Christopher Carpentier

Arizona State University, W. P. Carey School of Business

“As an IoT marketer, Chris wrote about digital transformations. Now, he wants to implement them.”

Hometown: West Palm Beach, Florida

Fun Fact About Yourself: After making it to the final round of teen Jeopardy auditions before falling out of contention, you can now find Chris at your local pub trivia night staring longingly at a picture of Alex Trebek, wondering what could have been.

Undergraduate School and Major: Florida Atlantic University, Management and Entrepreneurship

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Telit, Digital Content Marketing Manager

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: That accomplishment would have to be my podcast, FirstThingsFirst IoT. I hosted and produced this podcast series with nearly 40 guests, each an IoT professional discussing a new technological development, business model, or use case. From industry analysts, successful entrepreneurs, NASA technologists and more — it was a great year conceiving and building up a new form of media to be a significant part of my employer’s marketing activities for the year.

When you find a niche in your company — something you’re good at and willing to do that others don’t have the knack for — then you’re really creating value, and that’s an empowering position to be in. It’s that communicative ability and initiative to start something new that I believe will carry me well into a future consulting or in a corporate technology strategy role.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? Collaborative. Everybody is in it together — we are out here, whether it be in the classroom or on the recruiting trail — fighting for each other. No doubt each and every one of us has the others’ best intentions at hearts. There are plenty of study groups, weekend outings, and peer-coaching sessions are to be had.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of the MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? The Phoenix metropolitan area offers the perfect combination of lifestyle and career opportunities and the quality of those opportunities will only improve as the area grows. When you drive into Tempe (the city-within-a-city where the main ASU campus resides), you are struck by the sheer amount of construction that is going on around the campus — much of it spurred on by ASU’s tremendous growth in terms of both student quantity and quality. Plenty of brand new 20 or 30-story apartment and office buildings are going up across the city. World-class corporate logos dot the new lake-front office park: KPMG, State Farm, Silicon Valley Bank, Waste Management, Zenefits, and Amazon.  Jobs and talent are moving to the Phoenix Valley because the national workforce as a whole is interested in fewer crowds, less expensive living, and more beautiful desert sunrises and sunsets.

Will I, or my peers, all be living and working in Phoenix immediately post-grad? Maybe not. But the energetic and productive culture spurred on within Tempe by ASU President Michael Crow’s “New American University” mission is a fantastic place to develop as a professional, and the Valley’s booming cultural scene and beautiful natural scenes are perfect places to catch a few after-class conversations over drinks.

Arizona State is renowned for its innovation. How have you seen innovation in the philosophy, curriculum, or resources at W. P. Carey?  ASU has been named No. 1 in innovation for five consecutive years. While the amount of on-campus poster, bus sides, and web ads touting that fact has reached a meme-worthy level, it’s important that prospective students understand what I came to understand after a few weeks on campus: The university deserves the award, and the tangible benefits this innovative culture gives to current and future MBAs.

Out-of-class, cross-curriculum learning opportunities were important selection criteria for me, and that innovative orientation has made ASU’s knowledge enterprise — the arm of the university that takes academic research to market — one of the best in the country. As an active supporter of that activity through ASU’s Venture Devils program, every day I have the opportunity to professionally grow through real out-of-class business planning and development.

Maybe I’ll have the chance to help launch a groundbreaking, world-changing technology for good like Zero Mass Water; maybe I’ll help run a cross-department research-to-market collaboration to help drive real change through our university’s research; or maybe I’ll help individually mentor ASU startup accelerator “Venture Devils,” who change the world one day.

No matter what, the opportunities to get out-of-classroom classroom and cross-department experience are plentiful. Absolutely no one on campus is OK with you – or any admin or professor for that matter –sitting in an ivory tower pontificating on age-old business theory.  I see the MBA as a launchpad for my professional development; undoubtedly classwork helps me get there, but a significant value add is what I’m able to do outside the classroom. ASU is growing so fast that it can’t help but support people who will raise their hand and say ‘I can help’ or ‘I have an idea.’ You have extreme potential to do something worth doing here; I think more so than any other university.

What was the most challenging question you were asked during the admissions process? One question I’m sure we all struggle the most with is “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” As many of us either pivot or completely change careers, that questions seems flat-out impossible to answer. Truth is, you can still give an answer that is meaningful to both yourself and admissions professionals. Do you see yourself out on your own as an entrepreneur? Pushing innovation as an intrapreneur within a Fortune 100 company? Making the world a better place at a non-profit? Perhaps none of us know the exact role or function that will help us get to these goals; but as long as we know the direction, that’s a solid answer.

How did you determine which business schools best fit you? I prioritized a culture of innovation and growth.

As a candidate, I knew those qualities would be hard to quantify. As a marketer, I knew those qualities would be easy to fabricate on webinars and brochures.

Only through a campus visit do I believe you really understand how the W. P. Carey School, and the rest of ASU, is on the up-and-up.

It has the right combination of people and place to be a strong, highly-ranked program for years to come; one that I fully expect to perpetually add value to my résumé as the years go on and its notoriety increases. When you’re in a program focused on not only your growth, but its own — improving its status, not maintaining the status quo — things feel different. Administration is more likely to respond to your concerns; the community is more excited about your growing status within the larger business community; new and exciting mentors, sponsors, donors, and partners are excited to join a growing MBA program.

What is routinely ranked as a top-tier supply chain MBA program is now well on its way to becoming a top-ranked program across the board — and each and every student that gets in now can be a significant, foundational portion of that growth.