Nicholas Kumamoto

University of Chicago, Booth School of Business

“Curiosity drives my fascination with U.S. economic history, culture, and connections between past and present.”

Hometown: Newport Beach, CA

Fun Fact About Yourself: 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.

Undergraduate School and Major: Amherst College, Economics

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Associate Consultant at L.E.K. Consulting

Aside from your classmates and location, what was the key part of Chicago Booth’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? My interest in economics and business began in high school and early undergrad at Amherst, and was directly inspired by the Nobel-winning faculty from the University of Chicago. To me, UChicago and Booth have always represented intellectual rigor and groundbreaking research that continues to shape how we understand markets and business. The chance to learn from Booth’s world-class faculty, including several Nobel laureates whose work I’ve long admired, was a key reason I chose the program.

The Booth MBA is also known for being highly data-driven. Why does the program’s focus on quantitative analysis and decision-making appeal to you? How have you been able to leverage this approach in your career so far? We live in an uncertain world, and quantitative analysis provides a powerful and valuable way to make decisions when information is incomplete or ambiguous. In management consulting, I relied heavily on data to deliver client solutions under short timelines. Recommendations could never simply “feel” right; they had to be grounded in evidence. 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. As responsibility grew, so did the weight of my decisions, and I’m looking forward to strengthening the quantitative skills I developed in consulting through Booth’s offerings, rooted in the Chicago Approach.

What course, club or activity excites you the most at Chicago Booth? I am most excited about Booth’s new Applied AI concentration. In my three years at L.E.K. Consulting, I witnessed firsthand how rapidly AI transformed both our internal practices and the types of solutions clients demanded. That experience reinforced for me how essential it is for business leaders to pair a technical understanding of AI with strategic insight, which is precisely the focus of the Applied AI concentration. You don’t need me to convince you that AI is reshaping every industry, and Booth will prepare me to lead through that transformation.

What has been your first impression of the Booth MBA students and alumni you’ve met so far? Tell us your best Booth story so far. Enthusiastic, accomplished, and selfless. These qualities were immediately apparent in the Booth alumni I met during the application process and at Booth’s admitted student weekend. What also stood out was the strong sense of community and genuine friendship that I didn’t see to the same degree at other schools. Second-year students who were showing me around their apartment building ran into close friends in the lobby, and the ease of those interactions stuck with me. The evening I moved into the building, I immediately experienced the same, running into and catching up with a former colleague I hadn’t seen in years, now also at Booth. Moments like these may seem small, but to me they reflect how life at Booth naturally forges strong relationships among people truly excited to be here.

What makes Chicago such a great place to earn an MBA? Chicago, first and foremost, is a powerhouse for industries like finance, consulting, and corporate leadership. Beyond professional opportunities, the city has a vibrant culture with diverse restaurants, a great music scene, and world-class museums (The Art Institute of Chicago is my favorite). Its geography also makes it special, with the river running through the city and Lake Michigan at its edge — I especially enjoy running and biking along the Lakefront Trail. That mix of career opportunities and livability makes Chicago a uniquely rewarding place to pursue an MBA.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Although maybe not the most glamorous project, it was co-leading a Cost of Goods Sold module in a growth strategy project for a global international blender company. Here, I identified $1M+ in savings on injection-molded components. While I had no prior exposure to this field, I worked closely with teammates to develop a new quoting process, build a best-in-class category strategy, and ultimately persuade executives to adopt it. It was the first time I helped drive a solution end-to-end and deliver tangible impact for a client rather than just contributing analysis. That project showed me how even small teams, made up entirely of young consultants, can deliver real change to established organizations, which was both motivating and formative.

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into Chicago Booth’s MBA program? Connect the dots in your academic and professional career, and think deeply about why you’re pursuing an MBA, what your goals are afterward, and how Booth specifically helps you achieve them. Together, these pieces create a clear and convincing story for the admissions team, but more importantly, they’ll help you strategize your own path. I underestimated the amount of self-reflection involved in the application process, but now on the other side, I feel far more confident about where I want to go next.

DON’T MISS: MEET CHICAGO BOOTH’S MBA CLASS OF 2027

© Copyright 2026 Poets & Quants. All rights reserved. This article may not be republished, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written permission. To reprint or license this article or any content from Poets & Quants, please submit your request HERE.