Best & Brightest Executive MBAs Of 2024

Bernard P. Chang holds a Ph.D. from Harvard and an M.D. from Stanford. An emergency physician and psychologist, he serves as the associate dean of the Columbia University Medical Center. A board member of the American College of Emergency physicians, Dr. Chang ranks among the field’s ten-highest-funded scientists by National Institutes of Health dollars. And he is a husband, father, and sailing instructor who is fluent in six languages too.

To most, Dr. Chang would seem to have it all. What would he have left to do or prove? Two years ago, Chang says he’d reached the “comfortable crossroads.” He was blessed with a great job and a deep network. Still, he wanted to freshen his skills so he could take the “next step” in making a difference in healthcare. To do that, he took inspiration from his nautical experience.

“Even if you’re not a plumber or electrician, you should understand how boat systems work (e.g., basics of marine engines, how a marine toilet operates) in order to efficiently and safely operate a vessel,” he tells P&Q. “Similarly, while you may not be an accountant or logistics specialist, it is crucial you learn to speak the language and understand the key issues or foundational principles that those fields rely on so that you can be an effective and thoughtful leader or proverbial captain of the ship.”

LEARNING TO BE A “NEWBIE” AGAIN

To do that, Dr. Chang joined the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School’s Executive MBA program. On one hand, the program requires seven-hour flights every few weeks for classes. However, Dr. Chang also indulged in the Oxford life. This included living and dining in “ancient halls” – the ones that inspired Harry Potter – with classmates and scholars alike. While the Saïd programming sharpened his leadership skills, Dr. Chang discovered something equally valuable as an MBA student.

“I believe the hidden curriculum of one’s school is the social interactions and organic conversations that occur in the hallways and restaurants bars, and cafes between sessions and during modules,” he adds. “This hidden curriculum, the immersive aspect of the program was my main draw, particularly to be amongst peers at the executive level.”

The Executive MBA wasn’t easy for a working professional like Chang. Sometimes, he felt guilty being away from his family. When classes re-started in January, he can still remember the “panic” that hit when he learned his wife was expecting another child. Quickly enough, Chang snapped back, recognizing the news as “GOOD stress”. Even more, such events reinforced the nature of business school: it is a time to welcome the chaos, grapple with doubts, and capitalize on the growth that comes with community and humility.

“Embrace the change to be vulnerable and “the newbie”,” he asserts. “As executives, business school can be quite uncomfortable being out of one’s comfort zone, particularly for those who have established themselves and where no one knows you’re the “big dog”…But I would encourage you to embrace that position of being the learner and being the person who may not know the most in the room. The executive MBA experience is magical in the sense of what you can learn from not just your professors but your classmates. Embrace that discomfort!”

62 GRADUATES FROM 57 BUSINESS SCHOOLS

Chang is among the 62 EMBAs who are members of P&Q’s Best & Brightest Executive MBAs from the Class of 2024. Entering its 10th year, the Best & Brightest honors EMBA graduates whose academic performance, extracurricular leadership, and professional achievement made them the most invaluable members of their classes. This year’s graduates were chosen from 54 of the highest-ranked programs from both the Poets&Quants and Financial Times Executive MBA rankings. Among the schools, you’ll find the Wharton School, INSEAD, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School, and U.C. Berkeley’s Haas School.

As a whole, the class ranges in age from 31-57, with women outnumbering men by a 37-to-25 ratio. They include leaders in areas like non-profits, healthcare, and retail. At the same time, their employers are a who’s who of global business excellence: Google, ExxonMobil, Warner Bros, and Johnson & Johnson. Outside work, they are volunteers, advocates, brothers, sisters, husbands and wives. Many are parents too, including Cornell University’s Donna Keefe who is raising a family of ten. As undergraduates, the Best & Brightest majored in disciplines as different as Theater, International Peace Studies, and Philosophy. They are MDs, PhDs, and JDs – not to mention engineers, investors, and entrepreneurs. And they are all united by a love for learning. Look no further than Wharton’s Claudia Olsson, who boasts two master’s degrees, two semesters abroad, a field study, and coursework completed at Harvard and Oxford.

January Parkos Arnall holds an MFA in Photography and a PhD in Cultural Studies and Museum Studies. While studying at USC’s Marshall School, she worked as the director of public programs and creative practice at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, a museum slated to open next year that was started by Star Wars creator George Lucas. When Alistair Wye wasn’t commuting to the Cambridge Judge Business School, he was heading up global emerging technology and innovation at Latham & Watkins LLP, a $5.5-billion-dollar global law firm that employs over 3,500 attorneys. Iain Turnbull shuttled between being a Google program manager and a Duke Fuqua EMBA student. Before that, he gave up a career as a brand strategist to become a member of the U.S. Army Special Forces. For Merianne Kimmel Roth, the vice chancellor for marketing and communication at Texas Christian University, becoming a student at the Neeley School has been a full circle moment.

“It has been the privilege of a lifetime to experience TCU as a student, in addition to being on staff. As a marketer, there’s no better way to understand what a school is about than to be a student.”

AN ALL-STAR COHORT

Some might be intimidated by Greg Wallig’s credentials. He is a managing principal at Grant Thornton and heads up their national public policy. Notably, the Georgetown McDonough EMBA made the DC office into the firm’s flagship, now home to over 1,400 staff members that overlooks the National Mall. Along the way, he made Virginia Business Magazine’s list of the state’s most influential leaders from 2020-2023. To his boy scout troop, however, Wallig is simply known as their assistant scout master.

