Malcolm Davis

Yale School of Management

“Travel enthusiast committed to making the world more empathetic, one trip at a time.”

Hometown: Blue Bell, PA

Fun Fact About Yourself: I started a loan company in elementary school; my dad (my only customer) still owes me money (I still have the signed contract).

Undergraduate School and Major: University of Maryland, College Park – Finance

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: The Walt Disney Company – Senior Financial Analyst

The Yale School of Management is regarded as a purpose-driven program. What is your mission? How will your MBA at Yale SOM help you fulfill that mission? I want to make travel more accessible to people of all socioeconomic statuses. I hope it leads to a world in which we have a greater sense of community. Through my adolescence, study abroad experience, and time at Disney, I have witnessed and experienced how, by traveling, people can broaden their mindsets and form new appreciation for different cultures. I think many of the divisions in the United States are rooted in a lack of empathy and understanding.

At Yale SOM, I am privileged to be surrounded by purpose-driven classmates. I intend to deepen my own empathy and expose my blind spots by learning from my peers’ lived experiences. Moreover, as a member of the Future of Mobility Club, I will learn about trends, practices, and ideas that can help facilitate the conception of my dream.

What word best describes the Yale SOM MBA students and alumni you’ve met so far and why? There are so many words that come to mind, but “conscientious” encapsulates the character of Yale SOM MBA students and alum the best. The school’s mission attracts people who are committed to improving the world. This attraction to a higher purpose is manifest in the careers of many alumni. Yale SOM alums work at MBB, investment banks, FAANG, and CPG. They also work at the Aspen Institute and have pushed for greater diversity in corporations, and one, Ned Lamont, serves as the Governor of Connecticut.

In my MBA experience thus far, people are seen, opinions are heard, and perspectives are recognized. There is an eagerness to not only discover our uncommon commonalities, but to explore our differences. I’ve already had conversations about the Israel-Palestine conflict, how to increase black representation at Yale SOM, and improving the workplace culture and safety for the cast and crew of theater productions. For Yale SOM MBA alumni and students, bettering the world is not an afterthought, but a North Star.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of Yale SOM’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? Yale SOM focuses on the intersectionality of business and society. In the core, several courses focus on perspectives, such as the Investor or Innovator, rather than functions like marketing or supply chain. This appeals to me because I want to learn in an environment that, for the most part, does not silo different business areas, but rather demonstrates how they converge.

What course, club, or activity excites you the most at Yale SOM? There are so many opportunities at Yale SOM, such as the co-taught course Modeling Managerial Decisions or the Design & Innovation Club, but what excites me the most are Discovery Projects. They are an opportunity to work on a project with a major company for an entire semester. I’m looking forward to developing my market research capabilities by translating insights into strategic recommendations. Moreover, it serves as practice for future internship and full-time roles.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: In my spare time, I volunteered as a tutor for underprivileged elementary school students in Orlando. I worked with a highly energetic first grader who struggled to read. Despite my best attempts, initially, my tutee rebuffed any efforts to sound out words or read independently. Acknowledging the futility of my approach, I pivoted. Starting with the alphabet, I worked with my student to improve his reading fundamentals. Slowly but surely, for two Saturdays a month, we worked together. I made sure to feed him positive reinforcement as his skills improved; I wanted my student to focus on the journey, rather than the destination. Four months after we started, he was enthusiastic about reading and was reading at a first-grade level.

How did COVID-19 change your perspective on your career and your life in general? The pandemic reinforced how fleeting life is. In the past I have found excuses not to start different activities or initiatives. I tried to tackle challenges in one attempt, rather than acknowledging that, as my mother would say, “I can’t eat an elephant in one bite.” Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, I have pushed myself outside my comfort zone by going on five road trips, starting to practice yoga, and becoming a regular runner. I was able to accomplish this by starting small, and building my comfort, flexibility, and aerobic capacity step by step.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point and what do you hope to do after graduation? At Disney, I enjoyed working cross-disciplinarily, and wanted to pursue more work in this vein. I established a strong foundation in finance via undergraduate studies, internships, and four years at Disney. Thus, it made sense to seek paths to expand my expertise.

I plan to explore classes at Yale SOM to focus on market research, design thinking, and strategic decision-making to round out my capabilities. In the short term, I will pursue roles in consulting and, at a later point, will transition back into hospitality in a strategic capacity.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management, University of Virginia Darden School of Business, New York University Stern School of Business

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into Yale SOM’s MBA program? The two questions you should be asking yourself are:

1. Can I use this school’s curriculum, opportunities, and resources to get me where I want to go?
2. Do the school’s mission, current students, alum, community, etc., align with the person I want to be after business school?

If the answer to these two questions is yes, then focus on specificity. Once you’ve identified what factors matter most (brand, geography, industry focus, etc.), then start to gather information about each factor. Then reach out and engage with admission officers, current students, and alums. Ask intentional questions that will inform your decision-making process and enable you to see yourself at SOM. The more targeted your essays and answers are, the greater likelihood you have of admittance.