John Marshall

Columbia Business School

“I am a film producer from Canada who loves movies!”

Hometown: Toronto, Canada

Fun Fact About Yourself: I am a twin!

Undergraduate School and Major: Princeton University, Philosophy

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Pigasus Pictures, Head of Content Acquisition

What makes New York City such a great place to earn an MBA? New York City offers the best setting for earning an MBA. It has incredible proximity to key business industries and networking opportunities. Furthermore, so many amazing speakers and leaders live in New York that you have access to through CBS. Finally, I love getting my MBA in New York since I can have a good balance of new MBA colleagues and friends from my previous social circles.

Aside from your classmates and location, what was the key part of Columbia Business School’s MBA curriculum programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you?  I chose to attend Columbia Business School because of their fantastic new facilities, excellent professors in the media and entertainment space such as Jonathan Knee who teaches the Media M&A class, and the large class size! CBS is much larger than most MBA programs and it has given me the opportunity to connect with many new friends.

What course, club or activity excites you the most at Columbia Business School? The Media Management Association (MMA) excites me the most at CBS. I am a member and helping to run the East Coast Conference. Additionally, I am excited to go on the West Coast Trek to Los Angeles in early January to meet popular employers in the media and entertainment space.

Looking at your recruitment, what was the moment when you realized Columbia Business School was the right program for you? Why? I realized Columbia Business School was the right program for me when I attended the admit day. CBS was incredibly well organized, and their facilities and speakers were far and away better than any other MBA program that I looked into.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: My biggest accomplishment is my role as an Executive Producer for the feature film FLAVIA coming to consumers in 2025 filmed in London starring Martin Freeman!

What do you hope to do after graduation? After graduation, I hope to work in consulting with a specialization in media and entertainment products.

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into Columbia Business School’s MBA program? I would highly recommend using Magoosh. It is an online tutoring service that helps you train for the GRE and GMAT. It was incredibly useful for me to hit my testing goals.

Additionally, I would recommend going to the school in person before deciding to attend. It’s important to get a feel for the program and space before making your final decision.

DON’T MISS: MEET COLUMBIA BUSINESS SCHOOL’S MBA CLASS OF 2026