Sorin Ovreiu 

Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business

“Competing against yesterday’s version of myself to be in a position of collective winning.”

Hometown: Pasadena, Maryland

Fun Fact About Yourself: I spent the summer before the start of the program going out of my comfort zone to restore an early 1900s Baltimore house – learning to do basic electrical work, plumbing, and flooring.

Undergraduate School and Major: Morehouse College: Business Administration | Finance Concentration

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: J.P. Morgan Chase – Associate, Strategy & Business Management

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Being afforded the opportunity to recruit new classes of MBAs and undergraduates. Having the opportunity, even as a more junior member of our firm, to represent the organization and influence others’ decisions about their careers is a testament to the trust that senior leaders had in my passion for the company and industry.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? Aware – our location in Washington, D.C. draws the type of MBA student who is curious and keeps an open mind about global issues, which becomes apparent in classroom discussions.

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? My rationale for choosing Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business was two-fold, including both the program’s ethical leadership principles based on its values of “Men and Women for Others” as well as its global mindset. Georgetown has a commitment to building a more just world and educates business professionals with a purpose. McDonough’s global focus and location in Washington D.C., the political center of the free world, meant that I would get a business education at the intersection of the public and private spheres, something that no other program could offer.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? HoyAlytics – This is a newer club at Georgetown focused on improving students’ knowledge of data analytics. Since the topic is becoming more prevalent in all decision-making across organizations, I’d love to become more proficient and expand my knowledge outside the classroom.

What was the most challenging question you were asked during the admissions process? Being able to describe how each individual program fit into my long-term plans and why I didn’t pursue my goals without getting the MBA, given my business experience.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? While I was comfortable with the quantitative aspect of my work, the executives I worked with all had a differentiating leadership style that I felt I needed to learn to be able to run an organization. The one common factor they shared is that they attended top MBA programs, which led me to determine if business school would help me improve as a leader and manager. Fortunately for me, leadership and team development are large components of business education.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Emory’s Goizueta and Johnson

How did you determine your fit at various schools? I have been a reader of Poets & Quants since undergrad, so I was exposed to information about different schools for some time. I was fortunate to be surrounded by several recent MBA grads during my time in consulting and I had conversations with them to get an idea of what their programs were like. Everyone emphasized visiting several schools and observing a class session. Once I narrowed down my list to a few target schools based on my stats, I looked at the leadership components of each program since that was the main area in which I wanted to improve. Each school had a unique approach to leadership, including my top choice of Georgetown, grounded in strong moral and ethical principles.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? Attending Morehouse College, a top HBCU, was the single most transformative experience for me. As a member of a majority group in the U.S., one can never truly understand the challenges of being a minority in the room. Besides the strong brotherhood and network of the historic all-male college, the invaluable Morehouse education helped me become a better listener and understand diverse viewpoints, which translates well into business where leaders need to be aware of how decisions may impact various communities differently.

Where do you see yourself in ten years? While I realize that my long-term path is fluid, I plan to be in a career where I can rely on my leadership to make a positive contribution to the organization while being able to mentor more junior team members. (Hopefully, by that point I will have figured out an effective work-life integration!).