Meet Duke Fuqua’s MBA Class Of 2027

Close your eyes. When I say Durham, North Carolina, what do you see?

Some would say tobacco fields stretching to the horizon. Others might picture a frisky minor league baseball team that’s bullish on brews and babes. Of course, there is the hardwood, where Coach K would bark orders (and Christian Laettner would curse back…under his breath).

You’ve probably heard the tired tropes about North Carolina: Set in their ways and obsessed with barbecue and basketball (and auto racing too).  And Durham? Great place for college…but you only come back for reunions.

Maybe those people need to pay a visit!

THE BULL CITY IS ON A BULL RUN

Long gone are the textile mills and tobacco warehouses. Instead, you’ll find Durham has evolved into “The City of Medicine”, home to 300 medical facilities and health-related companies. CNBC has also dubbed Durham as the “Startup Capital of the South” for its tech and life sciences prowess. And the city is just a 15-minute ride to Research Triangle Park (RTP), the nation’s largest innovation ecosystem. By that, we mean a 7,000-acre campus boasting 400 offices and R&D centers for companies ranging from IBM to Apple to GlaxoSmithKline to Fidelity Investments. That translates to 55,000 jobs!

Durham isn’t called “Bull City” for nothing. After all, the city is strong, upbeat, and on the rise. For one, Money magazine ranks it among the best places to live for its affordability, job opportunities, and quality of life. For another, it is the home of Duke University, a Top 10 American university that seeds the area with expertise, technical skill, and entrepreneurial ambition.

And you can find all three at the Fuqua School of Business. While MBAs come to Durham for the Team Fuqua culture, many find Durham to be the surprise ingredient that makes the Fuqua experience so unforgettable. Just ask Tanner L. Morgan, a 2025 grad and Poets&Quants Best & Brightest MBA.

“Durham has transformed into a vibrant, rapidly growing hub with incredible restaurants, breweries, and a thriving startup scene. It has the perks of a big city without the congestion, plus easy access to the mountains, beaches, and endless outdoor activities. Fuqua graduates frequently land in major cities such as New York, San Francisco, and Chicago — while many also choose to stay in Durham.”

GORGEOUS SURROUNDINGS AND SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY

Indeed, Durham offers a wide range of advantages. The city is just 25 miles from Raleigh, the state capital and another tech hub. U.S. News ranks the Duke Medical Center among the top health centers, while the Raleigh-Durham Airport earned similar plaudits for customer satisfaction from J.D. Power. And Southern Living has called Durham “The tastiest town in the south”, thanks to landmark restaurants like Pizzeria Toro, Saltbox Seafood Joint, Mateo Bar De Tapas, and The Chicken Hut.

These days, even the Blue Devil football team competes for ACC Championships!

Among Fuqua’s MBA Class of 2027, there is something else that separates Durham from other locales: recreation.  Since arriving in Durham, Adam Kouhel, a Deloitte consultant from Wisconsin, has hit the beaches and mountain trails with his Golden Retriever and sampled breweries in Asheville. Adrian Abrams has been equally “energized” by the active lifestyle and slower pace instilled by being so close to nature in Durham.

“What I’ve liked most about North Carolina so far is how green and active everything feels. I live in a walkable area, which makes it easy to get outside and reset, whether I’m running errands or grabbing coffee. Most mornings, I start my day with a distance run on the American Tobacco Trail and it’s peaceful, tree-lined, and one of my favorite ways to stay grounded before the day picks up.”

Beyond nature, there is another area that has enabled Fuqua MBAs to settle into Durham so quickly: Southern Hospitality. “Everyone is so kind,” says Laila Jalilian, a Los Angeles native and UC Berkeley grad. “From the moment I arrived, people have gone out of their way to say hello, offer help, or just strike up a friendly conversation. There’s a genuine warmth that makes it easy to feel at home here.”

PIVOTING A STARTUP…AND MAKING IT BIG

Among the Class of 2027, you’ll find Cecilia Dolan, who devoted 30 years to ballet – including 15 years as a professional dancer. She credits her success to “discipline, resilience, and excellence.” However, Dolan explains that her biggest moment didn’t happen on stage. Instead, it involved teaching ballet to others in Africa and Latin America.

