Meet Dartmouth Tuck’s MBA Class Of 2024

Don’t you want to get away? Slow it down. Free yourself from distractions. Just fresh air and nature. Around friends – and always the center of attention.

That’s the Dartmouth Difference, the Tuck Tradition. It is an Ivy that feels more like a refuge. No undergrads clogging up the halls. No packed roads or relentless noise. Just a college town surrounded by wide open space. A place to be you. A place to pursue your passions with fewer distractions alongside people who share your values.

A “CULTURE OF CO-INVESTMENT”

“I loved that [Tuck] is a community of people who specifically wanted this experience; a “24/7 MBA” in a small town off the beaten track, and that they were willing to uproot themselves in order to get it,” explains Andrew Key, a second-year MBA. “And based on the levels of alumni engagement, it was clear that the attachment to this community had real staying power—it was not just something you did to help two years go by more pleasantly. By going to Tuck, you were expanding your identity for life.”

The program is smaller than many top business schools: Just 287 students in the Class of 2024. That creates, in Key’s words, a “culture of co-investment.” In other words, MBA students are expected to be involved since everyone matters. That means everyone assumes leadership in one form because they are responsible for their own experience. As a result, as Key observes, Tuck events are often “fresh and relevant” since students invest “sweat equity” in them.

“There is no room for loafers,” Key adds. “Intentionality with this school does not end once you unload your moving truck; by choosing Tuck, you are choosing to take ownership of a slice of life at Tuck. Even something as simple as making sure that Tuckies get home safely after long nights out is student-owned; we have the SafeRides club to coordinate nightly coverage of designated drivers from a student body-wide pool of volunteers.”

Tuck Hall in the Winter

RETURN TO NATURE

You could call Tuck a throwback, a place where many students live in MBA-specific dorms like they were back in college. That was the case for Chris Lites, who has already spent three years at Dartmouth as a medical student. Now a first-year MBA, he has found the Tuck life to be a major transition – in a good way.

“I now live in the dorms, fully amongst friends, and every waking moment is full of challenge and excitement. There is always something to do and I am always pulled in a million directions.”

Need something to do at Tuck? Think canoeing, swimming, biking, boating, skating, snowshoeing, golfing, and wine-tasting – to name a few activities. The area is packed with trails, mountains, and gorges with jaw-dropping views. You can stroll through a farmer’s market, take a carriage ride, and top it off with home-made ice cream. Who knows, you might just spot a bald eagle, white-tail deer, or beaver along the way. Make no mistake: Tuck students are an outdoors-y bunch. It is just one of the ways they relax and connect, says Marcus Bailey, a first-year and product manager who originally grew up in New York City.

“Hanover and the Upper Valley is such a beautiful place, and I’m excited to take advantage of the outdoor opportunities in my daily life. Hobbies that used to take a lot of effort, like hiking, skiing, and fly-fishing, can be fit into a couple of free hours I have in the mornings or afternoons. When it comes time for homework, I even try to do as much as I can on the Raether deck or by the firepit at home. I expect to spend most of my life in a city, so I want to make the most of this while I can.”

FROM TESLA TO MCKINSEY

“Commitment to community” is one term you’ll hear around Tuck. Another is “Tuck Nice.” Fact is, Tuck seeks out a certain type of candidate. Smarts and accomplishments are a given. At the same time, a “Tuckie” is self-aware. They understand how their attitudes and actions impact their peers. So they focus on being open, positive, supportive. That doesn’t mean Tuckies can’t be assertive; they just know how to convey differences in diplomatic ways, always on the lookout for the win-win. It is a mentality that has been handed down from second-years to their eventual replacements in the Class of 2024.

“The unique culture and values really distinguish Tuck from other MBA programs,” observes Yida Wu.  “Humble, reflective, and encouraging, it’s a place we self-select into and gradually learn the effects as we are brought into the community. A place that creates a positive cycle where you find yourself suddenly helping and greeting others, because you received that along your journey.”

In Wu’s case, his journey started in China and shifted to the University of North Carolina, where he studied Economics. From there, he returned to China, where he served as Tesla’s inside sales manager. His claim to fame? “[I] led the product launch for Model X and the initial sales campaign for Model 3 in the China market.”

Tesla isn’t the only big name where the Class of 2024 made an impact. Working on Walmart’s corporate development team, D’Najah Picou helped the firm acquire Even, a growing FinTech platform. At McKinsey, Analisse Marquez – a chemical engineer by training – enabled a client to boost their ventilator capacity by 40 times during COVID. Before business school Jerome Delmotte became responsible for Latin American cash flow processes for Diageo, a $22 billion dollar beverage company. Just one problem: He basically had to build the region’s forecasting processes up from scratch.

“After meeting with several senior stakeholders in the region, I designed and coordinated the implementation of a strategy consisting of structural changes in processes and a large-scale training program,” Delmotte writes. “These actions allowed Diageo Latin America to go from worst to best globally in Diageo for cash flow forecasting accuracy and led the group to consider the Latin American region as a benchmark for the rest of the organization.”

Tuck Orientation – Class of 2024

MOM, BLACKHAWK PILOT, MBA

The class also made an impression as entrepreneurs. Marcus Bailey spent three years heading up product development and strategy at LiquidX, a SaaS cash management and business intelligence platform. In India, Ashwin Chandrasekhar served as the VP of Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME), a platform designed to make entrepreneurship more accessible to the nation’s unemployed. Here, he handled everything from fundraising to research to advocacy.

