Meet UNC Kenan-Flagler’s MBA Class Of 2026

P&Q: What types of programming – through classroom instruction, extracurriculars, and treks – does your school offer to expose students to country-specific and global business practices? What have students told you were the most educational and fun aspects of these activities?

Davis: “We also blend critical soft-skill development into our MBA global programs.

Specifically, we developed a global competency model to develop global business practices that emphasizes nine competencies aimed at their growth in terms of adaptability, collaboration, communication, empathy, flexibility, openness, resiliency, respectfulness and self-awareness. We develop those skills through assignments that introduce students to cultural humility, dimensions of culture, creating adaptive strategies and personal goals, and understanding business, economic, political and historical environments.

We believe we are among the very best in developing and offering MBA global programs. We offer nearly 10 faculty-led Global Immersion Electives (GIEs) every academic year. We have offered GIEs since 1993, and our students have studied – and networked – in over 85 countries, including some of the world’s most dynamic economies. In the most recent five-year period, we have provided country-specific courses to over 35 countries, including locations across five continents. In the most recent 10-year period these numbers expand to 50 countries and six continents.

Notably, we maintain partnerships with nearly 85 business schools in over 40 countries to offer in module- or semester-long exchange programs. The reach of our partnerships means we can find a school and program that matches students’ professional pursuits and personal interests.”

P&Q: What are the most exciting new courses that your school is offering to MBAs this school year? What makes them so unique and valuable?

Davis: “A.I. Entrepreneurship provides students with a unique opportunity to create a generative AI-powered business from the ground up. They will work in self-selected teams to guide a new venture through the entire entrepreneurial journey while simultaneously developing hands-on skills in leveraging the latest generative AI tools and technologies.

The class takes students through key business planning elements, starting with identifying a promising market opportunity for a generative AI application. They will then learn how to thoroughly understand their target customers, design a compelling product or service offering, and gather valuable feedback to refine their plans. Students will use generative AI tools to create all course deliverables – from developing customer personas and idea brainstorming to creating images, videos and product mockups. This immersive, AI-powered approach will allow them to rapidly develop fluency in leveraging these transformative technologies. By the end of the course, students will have developed a comprehensive business plan for their own generative AI start-up, ready to pitch to leadership, and be equipped with an invaluable skillset to thrive in the fast-paced world of AI entrepreneurship.

Analytics and Machine Learning for Managerial Decisions prepares students to leverage data and analytics to make better-informed business decisions. It covers how the explosion of available data and advancements in machine learning have enabled organizations to make more accurate predictions to guide their operations. It will equip students with the skills to use analytical modeling to make decisions despite high uncertainty in both the public and private sectors. They will learn to evaluate when to apply analytics, frame analytics problems, understand common analytics concepts and challenges, and appreciate the potential of machine learning and AI in business.

Specific topics include data acquisition and descriptive analytics, predictive analytics covering forecasting models and machine learning, and prescriptive analytics involving optimization and simulation. The emphasis is on real-world case studies and data rather than specific software tools, and the course assumes only basic Excel knowledge with no prior coding experience required. The overarching goal is to develop students’ ability to leverage data and analytics to drive better business decisions.

The Democratization of Generative AI follows Open AI’s launch of ChatGPT in 2022, generative AI use has grown exponentially. Consequently, organizations and individuals must rethink their business strategies as generative AI tools become more democratized or widely used. This new course covers various topics, including generative AI’s capabilities and limitations, strategic approaches toward generative AI, skills needed for an AI-driven world, and the future of AI and humanity.

To understand generative AI’s short- and long-term impact, this course introduces the technology applications and implications model (TAIM). This customizable model allows students to discern how generative AI can help achieve their business mission and goals, as well how it can hold greater implications on their organization, industry, and the world. Additionally, this course provides students with relevant, hands-on learning experiences with generative AI tools specific to their industry (e.g., prompting, image generation, custom GPTs, scenario planning, etc.).

Through in-class guest speakers and panelists, students will be exposed to a plethora of AI thought leadership, expertise, and insights to guide their own decision-making. In class, they will participate in specialized sessions including maximizing your generative AI powers, considerations in building your AI strategy, AI in healthcare, AI and scenario planning, and AI ethics.

Climate Tech Startups and Investors offers a new perspective on addressing climate change through entrepreneurship and innovation. Rather than focusing solely on public policy, it examines how entrepreneurs can develop impactful technology solutions while also generating attractive financial returns for investors.

The course takes a micro-level view, exploring a diverse range of climate tech industries, such as renewable energy, electric vehicles, carbon capture, hydrogen, smart agriculture, food tech, green real estate, and advanced materials. This breadth of coverage develops students’ deeper understanding of the entrepreneurial and investment landscape in the climate tech sector.

Women in Leadership takes an awareness and skills-based approach to addressing the challenges women face in progressing to leadership positions within organizations. It equips students with the knowledge and competencies to effectively navigate the obstacles – persistent gender role differences and structural/interpersonal dynamics – that can impair women’s advancement.

