Andrew Roebling

Fordham University, Gabelli School of Business

“Hard-working, determined and thoughtful individual who cares about people.”

Hometown: Princeton, NJ

Fun Fact About Yourself: I am a die-hard Roger Federer fan and have stayed up to the early hours of the morning watching him play.

Undergraduate School and Major: Rider University, Political Science.

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Bank of America, Assistant Vice President Operations Consultant

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of the school’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? Fordham had a special feel to me; I think the location combined with the Jesuit tradition really inspired me to want to come to school here. I really appreciate that they want to make a difference in the world and are constantly encouraging their students to contribute to the planet in meaningful ways. The location was also a big factor for me since NYC is such a unique place to study business.   

What has surprised you the most about the Gabelli MBA program? The most surprising thing to me was how quickly the administration pivoted during the COVID-19 pandemic to bring us a really engaging curriculum. The staff has been so helpful during the pandemic and they made it a great semester for all the students even though things are not ideal. I am still amazed at how quickly they were able to adjust and provide us an incredibly dynamic experience.

What quality best describes your MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? I would have to say two things really stand out to me. First, it is how intelligent everyone is and second how helpful everyone has been. We work together on projects and homework. If one person is struggling and someone else can help, they will. It is a great environment to be in and knowing that you can rely on your classmates for help makes the experience even more enjoyable. I feel grateful to have such wonderful classmates in the program.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: One project that I worked on in my previous role was helping to integrate the functionalities of an old front-end proprietary application into a new one. It was a long project that took months to complete and I was able to work with some of the leaders in technology at the bank to identify key components in the migration process as well as add my thoughts on the interface. Ultimately the project was very successful, and we were able to dramatically reduce the time it took to onboard new clients into the system. That project gave me a lot of confidence and helped inspire me to come back to school to pursue a career that is filled with more opportunities like that one.   

Describe your biggest accomplishment as an MBA student so far? My biggest accomplishment was working on a project that had us analyze a clothing company from an ESG perspective. We analyzed the company’s financials and corporate responsibility report, and performed Industry, SWOT, and PESTLE Analyses. It was a very engaging project that taught me more in two weeks about the clothing industry than I had learned in all my years of school and professional life up to that point. Two other team members and I pulled together a very strong report and presentation that I would consider my best accomplishment thus far in my MBA journey.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? I was interested in going back to school to get a better understanding of Information Systems along with a comprehensive business education since I came from a Political Science background. Additionally, I wanted to gain more leadership experience and thought the best way to go about doing that was through an MBA program.

What was your defining moment and how did it prepare you for business school? My defining moment came about a month after I decided I wanted to go back to school and needed to study for a standardized test again. It had been years since I had done anything like that; working a demanding job all day and then going home to study for 3 to 4 hours a night was very difficult. That being said, my defining moment was forcing myself to prepare for the GRE for months even when it was the last thing I wanted to do. It prepared me for business school because it helped reassure me that no matter how challenged, overwhelmed, or unmotivated I felt, I could work through it and push myself to the best of my ability, which I did and have now done time-and-again.

DON’T MISS: Meet Fordham Gabelli’s MBA Class of 2022