“I led a group of organizations (i.e., a think tank, a regulatory tech firm, and PwC as implementation partners) that achieved 10 significant improvements to small business legislation in the state of Punjab in India. We reduced the time taken to start a business and cut down the regulatory costs to run a business in the state. These changes impacted 500,000 business owners.”

Speaking of the public good, Adrian Heneveld grew a Boston nonprofit, Harlem Lacrosse, from 45 to 400 members, increasing revenue by 10 times as well.  As a medical student, Chris Lites became the CEO of a global nonprofit, Medicine in Motion, which promotes fitness events to fight burnout among medical professionals. At the same time, Kathryne Crowley’s service involved being a Blackhawk helicopter pilot, along with roles as a company commander and instructor pilot.

“I took command of my team a year before a scheduled combat deployment and spent the year leading up to departure building a cohesive and collaborative unit to succeed in our assigned mission,” she writes. “My team was very junior, and we had to work extremely hard to be prepared for the ambiguity we knew we would face overseas. We were halfway through our deployment in March of 2020, and COVID added a unique and extremely difficult element to an already tough operating environment. The biggest accomplishment of my career thus far was bringing each one of my fifty teammates home safe from combat after a challenging and dynamic deployment.”

A TUCK MBA? CALL IT DESTINY

And what has Crowley done since then? “

Two months after my son was born, my husband and I sold our house and moved into our 36-foot fifth-wheel RV home-on-wheels for three months before I started at Tuck. We drove the RV from Alabama to New Hampshire and had a blast ‘glamping’ along the way.”

Sound like fun? Try being Hilde Tineo, who is one of Nike’s running shoe tester. Jennifer Chacon Salas, a Costa Rican by nationality and accountant by trade, learned English by listening to records from Avril Levine. Chris Lites competes globally in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. And if you’re looking for a great story, here’s why D’Najah Picou believes she was destined to eventually join the Tuck School.

“My mother was giving a presentation about herself at her current company, and during that presentation she included pictures of her family. In one of the pictures, I happened to be wearing a Tuck shirt and Tuck alum reached out to her and insisted that I connect with them. They didn’t have a strong connection to my mother and had zero connection to me, but they knew I was going to Tuck and that was enough. This embodies exactly why I chose Tuck.”

Hanover Drone Image

NOWHERE TO HIDE FOR TUCKIES

Indeed, Tuckies stick together – even those who didn’t necessarily take classes together. That was Yida Wu’s experience. He calls it the “Tuck Fabric” – that “tight-knit” vibe where no Tuck alum is ever really a stranger. At one Tuck admissions event in China, Wu recalls, the 16 alumni who joined him turned it into a “mini reunion,” despite their graduation years ranging from 1998-2018. Fast forward to now, Ashwin Chandrasekhar has been stunned by how well the Class of 2023 knows each other’s strengths. He jokes how second-years have quickly pointed him to individuals known for their prowess in everything from networking to cooking.

“At Tuck, you spend a lot of time with your peers,” Chandrasekha adds. “You can’t hide here. I was told before arriving that the Tuck community provided one of the strongest professional networks and I now see why. I am only two months into my Tuck experience, and I am sure that the friendships I have made will exist far beyond graduation.  “Tuck nice” is a saying on this campus for a reason.”

And this spirit breathes camaraderie into every interaction. That happens right from the start says Adrian Heneveld. “Upon arriving in Hanover, I participated in a three-day backpacking trip with fellow Tuckies. The Appalachian Trail goes right through Dartmouth, so we met at Tuck Hall and walked right onto the trail. The Dartmouth Outing Club is responsible for maintaining over fifty miles of the Appalachian Trail and owns numerous cabins along the way. Our group, which was given the trail name “Fresh Laundry” by a thru-hiker who started in Georgia, became very close during the experience. The long days of hiking provided a valuable opportunity to get to know each other and was the perfect way to start my business school experience.”

WORTH THE DRIVE FOR RECRUITERS AND GUESTS ALIKE

Heneveld has been equally bullish on his Hanover digs, including family housing for his wife and two daughters. “Sachem Village provides an amazing opportunity to build community with other families who are going through the same experience. In addition, I look forward to taking full advantage of all the outdoor activities in the beautiful Upper Valley including hiking, cycling, Tripod Hockey, and skiing.”

Four seasons living out in the country is perfect for getting in shape, engaging in self-reflection, and communing with nature. It is, in the words of ’22 alum Eva Greene, a “place to pick up new hobbies and lean into old ones.” Admittedly, you won’t find a big airport or a Chick-fil-A nearby, jokes D’Najah Picou. In its place, you’ll enjoy a business school where full-time MBAs are the center of attention. No undergraduate business majors or executive MBAs means all resources are funneled to the full-time class. Another advantage: Tuck’s remote location means that recruiters stick around and spend time with students. After all, it is a day-long trip. While Hanover is a two-hour drive from Boston, you’ll find plenty of distinguished guests who look forward to seeing the fall foliage and winter snowscapes.

“The exploratory opportunities and networking access that business school provided is what surprised me the most,” explains ’22 alum Andrew Hazel, who landed a Boston Consulting Group gig after graduation. “I have been able to talk directly to the former U.S. Deputy Attorney General regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion; work with cabinet members from the country of Georgia on farming reform; moderate a Q&A session with the CFO of Bank of America; and develop a case study with one of the CEOs of the Federal Reserve Bank. Interestingly, this is only a fraction of the opportunities and connections I have been able to make the last two years, and they were all possible because of business school. The experience has truly been astonishing and life-changing.”

Next Page: Interview with Dean Matthew Slaughter

Page 3: 12 Student Profiles

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