Meet Chicago Booth’s MBA Class Of 2027

“The language of business.”

That’s how Hnu Thaper describes data. A first-year MBA, Thaper spent time as a Citigroup V.P. and entrepreneur before joining the University of Chicago’s Booth School. In these roles, data was his starting point, whether it was determining how to streamline operations or identifying the best advertising channels.

“Each number tells a story and points to actionable next steps,” Thaper says.

Thaper’s classmate, Nicholas Kumamoto, followed a similar philosophy at L. E. K. Consulting. He points to how information is often “incomplete or ambiguous” – with quantitative analysis being a way to provide greater certainty to clients.

“Recommendations could never simply “feel” right; they had to be grounded in evidence,” Kumamoto explains. “Yet data alone has no meaning without a framework to interpret it, and part of my role was to connect the numbers into a cohesive story and persuasive argument.”

THE CHICAGO APPROACH

Not surprisingly, Thaper and Kumamoto gravitated to the Booth School, an MBA program regaled for its ‘Chicago Approach’. While the approach can be described as data-driven and evidence-based, it is rooted in a deeper philosophy: Question everything. Forget conjecture, rationalization, and fluff. The Chicago Method is a process designed to challenge the convention, precedent, and gut feelings. As a whole, the method teaches students how to think. That starts with knowing what data to collect – and how to gather it. It involves learning how to recognize patterns, frame questions, and test both hypotheses and findings. Most of all, it forces students to evaluate all the angles – and understand the full set of implications involved in decisions.

The Chicago Approach appeals to the ever-curious, the future leaders who never stop probing their data, methodologies, and frameworks. That’s because these students understand ‘truth’ is always in flux and requires constant re-examination. To do that, they need many reference points. As a result, the Chicago Approach integrates an array of models from Economics, Statistics, and Social Sciences across the curriculum. As a result, MBAs can predict behaviors and forecast results using a variety of perspectives. This multidisciplinary mindset, says ’25 alum Ilana Habib, makes being immersed in the Chicago Approach all the more valuable after graduation.

“Booth has an incredible way of blending topics together in a way that pushed me to explore beyond what I expected to find in business school,” explains Habib, who switched from Finance to Entrepreneurship as a student. “As an example, I’ve taken classes on both marketing and history taught by faculty with a background in microeconomics. The interdisciplinary approach has led to some of my biggest “aha!” moments in business school…Yes, Booth is big into quant, but it’s because it gives us a shared language to discuss even bigger and more interesting things in business.”

More than teaching students how to formulate data-backed solutions, the Chicago Approach instills a “data debrief and discuss” mentality according to adds Ramkumar Bharathan, who earned his EMBA from Booth this spring. Not only does this prepare students to defend their during classroom discussions, but enables them to fluently speak c-suite right from the start.

“If I have 30 seconds with my CEO now, I know how to frame a message, how to read the response,” Bharathan tells P&Q. “Booth gave me that.”

DATA-DRIVEN OUTCOMES

Of course, many first-year Boothies have already been exposed to the Chicago Approach in their careers. Just ask military veterans like Sarah George, who operated as both an Information Warfare Officer in the U.S. Navy and a Staff Officer with NATO. During deployments in the Strait of Hormuz, her ship would often have “only moments to act” when threats appeared. Following the same process – gather data, analyze quickly, and act responsibly – reinforced the value of a “disciplined, data-based approach.” Mateo Ronquillo, a Nuclear Submarine Officer, followed a similar path.

“Every decision I made was grounded in careful data analysis. Sometimes, the stakes were high, and I learned to trust structured, quantitative decision-making under uncertainty. Booth’s data-driven approach resonates with me because it mirrors how I’ve always operated.”

In contrast, Florentina Spinola experienced the Chicago Approach in action at BlackRock. Her takeaway? “Quantitative analysis is essential for evaluating risks, shaping strategies, and mitigating potential downsides. Throughout my career, I have encountered many uncertain situations, and quantitative analysis has been the tool that encouraged me to act with confidence and make the best decisions possible with the information available.”

Before business school, Monica Widjaja operated food and beverage and corporate merchandising startups in Indonesia. With the former, she examined sales data from category leaders to develop promotions that increased ad conversion rates and sales. From reviewing client order histories in her merchandising firm, she was able to shower greater resources on the 20% of clients who were responsible for 80% of her revenue.

“These experiences showed me how data turns uncertainty into strategy,” Widjaja explains. “That’s why Booth’s emphasis on quantitative analysis excites me: it will sharpen my ability to model decisions, forecast growth, and scale ventures with analytical rigor. For my future waste management tech startup, this skillset will be critical in winning the trust of partners, investors, and communities I want to impact.”

FROM MERCHANDISING TO MUSEUMS

Based on Widjaja’s track record, you can expect that venture to be a success too. Look no further than her merchandising business, whose client list includes the United Nations, Central Bank of Indonesia, Lexus, and Remington. Still, her passion for waste management stems from her work in the food sector, where $22.4-billion-dollars worth of food is wasted each year. This translates to enough food to feed 125-million people.

“I aim to repurpose this waste to combat hunger and child stunting, while eventually expanding to agricultural and household waste to improve the quality of life for millions, especially in low-income communities,” she tells P&Q.

