Sasha McNair 

Emory University, Goizueta Business School

“A change agent hoping to leverage innovation and technology to transform the corporate environment into a more socially conscious place.”

Hometown: Washington, DC

Fun fact about yourself: I almost went to high school with the Obamas.

Undergraduate School and Degree: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Psychology & Global Studies

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school? Tiffany and Company, DEI Manager – Talent Acquisition

Where did you intern during the summer of 2024? Boston Consulting Group, Consultant – Atlanta

Where will you be working after graduation? Boston Consulting Group – Atlanta

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School: Co-President, Goizueta Consulting Association; Co-Lead, Orientation Program, Consortium; VP of DEI, Goizueta Business Association; Managing Director, John R. Lewis Case Competition

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? As the co-president of the Goizueta Consulting Association, I’m most proud of our success in providing the first years with an extensive curriculum, training, and the “know-how” to give an excellent behavioral and case which led many to gain internship offers in summer 2025. This year we had 130+ interviews that led to almost 40 offers. When I saw the smiling faces or received the excited texts from amazing first years like Mackenzie Heriford, Shivani Sandu, Mark Herron, Rahul Viswanathan, or James Cochran, it made the 10+ hours a week that the GCA board put in over the fall semester that much more worth it. I hope that this also shows that Goizueta Business School is a small but mighty consulting powerhouse that continuously sends more than a fourth of its class to top consulting firms and allows amazing talent with previous positions as teachers, engineers, marketers, and even high school football coaches the opportunity to shine.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? At Deloitte, I worked with an amazing team of leaders that believed in me and did everything in their power to ensure I succeeded. In that vein, during my career at the firm, I was pulled into an RFP worth $250 million for one of our federal clients. This year, I was going up for senior consultant early and therefore it was important that I was given a multitude of opportunities to perform at a higher level. As a rising senior consultant, I was leading the past performance portion of the proposal which is the job of a senior manager. With the support of leaders like Atresha Whitmore, Mark Porell, and Maggie Pavelka, not only did I exceed expectations with the past performance section, but I received an award and significant recognition for my work. That year, I was promoted to senior consultant almost a year-and-a-half earlier than the regular promotion schedule. This was an important milestone in my career because not only did I prove that I can do hard things but it also shaped the level of rigor and excellence that I brought to every project moving forward.

Why did you choose this business school? The best thing about Goizueta Business School is its small class size, which allows its students to have meaningful connections not only with each other but also members of the school administration. Through those relationships, I was able to not only reconnect with learning in a significant way, but I was also able to reimagine the kind of leader I wanted to be. Long conversations with Ama Fofie, Director of Culture, Inclusion, and Belonging and Vernon Smith, Senior Associate Director of Student Life & Engagement, reminded me that I could show vulnerability and still be well-respected as a mid-career professional. In fact, it’s my vulnerability that sets me apart and allows others to follow my lead without question. And most importantly, seeing a dean like Dean Brian is an experience that I don’t take for granted. As a Black man leading the charge in a predominantly White institution, he does so with such admirable strength and grace that I hope to be able to take his lead one day. It’s exceedingly important to have those that look like you in positions of power to not only understand what is possible but to also remind you that you’re not too far behind.

Who was your favorite MBA professor? JB Kurish – not only because he took a girl who couldn’t even begin to understand how to calculate the present value of a cash flow and gave her the tools to pass but also because of his genuine care for his students and their learning. As the core finance professor, he dedicated his Saturdays to provide additional support to those that had never had exposure to the finance concepts or just needed a little refresher on what we learned that week. I passed finance because of those sessions, but my favorite moments with JB were actually in our social impact investing course through the Business and Society Institute. JB carefully curated a curriculum that dove into how companies measure their ESG scores, the green bond market, the journey to net zero climate risk, and the impact of housing development in cities across the United States. It was refreshing to see a former investment banker care about more than just the bottom line. In that classroom, he provided a safe space and I’ll always be thankful for the environment he created for us as students.

What was your favorite course as an MBA? As someone that was continuously pulled into leading global strategies but always struggled with the correct frameworks or the incorporation of data analysis, my experiences in Professor Renee Dye’s strategy classes (Leading Organization & Strategy, Innovation Strategy, and Corporate Strategy) have been extremely impactful. Professor Dye has a way of reviewing cases, breaking down the key points, and referencing the capital structure of these organizations that allows students to get the full picture of why they succeeded or why they failed. Her attention to detail pushes her students from surface level observations to deeper level conclusions that uncover the root causes of company performance. I’m grateful that I was able to take her classes for three full semesters throughout my time at Goizueta. Not only did she make me a more adept strategist, but she also impacted the way that I approach problem solving, relationship building, and organizational assessments which I know will take me above and beyond in my consulting career.

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? I would take more risks academically. I think after my core semester, I was so shaken up by the rigor of the new concepts that were thrown my way that I shied away from taking the hard classes that were going to expose me to a different way of thinking. In my second semester I took classes that were in my comfort zone like Bias in the Workplace with Professor Erika Hall and Marketing Strategy for IMPACT with Professor Omar Rodriguez. Although Bias in the Workplace has become one of my favorite classes in my MBA career and I’m so grateful for the work that we did for the Safe House Project Team, I’m kicking myself for not taking classes like Entrepreneurial Private Equity or putting my hat in the ring for the strategic valuation IMPACT project. During my second year, I’ve course corrected by diving into the world of investment banking. Although it hasn’t been an easy path, I can already feel myself becoming a more well-rounded learner. I now understand the IPO process and how a firm is valued in the market which I’m sure is going to help set me apart in my career.