“I designed and conducted these programs independently, working closely with local teachers to understand their unique challenges and cultural contexts. It was incredibly fulfilling to exchange knowledge, help them grow as educators, and, in turn, expand my own worldview. I’m proud not only of the impact I made, but of how much I learned through genuine collaboration and cultural exposure.”

Jonathan Sochaczevski made his name supporting student-athletes through attracting scholarships and Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals. Over time, he came to an epiphany. Rather than targeting student-athletes, his business should cater an overlooked audience – their families.  In response, he overhauled his business model to support college and NBA clientele with family-focused consulting.

“In one month, my business exceeded three years of prior revenue, and I was able to make bigger and more lasting changes for the athletes I work with,” he tells P&Q. “This wasn’t just a business decision, it was a bet on empathy, scale, and sustainability. I realized that the people who were the most impacted by my work weren’t the colleges but the families who got to see their children accomplish their dreams and pursue a college degree.”

SEEING IMPACT EVERYWHERE HE GOES

Looking for impact? Eunmi Ko moved from being her CEO’s executive assistant to coordinating the sales and production for 8.5 million tons of hot-rolled steel each year. “Steel is more than just a product; it supports industries like construction and automotive that shape national growth,” she shares. “I take pride in helping clients succeed, and I believe that sharing knowledge and value is how we build a better world.”

Before enrolling at Fuqua, Isaiah M. Green spent four years at Converse, where he worked in product management in the Women’s Chuck Taylor All Star line. For Green, the role was particularly fulfilling considering he could see his work wherever he went.

“Every single person I’d meet would have a story about their first Chucks,” he tells P&Q. “To be able to see people wearing shoes I worked on in every single airport around the world has been an incredible feeling.”

LEARNING ENTREPRENEURSHIP ON THE FLY

In Adrian Abrams’ case, he co-founded a company that eventually became Appdrop, a top seller on the Apple App Store that enables users to build and uninstall apps. The experience, he says gave him an inside look into what it takes to launch and sustain an enterprise, particularly with raising money from Silicon Valley investors.

“What started as a rough prototype quickly became a real company, and I had to learn fast: how to pitch, how to prioritize feedback, and how to pivot and scale without breaking everything,” Abrams explains. “That stretch forced me to trust my instincts, stay scrappy, and move with urgency, even when we were making it up as we went. It was the most intense, humbling, and rewarding experience of my career.”

Before joining the Class of 2027, Patrick Kelly rose to become a Company Commander in the 1st Special Forced Group, the lead Green Beret unit in Asia. His classmate, Adam Kouhel, has volunteered with Team Rubicon, a veteran-run disaster relief nonprofit, for nearly eight years. Here, he plied his consulting skills to help develop a management system that covers over 180,000 volunteers.

“We streamlined deployment processes, improved tracking and reporting, and ultimately helped get people on the ground faster and more efficiently to create impact where it mattered most,” Kouhel explains. “When COVID-19 devastated communities, we leveraged the same technology to deploy emergency food assistance, testing, and vaccination operations across the United States.

ROLLING OUT THE WELCOME MAT

Speaking of consulting, Cassidy Patscot worked in human capital consulting for Capgemini, where she partnered with large firms to implement their technology solutions. Working with Mastercard, Valeria Gavidia oversaw a 2,000-guest hospitality program for the Rugby World Cup in Japan. At the same time, Jay Pandit, a Bain & Company project leader, worked with one of the world’s largest private equity firms to help them better understand AI…and where to invest.

“We identified a pipeline of disruptive software companies across industries and ultimately helped deploy investments to fuel the next wave of the AI revolution. Being at the heart of that journey, where strategy met bold investment, was one of the most thrilling and transformative experiences of my career.”

Away from work, Pandit has scaled several Himalayan peaks of 12,000-feet or more. Valeria Gavidia is equally adventurous, having visited 37 countries (so far). In South Korea, Eunmi Ko worked as a tour Korea. When she arrived in the United States, she got her own taste of hospitality from her Fuqua classmates.