Before Booth, Marianna Shakhnazaryan worked at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, where she served as the senior advisor to the deputy director. Here, she applied visitor data to better tailor programs to better educate the public, attract new audiences, and enrich guest experiences.

“Our work over the last five years has resulted in record visitation (the most visited art museum in the U.S. and fifth in the world), a rebranding that modernized the 80-year-old gallery, and initiatives like National Gallery Nights which engage a younger generation of visitors through immersive experiences after-hours.”

A ROMANCE IGNITED…THROUGH FIGHTING

If data tells stories, imagine the tales that Amanda Faucher will soon be spinning. Most recently, Faucher headed up content development at Nina Wass Productions, whose namesake has been executive producer on projects ranging from Less Than Perfect to Shades of Blue. While Faucher is looking forward to deepening her ability to use data to take her audience’s pulse, she can also tap into her equally-formidable creative side.

“[My biggest accomplishment has been] watching a television script I helped source be purchased by a network, developed, and ultimately produced! I had the rare opportunity to be a part of a season of television from its very inception to the final rolling credits. When so many shows are passed on in the development process, it’s special and humbling to see the labor of hundreds of collaborators result in a show that is warmly welcomed into people’s homes each week.”

And let’s just say Sarah George’s life has a certain cinematic quality to it. “Before dating, my husband and I were partners in flight school together and completed tactical dog-fighting maneuvers (as seen in Top Gun) against each other in Navy trainer jets. I won.”

IKEA…FROM A DIFFERENT LENS

Working in strategy at IKEA, Agustin Ossa heled launch the company’s first new franchise in Latin America in over a decade. As an MBA student, he can head to out to the suburbs to enjoy a different side of IKEA. “It’s fun experiencing IKEA as a customer, understanding firsthand what it’s like to enjoy—or struggle with—assembling their furniture.”

Looking for impact? Alexandra Brown-Anderson helped build Deloitte’s emerging Culture and Belonging practice by selling and delivering millions of dollars of work in the space. At Blackrock, Florentina Spinola partnered with three Mexican banks to refinance a massive infrastructure project. At the same time, Shae-Jhon Coy boosted the search capabilities and functionality of a major healthcare website – despite limited Linux knowledge. Of course, not every achievement can be quantified in sales volume and throughput. Just ask Hnu Thaper, who co-founded a year-long financial literacy program for disadvantaged youth.

“Midway through the program, the most memorable moment took place when a student ran up to me and said, “Mr. H, because of Bag Talk, I’m applying to college.” A year later, I saw him on campus at the college where I was guest teaching. That moment drove home that we weren’t just teaching financial literacy — we were inspiring real change.”

A SUMMER TO REMEMBER

Outside of work and school, Alexandra Brown-Anderson makes candles…using AI. Shae-Jhon Coy has overcome his fear of heights by sampling activities ranging from cliff jumping to parasailing. Growing up, Nicholas Kumamoto’s passion was golf…and he even had a brush with greatness in the sport.

“I beat PGA Tour winner Sahith Theegala in a tournament round of golf once… albeit at age 15. Sadly, only one of us kept getting better.”

The class also includes some bona fide adventurers. After finishing his freshman year at college, Mateo Ronquillo spent two months on Alaska’s McLaren Glacier, where he “lived on the ice” and “scared off wild animals.” Fast forward several years and Marianna Shakhnazaryan took a similar road less traveled.

“Over the summer, my fiancé and I let our lease in D.C. expire in June and left our jobs to travel around the world before moving to Chicago for the fall semester — a trip that involved 26 flights and took us to 18 countries from Japan to Montenegro to Portugal — before ending in Morocco with our pre-orientation group trip.”

A PAY-IT-FORWARD CULTURE

Along the way, Shakhnazaryan connected with a few Boothies too. “On our travels this summer, it seems everyone I meet had some connection to Booth. We were at the fjords in Norway when a fellow American visitor introduced himself, and we made the connection that he graduated from Booth 40 years ago – and still counts it as one of his greatest experiences. Here I was, in the cold plunge, 4,000 miles away, and we were talking about Booth professors and the strength of the international network.”

That network has only been strengthened by Booth’s Pay-It-Forward culture. It starts with second-years going above-and-beyond to help first-years and continues on with alumni supporting students and applicants. “Welcoming” and “generous” are along the words that Class of 2027 use to describe the community as they entered the program. That stems from the unspoken expectation that Boothies pass on the support they received when they were crafting their application or moving to Chicago. For Monica Widjaja, that commitment made all the difference.

“[Booth alumni and seniors] are always positive, approachable, and happy to help with any question. It made me realize that Booth’s “Pay It Forward” culture isn’t just a phrase on the website, but something real that’s lived out every day. Overall, I’m so grateful for all the new friends I’ve made already, and knowing I’ll be surrounded by classmates and alumni who genuinely want to see each other succeed makes moving 20+ hours away from Indonesia feel much less scary, and instead, truly exciting.”

Next Page: A Class Profile

Page 3: An Interview with Starr Marcello, Deputy Dean

Page 4: Profiles of 12 Members of the Class of 2027

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