Warwick Business School’s Alistair Crawford also owns a track record for giving back. A former pilot and officer in the Royal Navy, Crawford once testified in court against Somali pirates. Afterward, he attracted £2M in seed funding to launch Mental Health Innovations, a 24×7 support service to help people in crisis. For Crawford, the Warwick MBA has supplied him with different “models and lenses” to better gauge his firm’s practices and effectiveness.

“I’ve been able to bring these skills into the charity, applying them daily in delivering mental health text messaging support. I have directly applied the learnings to improve organizational structures and operational processes to better support our 2,000 active volunteers and improve on their experience with us. We’re on a journey to improving their experience and retention rates.”

The Class of 2024 also features a bevy of graduates who’ve held weighty, pressure-packed roles outside the classroom. At BASF, INSEAD’s Dr. Nathalie Mehanna oversees regulatory affairs for the Pharma, Human Nutrition, and Animal Nutrition units in three regions: Emerging Europe, Middle East, and Africa. When Celine CHEN JIANJUN wasn’t absorbing her readings at CEIBS, she served as the general manager for Johnson & Johnson’s Vision Care operation in China. IESE’s Nadja Håkansson is now CEO of thyssenkrupp Uhde GmBH, a top engineering firm in the development of chemical and refining plants. Before that, she spent 18 years at Siemens in various leadership roles across the globe – even collecting the Siemens Spark Award in 2015 for the most innovative customer project. If you’re wondering who created the fabric for your favorite fleece, that might just be Cassia Lewis Cameron. A graduate of the UCLA-National University of Singapore joint EMBA program, she works as Patagonia’s senior material developer. When your children are cheering on super pets, you can thank Shanon Muir for laying the groundwork. At Warner Bros Discovery, she runs legal and business affairs for its group animation division.

BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER THROUGH FILM

Erin Nazetta has racked up accolades as a subject matter expert from the likes of the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg. That hasn’t inflated the ego of Nazetta, the director for food and agriculture research for Broadview Capital Holdings. After all, she hasn’t forgotten where she started.

“Growing up on a farm and milking cows to pay for college provided me with a humble beginning that laid the groundwork for a career I could never have imagined. This journey from farm life to global business leadership has been a source of immense pride and is deeply fulfilling.”

Mana Yamaguchi is a vice president of global marketing strategy at Lionsgate when she wasn’t earning her MBA at UCLA’s Anderson School. Last year, she realized a dream when Joy Ride was released in theaters. The story of four friends coming to terms with their identities, Yamaguchi was sold on the project after reading the script, which she says “represented the AAPI community in a light that was authentic, humorous, messy, and joyful.” Even more, her work on the film enabled her to “counteract” growing attacks on the Asian Pacific Americans.

“The true reward came when the movie was released, and I heard feedback from friends and viewers who felt that it had empowered them to embrace and express their true selves,” Yamaguchi adds. “Hearing someone say that Joy Ride gave them the confidence to stop hiding and be authentically themselves underscored the profound impact that inclusive content can have on individuals and communities. This experience reaffirmed my belief in the power of film to bring people together and influence cultural perceptions positively.”

FROM CUSTOMER SUPPORT TO CEO

Medical professionals are particularly well-represented among the 2024 Best & Brightest Executive MBAs. The Yale School of Management’s Monique Andrea Rainford runs her own OB/GYN practice. She is also the author of Pregnant While Black, which earned her an interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd. Amal Isaiah, who heads up Pediatric Otolaryngology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, is a prolific researcher. His finding has been published in over 70 journal articles and edited two books. Even more, the University of Maryland MBA grad holds six patents. By the same token, John Erwin III chairs Endeavor Health’s Department of Internal Medicine outside of classes at Indiana University’s Kelley School. In addition, he has been chosen as the only male member of the American College of Cardiology, Women in Cardiology Leadership section. To Erwin, this honor reflects his deeper purpose of being a mentor and advocate for younger colleagues in the field.

“I’ve got countless students, residents, fellows, and professional peers that I’ve helped to coach and mentor across the years. Many, if not most of them, still reach out to me regularly to either express appreciation for that, or to continue to seek my advice, both clinically and from a life coaching standpoint. So, it’s the people. I’ve had a lot of people pour into me over the years, and it’s just been great to pay that forward.”

Other achievements were more easily quantified. Exhibit A: Bingjie Li of the University of Chicago’s Booth School. Four years ago, she joined the Insurance Solutions Group, a startup with no assets, as its 4th employee. Now, she overseas asset pricing with $14 billion in assets. Before enrolling at Georgia Tech’s Scheller College, Manjish Naik ran a product’s development cycle from concept to launch to $20 million in annual revenue. Aleem Dhanani, a graduate of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School, spearheaded the due diligence of the largest Canadian bank acquisition — $16 billion dollars! And how is this for a legacy? Two decades ago, Brian Rapp co-created Best Buy’s “store-within-a-store” concept, the Magnolia Home Theater.

You could describe Wharton’s Claudia Olsson as a trailblazer. The World Economic Forum has appointed her as a Young Global Leader. Last fall, the #addher Awards named her Sweden’s Most Visionary Woman in Tech and IT at. If you’re looking for a feel-good story, it would be hard to top Ryan Dickerson. Twelve years ago, he joined IPeople Healthcare at the entry level: customer support. Nearly a decade later, he had grown into their CEO thanks to “hard work, a million questions, and even a few mistakes.”

“The company took a risk on me, hiring a recently graduated theatre major with some technical skills,” writes Dickerson, a new graduate of Baylor University’s Hankamer School. “They invested in me throughout the years, listened to my at-times crazy ideas, and believed in me even when I sometimes found it hard to believe in myself. They showed me grace throughout my career, and I am blessed to now be in a position to share that grace with our new employees and incredible staff.”

Page 3: 62 profiles of this year’s Best & Brightest Executive MBA grads.