Matthew Johnson

New York University, Stern School of Business

“Mentor, teacher, and leader who is returning home to work for The Hershey Company.”

Hometown: Hershey, Pennsylvania

Fun fact about yourself: During college, I ran a 30-person business selling merchandise to fundraise for Penn State Homecoming celebrations. Our work raised thousands of dollars worth of funding to run dozens of exciting events leading up to the Penn State Homecoming football game!

Undergraduate School and Degree: Biomedical Engineering degree at Penn State University

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school? Technical Services for Epic

Where did you intern during the summer of 2024? The Hershey Company in Hershey, PA

Where will you be working after graduation? Brand Management at The Hershey Company

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School:

• Orientation Leader for full-time MBA orientation (LAUNCH)
• Torch Committee Chair for MBA Admitted Students Weekend
• Teaching Fellow for 3 sections of Statistics and Data Analysis
• Senior VP of Steering for Stern Student Government (SGov) (manager for 20 MBAs across six verticals of SGov)
• VP of Knowledge Management for Graduate Marketing Association MBA Club (GMA)
• VP of External Relations for Stern Healthcare Association MBA Club (SHA)
• Brady-Cashill, R. & S. Kogan, and Directors Scholarship Award winner

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? I’m most proud to have been an Orientation Leader for LAUNCH. This week-long orientation for full-time MBAs allowed me to coach hundreds of students on how to be successful both academically and career-wise at Stern.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? During COVID, I worked with a handful of hospitals throughout the US to set up COVID-19 vaccination clinics. I worked closely with five hospital systems to ensure that they were able to document vaccinations in their electronic medical records system. This work even required that I travel to Houston to start and optimize a few clinics in person. Overall, this work led to the administration and documentation of millions of vaccinations throughout the US during the pandemic.

Why did you choose this business school? I chose business school because I wanted to accelerate my career and learn more transferable skills to have more growth opportunities in the future.

Who was your favorite MBA professor? Professor Bryan Bollinger teaches Marketing and Sustainability at Stern. He is incredibly knowledgeable about how marketers have successfully grown businesses while focusing on sustainability. His class includes challenging case discussions, insightful guest lecturers from companies such as Patagonia and Chobani, and it demonstrates a lot of ways that sustainability can increase sales and revenue. Professor Bollinger is an incredible professor and I’ll remember the lessons that he taught in class for a long time.

What was your favorite course as an MBA? My favorite course was “Doing Business in…” (DBi) Costa Rica, which focused on sustainable business in Latin America. Through the course, we learned about the impact of climate change on industries such as coffee farming and tourism in Costa Rica. This course included a tour of La Hilda Coffee Farm, where we learned about coffee farming and how sustainable practices can improve product yields in the long term. I gained insights into how difficult it can be for farmers to make long-term decisions when profits in the short term are small and so necessary. The challenges facing farmers across the world are so different from the business challenges we learn about at Stern. Therefore, I enjoyed getting a new perspective on how to run businesses in developing markets.

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? Every few weeks, Stern Student Government holds Stern Speaks. These events are an opportunity for four students to share stories from their past that influence who they are today. These speeches cover inspirational moments, incredible achievements, and heartbreaking challenges that most of the Stern community is unaware of. These events are powerful and make you appreciate the MBAs who are going through this experience with you. These events represent the honesty and openness of the MBA community at Stern, and I always leave these sessions in awe of my classmates and their stories.

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? One club that I never joined but should have is the Arts, Culture, and Cuisine Club (ACC). ACC members go to a number of art galleries to learn about the business behind art. Additionally, ACC goes to performances and galas that would be new experiences for me. If I were to do Stern again, I’d join that club and attend some of the events that they offer.

What is the biggest myth about your school? A myth at Stern that I’ve heard is that Stern students are always busy and have no free time. While MBAs tend to be busy, all MBAs eventually need time to recharge. We as MBAs love to see classmates and friends at all the events we are going to attend. However, we also are very respectful of the social batteries of our peers and don’t pressure people into attending events that they don’t want to attend. When I realized this, I was very impressed with how understanding the Stern community is.

What did you love most about your business school’s town? I love how much excitement and celebration there is in New York City! I never thought I’d go to more birthday parties during graduate school than I did at any other time in my life! I love how willing people are to meet others and share new experiences. As someone who enjoys meeting and learning from others, this culture made me feel right at home early on in the city.

What movie or television show best reflects the realities of business and what did you learn from it? Bridgerton does a wonderful job displaying how hard work and strong ethics are critical to building a business. In the show, many of the most successful businesses come from those that solve problems that the community has. Some examples of this are a gentleman’s club, where the owner welcomes and cares for all guests as well as a modiste who thrives due to her talent and hard work. The most successful businesses often are run by people who are kind, honest, and supportive of the community. Meanwhile, the businesses that are run by people who steal ideas or commit fraud are found out and are eventually run out of town. These lessons demonstrate that you cannot wrong others and expect to be in business long-term, which is an important lesson that is echoed throughout Stern’s MBA education.

What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What insights did you gain from using AI? Stern encourages AI use as a supportive tool when researching and learning about key topics for class. By using AI, I’m able to shorten my time researching by pulling data from numerous sources and selecting what is most relevant to the assignment. For example, when researching the market behind Harley Davidson, Microsoft Copilot was able to find an expert’s blog article that shared an electric motorcycle’s range and how it compared to similar gas models. After working with AI at Stern, I now use Microsoft Copilot as my go-to for research due to how much information it can gather quickly.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? Sarah Greiff is a full-time MBA student and is one of the Graduate Marketing Association (GMA) co-presidents. She has put so much time and energy into running GMA and it’s been running very smoothly as a result. She is such a great resource to all students interested in marketing and has been a great role model for students in all stages of the MBA journey. Her joyful, kind, and humble demeanor is something that makes her an incredible teammate and leader. I’m very happy to have worked with Sarah at Stern and am excited to see what incredible things she’ll accomplish in the future.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list? First, I’m very excited to release a new product into the world for others to enjoy. Being new to marketing, I haven’t been involved in product development yet and haven’t seen any of my ideas come to fruition. However, I’m excited for the day when my hard work pays off and I’m able to see a physical product created based on my recommendations and strategies.

Second, I want to be involved in MBA recruiting in the future to give back to my Stern community as an alum.

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

“In my role in the Office of Student Engagement, I’ve had the distinct pleasure of working with Matthew in multiple different capacities. No matter what role he is taking on, he’s always doing a great job of representing the Stern community.

Some of his most notable contributions include volunteering his time as an Orientation Leader, where he welcomed the incoming cohort of Full-time MBA students and graciously offered them advice and support through this exciting new chapter. He also sits on the boards of multiple different student organizations, including our Graduate Marketing Association, the Stern Healthcare Association, and our Student Government group. In his SGov role, he manages multiple student leaders to help drive community engagement. Beyond that, he has also served as a Teaching Fellow for three classes and served on the Torch Committee for Admitted Students weekend. He is invested in all aspects of the student experience, academic and co-curricular alike.

What really sets him apart is his infectious spirit and enthusiasm. Whether it’s a prospective student, fellow classmate, professor, or administrative Matthew always meets everyone with a smile and makes all feel welcomed. He really is the embodiment of Sternies having high IQ + EQ. I can’t wait to see all the great things he will accomplish at The Hershey Company.”

Olivia Cannarozzi
Director, Office of Student Engagement, NYU Stern

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

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