Evan Gao Gresser

Yale School of Management

“Engineer, consultant, and product manager approaching innovation with empathetic leadership and a kaleidoscopic worldview.”

Hometown: Silver Spring, Maryland & Kunming, China

Fun Fact About Yourself: My middle school, high school, and undergraduate university were all on the same street in Maryland…. but I went to elementary school in China!

Undergraduate School and Major: University of Maryland – College Park; B.S. Mechanical Engineering

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Capital One Bank – Enterprise Data & Machine Learning; Product Manager

The Yale School of Management is regarded as a purpose-driven program. What is your mission? How will your MBA at Yale SOM help you fulfill that mission? As geo-political conflicts (military, economic, and cultural) take shape and threaten to pull the world apart, I hope to become someone who can bridge cultures and bring people together to move societies forward technologically and economically. For me, a Yale SOM MBA is the next step towards acquiring the business acumen and global perspective necessary to sharpen me into an innovator and leader that the world can count on.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of Yale SOM’s MBA curriculum or programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? I believe that the best approach to solving problems and making decisions, whatever they may be, is to analyze them from multiple perspectives and angles. Yale SOM is truly unlike any other MBA program in their devotion to training students to approach business from multiple perspectives. SOM’s Organizational Perspectives courses take students around each seat at the table, teaching us to think like The Consumer, The Competitor, The Investor and much more, before finally sitting us back down as executives with the responsibility to make decisions.

What course, club, or activity excites you the most at Yale SOM? Organized sports have been some of the most transformative experiences of my life. Since graduating from college, I’ve grown to really miss the spirit of camaraderie that sports bring. At Yale, I’m most excited to join our graduate rowing (crew) team and see it as an opportunity to try a new sport, join a team, and compete again.

What is your unique quality that will enable you to make a big contribution to the Class of 2026? Having worked two careers at Deloitte and Capital One prior to arriving at Yale SOM, I have had multiple opportunities to receive feedback and evaluate what kind of teammate and corporate professional I am. Each time I left a role, my goodbye letters have expressed gratitude for what I’ve been able to contribute towards my workplace’s culture and community. Whatever my qualifications, technical abilities, and achievements may be, I have found that I’ve been best remembered as a community builder.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Of all the projects I’ve worked on and products I’ve released, I am most proud of the international chess community that I was able to build as a 1st year consultant at Deloitte. Eager to cultivate enthusiasm and engagement around the game of chess, two fellow junior consultants/friends and I sought out financial sponsorship and organized a formal community. Even though we proved formidable in multiple international events (placing first in the 2022 North American Corporate Chess Tournament), our success was always demonstrated by our vibrancy, diversity, and cohesion. What began as a half-dozen rag-tag band of consultants blossomed into a tight-knit global community of 120+ colleagues spanning from The U.S. to India, Japan, Peru, and much more, representing a diverse blend of skill levels, genders, professions, and heritages.

What do you hope to do after graduation? Upon graduation, I plan to move into management consulting, where I can help client organizations strategize and make decisions that shape their adoption of emerging technologies such as AI, Quantum, and Blockchain. My long-term goal is to start a consulting practice that helps public sector clients develop and adopt emerging tech, many of which may remain undiscovered today.

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into Yale SOM’s MBA program? Yale SOM looks for those with genuine desire to change the world; people who always try to make what they believe is the right choice even if it’s a difficult one. When considering Yale, think about some of the most critical decisions you’ve made in your life. Why did you make that decision? What did you choose to sacrifice? How might it have made a small piece of the world just a little bit better? Show the admissions committee the person you’ve chosen to become, and how you made those choices. Doing so will make your story come to life!

DON’T MISS: MEET YALE SOM’S MBA CLASS OF 2026