David Brown

MIT, Sloan School of Management

“Veteran, entrepreneur, and climate tech innovator tackling industrial emissions with breakthrough decarbonization solutions.”

Hometown: Boston, MA

Fun fact about yourself: I have nearly 400 recreational skydives with over 150 in a wingsuit!

Undergraduate School and Degree: United States Military Academy at West Point; BS in Chemical Engineering

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school? I was a captain in the United States Army serving as an AH-64D Apache Helicopter pilot. I was also the Operations Officer for the 209^th Aviation Support Battalion at Wheeler Army Airfield, Hawaii.

Where did you intern during the summer of 2024? I was a part of MIT’s delta v entrepreneurship accelerator where I worked on Helix Carbon, the startup I cofounded.

Where will you be working after graduation? My startup. I am the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Helix Carbon.

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School: The Charles and Amanda Kane Award for Excellence in Entrepreneurship; Martin Trust Center Student Board of Advisors MBA representative; MIT Sloan Dean Search Committee Student Advisory Board; delta v Program Manager; OpenMinds NextGen Leaders Cohort

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? My most proud achievement is becoming a father for the first time in April of 2024. Business school became much more challenging with a baby, and I couldn’t have done it without the support of my loving wife, Maggie.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? My professional career prior to Sloan was serving as an Army Officer and Helicopter Pilot. There were some incredible and exciting moments, but my proudest accomplishment is probably completing time as an Apache Troop Commander. It was the most challenging time of my life, but also the most rewarding. My Troop and I went through challenge after challenge and I am proud to have served with that team.

Why did you choose this business school? MIT Sloan was my first and only choice. It was Sloan’s intersection of business and technology that I really wanted to explore. Sloan has excellent education programs around banking, finance, and consulting– but what makes Sloan truly unique is its ability to produce leaders of tech focused teams– especially those with an eye towards positive impact. I felt Sloan was the only business school that could offer it.

What was your favorite course as an MBA? Only choosing one feels like a massive disservice to the incredible opportunities here. If I had to choose one, it would be 15.390: New Enterprises with Paul Cheek. In this class you form teams and build a business from scratch over a semester. Except this isn’t simply an academic exercise – you are expected to develop your business idea, iterate on it, and bring it in front of potential customers until you have a foundation for what could be a real business. (And many businesses have come from this class!) It’s one of those classes that I think is unique to MIT–there is no “classwork” and your work and lessons have to come from outside an academic setting. It’s a bit intimidating at first, but there is an incredible amount of growth.

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? My favorite MBA event was the pre-semester Boston Harbor boat cruise, commonly referred to as the Sea-f(x). Sloan is very much a cohort-based program, and it’s uniquely small. This becomes very evident when the majority of the class (with significant others!) fits onto a boat for a meal and sunset cruise around Boston Harbor. It’s a fun, relaxed environment where you have nothing to do but enjoy the weather and socialize with your new classmates. It’s a great way to start the school year and really reflects Sloan’s commitment to building a program where the students feel connected to one another.

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? I would have engaged in a few of the more hobby-related clubs. During my MBA journey, I poured most of my time into finding opportunities and engaging in more profession-oriented activities. But there are a massive number of clubs at Sloan and a lot of them are about finding a community of people who enjoy the same things you do. For instance, I’m in a pickleball group chat, and I only played once. (I got crushed by Sam Oppenheimer and Jack O’Brien!)

What is the biggest myth about your school? I think the biggest myth about Sloan is that it’s “the Nerdy MBA” and more for introverted and tech-focused folks. In reality, Sloan is a hugely collaborative experience, and the admissions committee does an exceptional job of building a unique and diverse cohort from a wide range of backgrounds. There is a huge variety of opportunities to pursue while you’re a student, and Sloan students go on to careers in almost any industry you can name.

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? I’m a new father, so I mostly watch Peppa Pig these days, but one movie I think about often is The Founder. I love the story about how someone who was seemingly completely unqualified on paper saw an opportunity and took it. It’s inspiring to see how dedication to a dream, hard work, and determination can pay off.

What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What insights did you gain from using AI? AI has been deeply integrated into the programming at Sloan. Multiple courses have sprung up around how it works, its application, and its future and are taught by some of the foremost experts on the topic. I don’t think I took a single course that didn’t dedicate at least a part of a lecture to it in some way. Regardless, responsible AI usage is encouraged in every class, so there was plenty of practice. The key insight from using AI so much was that AI is at its best when it’s used to empower people rather than replacing them. AI is great at tackling time- consuming and menial tasks, which frees up the brainpower needed to tackle more important tasks and to allow for deeper thinking.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? This is really tough, because I don’t think there is a single student in the class who I don’t admire. If I have to choose one, though, it would be Sebastian Gonzalez, my Core Team leader. Sebastian’s fearless adherence to his values in the face of adversity is something that immediately stands out. He is also relentless in pursuing excellence in everything he does. While those last two sentences make him seem intense, he is actually incredibly friendly and charismatic. I’ve only seen him frustrated once, and that was when he trusted me to do data analysis homework! He also won the McGowan Fellowship last year, which is a truly world class achievement and a surprise to no one who knows him.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list?

• Return the CO2 levels in the atmosphere to pre-1950s level.
• Find a use for all of the man-made plastic currently littering the ocean.

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

“Dave has leaned into the leadership experience he gained during his years as an officer and Ah-64D helicopter pilot in the U.S. Army and has used it in a meaningful and impactful way at Sloan in his many community and club activities. His deep commitment to entrepreneurship was reflected in his winning the Charles and Amanda Kane Entrepreneurship Award, which is presented annually to student entrepreneurs who’ve made a significant impact on the quality, visibility and overall spirit of entrepreneurship education and support across the entire Institute.  Dave is one of the very few Sloan students I’ve met who teamed up with a faculty member from across campus (ChemE) during his first semester(!) at Sloan to build a business commercializing MIT research. We expect his startup Helix Carbon to go far.”

Paul Cheek
Executive Director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship
Senior Lecturer at MIT Sloan

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

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