effect. After the first bid cycle, about a third of these GMs had adopted the tool. Those airports using Bid Builder loved it and were vocal in sharing its benefits with their peers. By the next bid, there was 60% adoption. The tool was so successful for those first two bids that by the third bid cycle, the VP responsible for the entire domestic spoke system made it mandatory for all her airports to use on every bid moving forward.

One of the main benefits of the Bid Builder was allowing collaboration between the GMs and the Workforce Planning team to see and improve upon bid inefficiencies. Through Bid Builder, we realized over $5 million in annual savings. More importantly, this tool increased trust between airport leaders and the Workforce Strategy team and was a huge first step to spur the team’s new direction.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? Diverse – in career, educational, cultural, geographic backgrounds. I am so excited to learn about business and the world from all my new classmates!

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 key factor that led me to choose Yale SOM was the quality of learning opportunities. The Integrated Curriculum that teaches students how to view business problems from the perspective of each stakeholder is very appealing to me, as one of the main issues I saw at American was siloed work environments leading to a breakdown of trust and unequal access to information. Having the ability to view a problem from multiple perspectives will be a huge asset to my future career. Additionally, the ability (and encouragement) to take courses throughout Yale University is an amazing opportunity!

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? I’m most looking forward to participating in one (or more!) of SOM’s International Experiences. I plan to participate in the Global Network Week and hopefully take a Global Social Entrepreneurship Course.

The Yale School of Management is regarded as a purpose-driven program. What is your mission? How will your MBA at Yale help you fulfill that mission? My mission is to become a business leader who inspires collaboration and fosters innovation, while always maintaining an understanding of where I personally and my organization fit into and contribute to society. SOM’s mission to build leaders education leaders for business and society means that there are countless courses, clubs, and events where I can learn to the type of leader I strive to be.

What was the most challenging question you were asked during the admissions process? The SOM essay question (“Describe the biggest commitment you have ever made”)! Narrowing down to a single commitment that I could describe in 500 words that felt genuine to the word “biggest” and would make me stand out was near impossible! I ended up with an essay that I really liked, but it took about 25 drafts to get there.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? My time at American Airlines taught me so much, including the fact that successful leaders need to be able to work cross-functionally across all departments and levels of a company. Pursuing an MBA was the best way to gain the knowledge to do so, while also opening so many doors for future career paths.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? I also applied to Tuck, Kellogg, and Ross.

How did you determine your fit at various schools? From the start of the application process, I was focused on finding a top business school that fostered a collaborative environment and placed many students into consulting. To evaluate schools, I started with a lot of online research (blogs, school websites, etc.). Since I worked for an airline (free flights!), I was able to visit 3 of the 4 schools I applied to prior to submitting my applications. I toured the facilities, visited classes, and spoke to current students. These visits confirmed that the schools I was interested in were a good cultural fit. Outside of visits, I also reached out to current and former students and attended local informational sessions. As far as career, I read the career reports published by the schools, researched professional clubs, and spoke with current students about their experiences recruiting for consulting.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? My defining moment was when I was working in my first job out of undergrad with American at the Charlotte Airport. I was working hard and getting good results with my assigned work but lacked the self-assurance to share my thoughts and ideas in a group setting. With the help of my fantastic manager, I realized that (a) my input was valuable (even if I had significantly less experience than my coworkers) and (b) I would hold myself back in my career if I did not share. Realizing that early on in my career forced me to push myself out of my comfort zone. Over the following year, I gained a lot of confidence in my career that has permeated to all aspects of my life. I am now more comfortable taking risks and sharing my opinion (even if it goes against popular opinion) and I am a better person because of it.

Where do you see yourself in ten years? In 10 years, I see myself having worked for a few years as a consultant and in a leadership strategy role back in industry – maybe back in the airline industry! I will continue to travel the world, while trying to maintain work-life balance and contribute as much positivity to the world along the way.