Aaron Altabet

University of Washington, Foster School of Business

“Always daydreaming about boats & trains, usually planning a dinner party. Snack-motivated.”

Hometown: Walnut Creek, CA

Fun fact about yourself: Right after college, I tried to become a wilderness hiking guide, but I kept getting gigs on boats instead. I’ve only been paid to lead one backpacking trip, but I’ve cashed checks from leading overnight expeditions on sea kayaks, whitewater canoes, and a big schooner.

Undergraduate School and Degree:  

Harvard University Graduate School of Education 2019, Ed.M.

University of Puget Sound 2014, Biology & History dual degree

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school? NGM Biopharmaceuticals, Science Recruiter

Where did you intern during the summer of 2024? Pioneer Square Labs, Seattle, WA

Where will you be working after graduation? Spinning up my own LLC!

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School:

President, Entrepreneurship & Venture Capital Club

VP of Events for Net Impact

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? I created the conference I wanted to see in the world—I hosted 105 climate tech nerds for 4 days up at UW’s Friday Harbor Labs in the San Juan Islands. 80% of the attendees were professionals from outside of UW, so it was a really excellent experience bringing the climate entrepreneur community into the university while also being way outside Seattle! I’m really proud to have pulled it off, and grateful for all the support I received from the staff at Foster and Friday Harbor Labs.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? At the first biotech startup I worked at, I was given the chance to overhaul our campus recruiting program so we could have more early talent helping us in our labs. I quadrupled the number of interns and co-ops we had by designing new internal systems for writing those job descriptions and reviewing the tidal wave of candidates. For the 38 students I got to hire in a day, there were weeks of behind-the-scenes process architecting and team meetings with our amazing coordinators and hiring managers; I’ll never forget the feeling of walking into a room full of our new student hires and realizing they’d thrown me a surprise thank-you party!

Why did you choose this business school? I got a wonderful scholarship thanks to some amazing UW alumni—it was clear that getting my MBA at Foster would allow me the latitude to take on meaningful work after graduation instead of focusing on paying back student loans.

Who was your favorite MBA professor? Tracey Seslen! Aside from being a font of Real Estate finance knowledge, she’s an incredible curriculum designer with a top-notch ability to scaffold tricky concepts over time. Cases in her class are relevant and engaging, and I’ve loved walking around Seattle with the skillset she’s given me to actually understand the development sites all around the city.

What was your favorite course as an MBA? Christian Metcalfe’s introductory Entrepreneurship course for Foster’s non-MBA graduate certificate. More than half the class were PhD students from across the university; I made friends from different programs, and it makes me so stoked that we still hang out and talk through new business ideas together.

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? The Foster meetups at Pacific Northwest Climate Week! It feels like every time I work up the courage to talk to a stranger at one of the conference’s annual events, they’re a program alum and eager to help me find my career footing. It’s classic Foster: being friendly and unpretentious and geeking-out with strangers about technical subjects.

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? I’d build my routine around morning workout classes instead of afternoon ones. A typical business school day doesn’t “end” like a day at the office; there’s always a group meeting or guest speaker or event that pops up after class, which made it super hard to keep to an afternoon exercise regimen. I wish I’d recognized this early-on and built my daily schedule up from morning workouts instead of counting on afternoon free time to exercise in.

What did you love most about your business school’s town? The Burke-Gilman Trail; it’s a 40+ mile long bicycle freeway that runs from the Pacific Ocean to the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, weaving through UW’s campus along the way. It’s a masterpiece of post-industrial urban design, and Example #1 in my future TED Talk about why rail trails are a phenomenal idea.

What movie or television show best reflects the realities of business and what did you learn from it? Everyone needs to know that Fleabag is actually a phenomenal show for scholars of business. It’s about the owner of a small hamster-themed café and her relationship with her sister, a management consultant. The consequences of their philosophies around work and identity are the central tension in the story, and it’s refreshing to witness phenomenal writing and acting about how we always get lost in the what-ifs on our way to finding out who we are.

What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What insights did you gain from using AI? My favorite AI integration was in our core strategy class, when our professor had us submit conversation transcripts with ChatGPT; we had to explain concepts from class and coach it through producing relevant and intellectually-defensible hypothetical examples of those concepts. It was honestly hilarious, and helped reinforce the big ideas from class.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? David Kagawa. He’s both an architect and an engineer, a big-ideas guy and a detail-oriented project manager, and just an excellent person. I can’t imagine a better person to dream up startups and real estate developments with. If I had to make a list of “Foster MBAs most worth hiring first and writing a job description for later,” he’d be at the top, no question.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list? I’d like to get good enough at hosting my own conferences that I get commissioned to host them for other people! And I’d like to sit down someday and write the Great American Corporate Espionage Novel we’ve been missing for so long.

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

“Aaron Altabet embodies all of the characteristics of an exceptional MBA student. He is incredibly intelligent, conscientious in his work, and persistent in the pursuit of his goals. In the classroom, he never fails to bring up a key insight to move the conversation in a new and interesting direction.

But what sets Aaron apart is his unwavering dedication to becoming a leader who makes the world a better place. As just one example, amidst a schedule packed with classes, internships, and extracurriculars, Aaron put together a 4-day retreat on climate entrepreneurship in the beautiful San Juan Islands, bringing together location and national entrepreneurs and MBAs. Bringing people from a wide range of backgrounds, expertise, and interests together, he managed to build a unique and transformative event for his attendees.

Aaron is a truly inspirational human being, and truly deserving of this honor.”

Ryan Fehr
Professor of Management, Michael G. Foster Endowed Fellow
Foster School of Business
University of Washington

DON’T MISS: MBAS TO WATCH: CLASS OF 2025

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