Corey King

Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management

“Driven by curiosity, meaningful growth, and a genuine appreciation for connection.”

Hometown: Hammond, LA

Fun fact about yourself: I have flown in the Goodyear Blimp.

Undergraduate School and Degree: Case Western Reserve University, BS (Major: Mechanical Engineering)

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school? Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, Tread and Cavity Engineer

Where did you intern during the summer of 2025? Boston Consulting Group (Chicago, IL)

Where will you be working after graduation? PepsiCo as an Associate Finance Manager

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School:

–  Co-President, Black Management Association

–  VP of Marketing, Africa Business Club

–  KWEST Leader Kyrgyzstan

–  2024 Kellogg Preview Day Co-Host

–  First-Year Director of Prospective Students, BMA

–  First-Year Director of Marketing, BMA

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? I’m most proud of leading KWEST (Kellogg Worldwide Exploration Student Trips) to Kyrgyzstan with four great friends of mine. KWEST is a pre-orientation global immersion trip where second-years design and lead international trips for incoming first-year MBAs. It is an opportunity to build relationships and experience new cultures before classes begin. Our trip was the first KWEST ever hosted in Kyrgyzstan.

My co-leaders and I spent months working with local travel agents and guides to plan the best possible experience for 25 first-year students. For many of them, this was their very first experience as a Kellogg student, before orientation and classes. Making sure it was a meaningful experience meant a lot to us. Like any international trip, there were a few unexpected moments along the way, like one hotel running out of water! But we handled them as a team, and those moments only brought the group closer together. Seeing the friendships that formed and hearing that several participants were inspired to become KWEST leaders themselves made the experience especially rewarding.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? I’m most proud of my time working on the development of Goodyear’s Maxlife 2, one of the most popular products in the Goodyear catalog. Having the opportunity to learn from senior engineers so early in my career was pivotal, not just to my growth as an engineer but also to my growth as a leader. Working cross-functionally on a project of that scale taught me how to leverage the strengths of those around me, build genuine support for ideas, and influence without direct authority. Those lessons shaped the leader I am today.

Why did you choose this business school? I chose Kellogg because of the community. Everyone is extremely driven and talented, but also just genuinely great people who are generous with their time. As a prospective student, when I reflected on the mentors who shaped my career most, I noticed they all had something in common: they were Kellogg alumni. Every current student I connected with also reinforced that same culture of support and collaboration. That consistency told me everything I needed to know.

To this day, I enjoy connecting with my classmates, alumni, and prospective students. As a MMM student, this feeling of community is even more pronounced. Our cohort of about 70 students, who are pursuing both an MBA and an MS in Design Innovation, spends significant time together through shared courses, retreats, and small group dinners. Through these experiences, we have grown quite close, often referring to ourselves as “faMMM.” Community was such an important factor to me because the MBA would challenge me professionally and personally, and I wanted to be in an environment where people would support one another through that journey.

Who was your favorite MBA professor? My favorite MBA professor is Paul Corona. He led the popular Kellogg course, Personal Leadership Insights (PLI). In this course, 16 students engage in one-on-one coaching and small group discussions to better understand our leadership strengths and growth areas. Professor Corona drew upon his deep expertise in professional coaching to help us connect our career goals to the deeper motivations behind them. He provided clarity and shared personal career stories to help us explore our career motivations. I appreciated his personal stories, courageous vulnerability, and creation of a space where others felt comfortable doing the same. Ultimately, he helped each of us leave with a stronger understanding of ourselves and each other.

What was your favorite course as an MBA? Decision Models and Prescriptive Analytics was my favorite MBA course. Each class is built around a business problem and a mathematical concept, worked through in Excel. The topics ranged from investing scenarios to hiring decisions. What I loved was the puzzle-like nature of the course. You learned by doing, actively working through a real problem as each new concept was introduced. Even the heavier mathematical concepts became practical and easy to grasp. I left the course with another tool that I know will serve me well across my career.

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? My favorite Kellogg tradition is the Black Management Association (BMA) Conference, the longest-running student-run conference at Kellogg. This year marked the 39th annual conference, and that legacy carries a lot of weight. This year’s theme, “Pay Me in Equity: Exploring the Power of Opportunity and Ownership,” set the stage for conversations with Roslyn Brock, Chairman Emeritus of the NAACP; Marty Nesbit, Co-CEO of The Vistria Group; and John Rogers, Co-CEO of Ariel Investments. I am lucky to have attended the last three BMA Conferences, and I leave each one with new connections and perspectives on the world of business. It reflects Kellogg’s continuous devotion to creating space for each voice within its community.