What is the biggest myth about your school? Instead of talking about a myth that needs to be debunked, I’d like to reiterate something that I thought was a myth that turned out to be true. You will pass so don’t worry about the grades or making dean’s list every semester. Just choose the classes that actually interest you and will push you to a different level in your career post-graduation.

What did you love most about your business school’s town? Before coming to Atlanta, I always heard the phrase “Atlanta isn’t a real place” and after living here for two years, I can definitely see why. There are so many different pockets that make the culture of this city unique, and every neighborhood feels distinct and provides a completely different experience. In my original post, I talked about the southern charm and global feel of the city, but ATL is so much more than that. It’s the “King of the Beltline,” Kevin, who rollerblades and sings up and down the strip that I catch on my Sunday walks and the coffee shops like Portrait Coffee in the West End with Black art lining the walls. And it’s the art and culture that bring you into cool spaces like the Fox Theatre, the Underground, and Buckhead Art Gallery. Most importantly, when I walk into spaces, I’m not the minority. There’s so much beautiful Blackness in this city that remind you that the experience of being Black is not a monolith and never will be.

What movie or television show (e.g. The Big Short, The Founder, Mad Men, House of Lies) best reflects the realities of business and what did you learn from it? Succession on HBO Max was one of my favorite shows before getting my MBA. Not only did I often have to google some of the business references immersed in the show’s script, but I also saw how crucial succession planning is in corporations. As you know, this show follows the leader of a media empire, Logan Roy, as he makes the executive decisions around who of his children will be next in line to lead Waystar Royco. One could argue that none of them were ready, which highlights how important it is to build followership early on in your career. That way, when you make it to the senior executive level, you have people that you mentored and that you trust to take over the reins once you’re gone. Logan used “tough love” to pit his children against each other and I’ve seen many leaders leverage this approach with their staff. They create a competitive environment meant to encourage the team to exhibit excellence. However, quite often, it creates burnout and leads to high turnover in companies across the country. In short, I learned that Logan Roy isn’t the type of leader that I want to be and that succession planning and creating followership is crucial from day one at any company.

What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What insights did you gain from using AI? This January, I took a domestic module with Professor Dye called Lessons in Leadership from American Literature. The course dove into great American authors like Herman Melville, Rebecca Harding, Ernest Hemingway, and Ralph Ellison and the discussions surrounded major themes that emerged around managing relationships, effective communication, desired leadership traits, and even the plight of DEI in America then and now. The final project prompted us to leverage AI to create two creative writing pieces in the voice of our favorites. I was honestly shocked by how beautifully ChatGPT picked up the prose of Ellison or spewed out Hemingway’s style to tell stories of leaders that emulated positive or negative leadership traits. I always thought that human creativity would continue to prevail over AI because without it we would have robotic pieces that were unable to evoke human emotion. I was wrong and now am questioning how much longer it’ll be before we have AI replacing some of the great contemporary authors of our time.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? Shanika Paul.

Now, those that know me know that Shanika is one of my best friends in the program but those that know her can agree that she is one of the most selfless individuals on campus. Since day one of core in section B, Shanika has taken long hours out of her weeks to coach me and others through the hard subjects like accounting, data analytics, and finance. She’s encouraged me to take the hard classes and ensured me that she would not allow me to fail along the way. She is the epitome of rigor, one of our core values at Goizueta Business School, and I’m honored that she has chosen me to be her friend. She checks in not only on academics but just to make sure that you’re good and she’s the glue to the family we’ve created here at Goizueta. I couldn’t imagine this business school journey without her and I’m grateful for her positive presence both at school and in my daily life. She’s an absolute rock star and Goldman Sachs is lucky to have an equity research analyst like her.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list? I’d like to be a chief executive or partner at a Fortune 500 company or top consulting firm, and I’d also like to be asked to serve on a board of directors both of a local performing arts nonprofit and of a successful technology company like Google or Apple.

What made Sasha such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2025?

“It is a privilege to recommend Sasha McNair as one of Goizueta’s Best & Brightest MBA students. Sasha stands out as a result-oriented leader who achieves academic success while infusing social consciousness into her environment. In her capacity as Vice President of DEI for the Graduate Business Association, she established the Safe Place discussion which gave students a vital forum to examine authentic self-presentation in recruitment and corporate settings. Sasha demonstrated her dedication to mentorship through her position as Consortium OP Lead where she exceeded expectations in preparing new students for professional success while building strong community bonds. The nickname “Fairy Godmother” given to Sasha by her mentees highlights her leadership qualities and empathetic support which demonstrate her dedication to creating a more inclusive and empowering environment at Goizueta. She is truly deserving of this honor.”

Vernon Smith
Senior Associate Director of Student Life & Engagement
Emory University’s Goizueta Business School

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