The curriculum provides an overview of relevant theory on gender and leadership, and emphasizes experiential learning through case studies, scenarios, and interactive activities. Class exercises are designed to help students recognize the specific challenges women in leadership encounter and develop strategies to address them. Key objectives of the course include understanding organizational barriers to women’s leadership; cultivating an impactful personal leadership brand and advocacy approach; enhancing credibility and relationship-building for women leaders; and developing skills for navigating critical conversations.

How the C-Suite Balances Competing Public Policy Interests: The Evolution of Stakeholder Capitalism focuses on the transition from traditional shareholder capitalism to stakeholder capitalism. It provides historical context of the shareholder-to-stakeholder capitalism evolution, highlights relevant U.S. corporate law and governance practices, and analyzes the reactions and perspectives of various stakeholders (e.g., business groups, labor, investors, Congress, etc.). Guest speakers and thought leaders share their insights and expertise of stakeholder capitalism within their respective industries.”

P&Q: Who are two new professors who’ve joined your faculty in the past year? What do they teach and how will they be difference-makers in your MBA program?

Davis: “Navid Mojir joined us from Harvard Business School. He is an outstanding teacher with extensive experience and he will be teaching product management at UNC Kenan-Flagler. Because of close connection with the business community, he as a good grasp of the latest trends across different industries, particularly the tech industry, which he has leveraged for both teaching and research. He has worked closely with companies like Dell Technologies and Caterpillar to develop best-seller cases taught in many business schools across the world.

His industry collaborations also have prepared him to tackle cutting-edge questions with real-world implication, such as measuring the impact of individual relationships on pricing strategies or the economic value of AI-based predictions.

He studies organizational buying and selling, and the implications of novel data collection and analysis technologies like the internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) for the practice of business-to-business (B2B) marketing. He has worked with organizations across various industries – from the Federal Reserve to medical device manufacturers, and heavy-construction equipment sellers – to assemble proprietary datasets to study organizational buying. He received his PhD, M.Phil. and MA from Yale School of Management and has an MBA in operations, a B.Sc. in civil engineering and a B.Sc. in applied mathematics from the University of Tehran.”

P&Q: What types of support does your career center and alumni provide to MBA students? How have these services and relationship made your graduates more competitive in the marketplace?

Davis: “UNC Kenan-Flagler MBA alumni have lifelong access to elective coursework, enabling them to continue to refine their business acumen or develop new, highly relevant competencies and skills for today’s workplace.

Alumni enroll in coursework as a result of a career progression, such as a promotion, job shifts into a new functional area, or expanded areas of responsibility. Our alumni also take advantage of our promise to provide unlimited lifetime access to one-on-one career coaching sessions, providing them with the needed support throughout all phases of their career journey.  Access to these resources of this nature have a profound impact on the competitiveness of our MBA graduates in the marketplace.

Our MBA students receive comprehensive career development services, including 1:1 career and leadership coaching, leadership and skill development assessments, professional development training and workshops associated with job search success, and dozens of school-facilitated engagements with employers and other related networking events including career fairs and conferences.

Our Career & Leadership Office has adopted a three-phase coaching model that includes knowing yourself, knowing the market and marketing yourself. To further operationalize this cogent model, all MBA students have access to the following resources:

• Unlimited, 1:1 coaching sessions (lifetime access)
• Extensive recruiting: Over 280 companies hire our MBA students annually, with more than 100 companies visiting campus for recruitment.
• Clifton Strengths, Career Leader and 360⁰ Multi-Rater assessments supported by in-depth coaching sessions to interpret results.
• Specialized professional development programs such as Training the Street for careers in financial services
• Specialized sessions to develop high-impact personal brands and elevate LinkedIn profiles.
• Access to numerous just-in-time resources such as industry and company salary data, sample interview questions, jobs boards and postings, and case-based interviewing essentials
• Access to the VMOCK resume scan and score portal
• Access to internal and external career fairs with on-site coaching support.”

MBA Student	Hometown	Undergraduate Alma Mater	Last Employer
Leah Adams	Fayetteville, NC	Spelman College	Cape Fear Valley Hospital
Emily Dixon	Bath, United Kingdom	Elon University	KULKEA
Omar Estrada	Denver, CO	University of Colorado at Boulder	Colorado Department of Education
McLean Fonvielle	Alexandria, VA	Washington and Lee University	Lincoln Property Company
Kento Fuchino	Tokyo, Japan	Hitotsubashi University	Kajima Corporation
Eliza Joyner	Charlotte, NC	Sewanee: The University of the South	Madison Services Group, Inc.
Katja Muller	San Jose, CA	University of Pennsylvania	One Acre Fund
Chris Nwosu	East Orange, NJ	Union College	Conmotors Limited
Pragnya Paramita Panda	Bhubaneswar, India	Institute of Technical Education and Research	Deloitte
Emma Tillitski	Boca Raton, FL	University of Virginia	Silicon Ranch Corporation
William “Bill” Woods	East Sandwich, MA	Fairfield University	Stag Industrial