Jack Martin

Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business

“Kansas veteran with passion for protectionism, agriculture, bicycles, and fighting climate change with sustainable diets.”

Hometown: Chanute, Kansas, United States

Fun Fact About Yourself: My partner and I hiked 100 miles around Mt Rainier on the Wonderland Trail this summer.

Undergraduate School and Major: United States Military Academy at West Point; Operations Research

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Army Infantry Officer

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of Carnegie Mellon’s MBA curriculum and programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? I’m drawn to the fact that Tepper’s culture is tied to its development of the Management Science approach to business school. Tepper build cohorts with innovative future leaders with heavy STEM backgrounds. This leads to a community with a richly diverse background tied together with a data-driven and technical approach to solving problems.

What course, club or activity excites you the most at Carnegie Mellon? I’m excited by the opportunities to take courses focusing on emergent uses of robotics and AI offered at Tepper. I believe Automation and Artificial Intelligence will be two of the drivers of growth, innovation, and the fight against climate change for the foreseeable future. I’m excited to be surrounded by the most brilliant minds in both fields.

The Tepper MBA is known for intensive one-on-one coaching and personal development. What area do you hope to strengthen during your two years in business school and why? I’m looking forward to how to lead a business in the future to make data-informed and human-driven decisions. Many teachers here are proud of the interdisciplinary nature of their work and truly feel that being interdisciplinary has increased the quality.

The Tepper MBA is also known for being highly data-driven Why does the program’s focus on quantitative analysis and decision-making appeal to you? How have been able to leverage this approach in your career so far? A data driven approach allows you to remove personal, historical, or emotional bias from the situation. Data allows you to confirm or deny that hunch that you get when interpreting the way things really are. In the Army, maximizing training outcomes while optimizing resource allocation is a constant tension that gave me practice in using, and many cases failing to use, a data driven decision making process for determining training plans. Transitioning to Tepper will amplify these skills for broader impact.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: My greatest accomplishment is bringing all of my soldiers home safely on multiple overseas tours.

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into Carnegie Mellon’s MBA program? I feel lucky to be admitted to the class of 2025 and don’t feel overly qualified to give others advice. However, my advice would be to reflect of the narrative of your journey through life so far and craft a compelling story that aligns with CMU’s values.