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? Looking back at my MBA experience, I believe everything happened exactly as it was supposed to. However, after attending the 12th Annual Booth-Kellogg Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA) Conference, I left genuinely inspired. The stories from search fund entrepreneurs stuck with me, and I wish I had explored the ETA path sooner. Kellogg has built something special for current and future searchers, with focused coursework, strong networks, and dedicated pathways. I am excited to continue learning about ETA through the time I have left at Kellogg and beyond graduation.

What did you love most about your business school’s town? I love how Evanston serves as a haven for the Kellogg community. It is a true college town with plenty to do, and whenever you feel the pull of the city, the train gets you to downtown Chicago quickly. I live just three blocks from the lake, and everything I need is within walking distance. The atmosphere strikes the perfect balance. It makes space for small group dinners, which are a Kellogg favorite, spontaneous gatherings, and those unexpected run-ins with classmates while out and about that always make the day better.

What business leader do you admire most? I most admire my mentor, Dwight Hutchins, a Kellogg alumnus whose leadership is defined by how he invests in others. I admire the time and care he consistently gives to developing aspiring leaders like myself. He is deeply committed to giving back to the communities that helped shape him. For the past four years, he has supported the planning of the BMA Conference, served as an adjunct professor at Kellogg, and established a scholarship fund at his alma mater, the University of Tennessee. He does all of this while serving as a Managing Director and Partner at BCG. His dedication to lifting others as he leads is what I find most inspiring. At the same time, Dwight is a devoted father and husband who is driven by the desire to create a better world.

What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What insights did you gain from using AI? I think Kellogg has done a great job integrating AI into its coursework by positioning it as a tool to enhance thinking rather than replace it. In Applied Advanced Analytics, a course designed for MMM students, we learned how to use AI to support coding in R for data analysis. This allowed us to spend less time debugging code and more time interpreting results and drawing meaningful conclusions from the data. The biggest insight for me was that AI is most powerful when used to accelerate execution, freeing up time to focus on judgment, decision-making, and the story behind the numbers.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? Deondré Robinson is the classmate I most admire. He embodies what it means to be a Kellogg leader through his constant commitment to serving others. I have deeply respected his dedication to building lasting relationships within the Kellogg community through selfless acts, such as spending an entire morning helping a classmate repair his car. He also spends his weekends coaching youth basketball in Evanston, all while serving as Co-President of the BMA alongside me and leading alumni engagement for the Kellogg Student Association. I admire his drive and the conviction with which he leads. Beyond that, Deondré has been a close friend who consistently brings clarity and light to even the toughest decisions.

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

1.Become a C-suite executive of a Fortune 500 manufacturing company

2. Spend 3 years working abroad

What made Corey such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2026?

“Corey King is exactly the kind of student we hope to develop in Northwestern’s MBA + MS in Design Innovation (MMM) program at Kellogg and the Segal Design Institute. He is a true whole-brain thinker. He pairs sharp analytical rigor with real creative range, and he moves comfortably at the intersection of business strategy, emerging technology, and human-centered design. Just as important, he brings a quiet creative confidence to his work. He trusts the process, and he trusts his ability to work through complexity.

In our core design thinking course, Research Design Build (RDB), Corey handled ambiguity the way strong innovators do. He did not rush to solutions. He leaned into the uncertainty, structured it, and worked systematically to understand it. His research blended disciplined qualitative methods with thoughtful quantitative analysis, allowing him to uncover the deeper opportunity behind the stated problem. His synthesis was clear and evidence-based, and his concepts were both imaginative and feasible. He understands that innovation requires insight, iteration, and execution in equal measure. In team settings, he consistently raised the level of the work by connecting human insight to business viability and technical feasibility. He asks the harder questions that clarify value creation and long-term impact.

What I most appreciate about Corey is how he leads. He listens carefully. He integrates diverse perspectives. He brings clarity to complexity without overpowering the room. He sets a high bar for the work while strengthening the confidence of those around him. Corey represents the very best of the MMM program and the kind of integrative, principled leader we are proud to graduate.”

Professor Greg Holderfield
Executive Director of the Segal Design Institute and Co-Director of the MMM program

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