I shipped eight boxes from Korea to Durham before arriving, and somehow, all of them went missing,” Ko tells P&Q. “Fuqua’s philosophy of growing together, not alone, is what drew me to Fuqua…Yet my classmates, many of whom I had just met, offered clothes, shopping help, and heartfelt support. In that moment, I felt deeply welcomed and understood what it truly means to be part of the Fuqua community.”

TEAM FUQUA

Ko’s story reflects the spirit of Team Fuqua. This sensibility can be summed as ‘Success is only real when its shared.’ Call it an expectation – a shared responsibility really – of mutual support. Here, teamwork trumps all else. That’s why no classmate is ever left behind – everyone brings talents that are critical in given moments. By tapping into the best in each other, Fuquans believe they can ultimately achieve more together. In a competitive world where ambition can channel itself into one-upping peers or monopolizing the spotlight, Fuqua students take a different tact. To see the change they want in the world, they practice it as members of Team Fuqua.

Make no mistake, says ’25 grad Colette Spriggs, Team Fuqua is neither hype nor myth. “It is real,” she says. “Everyone truly has each other’s backs and works towards the greater good of Fuqua. This manifests itself in people sacrificing their limited free time to help with exam prep, sharing interview questions, or signing up for volunteer activities. The quote “Decency is achieving greatness by doing right by others” hangs over the main student gathering space, and every student works to emulate that during their time at Fuqua and beyond.”

Spriggs’ classmate, Tanner L. Morgan, echoes these sentiments. “Initially, I was worried “Team Fuqua” was just a marketing gimmick. What I discovered is it’s a belief that we all adhere to, that doing right by others helps us achieve our own greatness. It’s true for both highs and lows: whether it’s casing peers for hours straight, celebrating a friend’s job offer, or consoling a classmate who just lost a parent.”

THE PAIRED PRINCIPLES

The Team Fuqua ethos is codified through the Paired Principles, a series of intertwining helixes that reveal the values that MBAs strive to follow. They include Supportive Ambition, Authentic Engagement, Loyal Community, Collective Diversity, Impactful Stewardship, and Uncompromising Integrity. Many of these principles resonated deeply with the Class of 2027.

Take Supportive Ambition, which Fuqua defines as “Your success is my success.” This principle was practiced by Jay Pandit long before Fuqua, when he mentored nearly 100 college students to help them break into management consulting. Adrian Abrams also gave back when he authored a book to guide first-generation students like himself: A.T.T.E.N.D.: A Hustler’s Guide to Hacking College – a book he says became an Amazon best-seller. Laila Jalilian is another first-generation student at Fuqua. For her, Supportive Ambition means always looking to put others first.

“[The] principle demands that I keep showing up not just for myself, but for my peers too, celebrating their wins, sharing what I know, and helping each other stay grounded in our purpose.”

Cassidy Patscot relates closely with Authentic Engagement, defined by Fuqua as being genuine and passionate. For Patscot, the principle is a call to be an “active contributor, not just a participant,” – an imperative to always listen, build relationships, and push out of her comfort zone. The same could be said for Patrick Kelly, who chose Loyal Community, which envisions a family that is always looking out for each other. That’s exactly what Kelly experienced in the military.

“I learned the power of loyalty and trust built through teamwork in ambiguous, austere, and often dangerous environments. As a Fuqua MBA, this principle demands the same level of commitment and presence. It requires that I be dependable to my classmates, professors, the school – and alumni, and that I contribute to a culture where people show up for one another…always.”

Impactful Stewardship mixes past and present. It holds students accountable for “taking ownership,” says McKinsey alum Julissa Davila – and making a “lasting impact,” be it in their roles or communities. For Valeria Gavidia, Uncompromising Integrity stands out because it is so rare, as self-interest often overrides doing what’s right. That’s why she views Uncompromising Integrity as a challenge to “stand firm in my values.”

“As a Fuqua MBA, this principle demands that I bring honesty and trustworthiness into every interaction, uphold the community’s standards, and hold myself accountable to my peers and the broader impact of my choices,” she continues. “It challenges me to lead with both courage and humility, knowing that true leadership stems from earning trust through consistent, principled actions.”

Next Page: An Interview with Russ Morgan, Senior Associate Dean.

Page 3: In-depth Profiles of 12 Members of the MBA Class of 2027.

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