Drin Govori

Babson College, F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business

“Fulbright Scholar advancing organizational transformation through entrepreneurial leadership and intrapreneurship as practitioner and researcher.”

Hometown: Prishtina, Kosovo

Fun fact about yourself: I played professional soccer before shifting to the corporate world and eventually to Babson’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Undergraduate School and Degree: University of Prishtina, Faculty of Economics – BSc in Management

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school? Kosovo Electricity Distribution Company (KEDS), Senior HR Specialist

Where did you intern during the summer of 2025? Babson College, Teaching and Research Assistant – Wellesley, Massachusetts

Where will you be working after graduation? Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, Babson College – Salesforce Consultant

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School: As a Fulbright Scholar and one of only six grantees selected from Kosovo, I came to Babson committed to advancing entrepreneurial leadership and community impact. At Babson, I serve as Chief of Academic Affairs for the Graduate Student Council, representing the academic interests of more than 1,200 graduate students and collaborating with faculty and administrators to strengthen the graduate academic experience.

Beyond campus, I serve as a Board Fellow with Boston Scores, contributing to the nonprofit’s five-year strategic planning process focused on youth development through education and sports. I have also supported Babson’s academic community as a Teaching and Research Assistant in Strategy and Business Analytics for two MBA cohorts (170 students), the Founder of the Intrapreneurship Initiative, President of the Graduate Soccer Club, and an entrepreneurship mentor in the Summer Study Program. My contributions have been recognized with the Dean’s MBA Scholarship, the Olin MBA Scholarship, and membership in the Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society.

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school?
The achievement I am most proud of during business school is founding the Babson Intrapreneurship Initiative and receiving the Outstanding Student Intrapreneur Award from the Global Intrapreneurs Institute. As someone passionate about innovation within established organizations, I saw an opportunity to create a platform for students interested in corporate entrepreneurship. While Babson is globally recognized for entrepreneurship, I wanted to expand the conversation to intrapreneurship and the role of entrepreneurial leaders inside large organizations.

What began as an idea quickly grew into a vibrant community. Today, roughly half of the MBA cohort attends the initiative’s events, where students engage with executives, practitioners, and scholars exploring how innovation happens within established firms. The award was humbling, but the real achievement has been helping build a movement that encourages future leaders to bring entrepreneurial thinking into the organizations they serve.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? After an unconventional start to my career, transitioning from professional soccer into the corporate world, I earned two promotions within my first 12 months at one of the largest companies in Kosovo. I started as a Business Development Specialist, where I led three business process digitalization projects with three different department heads and worked closely with HR executives to improve reporting and operational workflows. Building credibility across teams and delivering measurable process improvements led to my first promotion after seven months.

I then moved to the HR department to support the company-wide SAP transformation and was promoted to Senior HR Specialist within three months. In that role, I was responsible for SAP deployment and training for more than 1,200 employees, coordinating with dozens of stakeholders across the organization. I also developed company-wide guidelines and standardized HR processes to support the transition. Being entrusted with a transformation of that scale so early in my career remains my proudest professional achievement. It showed me that discipline, adaptability, and the ability to earn trust, traits I first developed as an athlete, can accelerate growth even along unconventional career paths.

Why did you choose this business school? I chose Babson because it has long been a global leader in defining entrepreneurial leadership as a way of thinking, not simply a path to launching startups. While many schools teach venture creation, Babson focuses on understanding the entrepreneurial mindset itself and how leaders think and act in uncertain, rapidly changing environments. That philosophy resonated deeply with me. I came to business school not only to learn how to build companies, but to develop the mindset to create value within any organization. Babson’s action-oriented learning and Entrepreneurial Thought & Action approach made it the ideal place to build that capability.

What was your favorite course as an MBA? My favorite MBA course was Systems Thinking with Anirudh Dhebar. The course challenged us to move beyond event-based thinking and instead understand organizations and societies as interconnected systems shaped by feedback loops, delays, incentives, and unintended consequences. Through modeling, simulation exercises, and discussions of influential articles from leading journals, we explored how complex dynamics play out in areas such as supply chains, innovation diffusion, markets, and even climate change.

What made the experience especially meaningful was Professor Dhebar himself. He created an environment where intellectual curiosity and genuine dialogue thrived, and his empathy and care for students extended far beyond the classroom. The course reshaped how I approach complex problems and reinforced my belief that meaningful change inside organizations begins with understanding the systems that drive them.

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? Rocket Pitch was my favorite MBA event at Babson. In just three minutes and three slides, you have to present an entire business idea in front of a room full of entrepreneurs, professors, students, and investors. After the pitch, the audience can ask questions and share feedback, but the presenter is not allowed to respond. So, the idea has to stand entirely on its own. I had the chance to present, and it became one of my most memorable experiences at Babson. Breaking down a venture to its essence and conveying it with clarity in such a highly entrepreneurial room was both challenging and exhilarating, and it perfectly reflected Babson’s culture. Bold ideas, action over perfection, and the ability to communicate like an entrepreneurial leader.

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? The MBA experience is exceptional but also demanding. You have to stretch yourself to make the most of every opportunity and bring the best out of you in every class and every assignment. After the overwhelm comes a void. After the first semester, as everyone was pushing to obtain an internship, I felt detached, exhausted, and low in energy. I presume this happens to most students, but what I did not do is something I wish I had been told to do – and I want future students to know. We need to externalize our feelings, talk them out loud, address our inner emptiness, and seek closure while also providing it. Embracing the ‘This too shall pass’ mentality is a must.

What was the most impactful case study you had in business school, and what was the biggest lesson you learned from it? The most impactful case study during my MBA was the Walmart case in our Strategy course with Professor Richard Wang. What made it memorable was seeing how all elements of strategy come together as an integrated system. Using the framework of value creation, value delivery, and value capture, we examined how Walmart’s promise of everyday low prices was supported by a tightly connected set of operational choices, from logistics and supplier relationships to information systems and disciplined cost management.

The biggest lesson I took from the case is that many companies copy visible tactics like low prices, but very few replicate the invisible architecture behind them. Walmart’s advantage came from the system that supported its strategy, distribution networks, supplier integration, culture, and data infrastructure, not from the price tags on the shelves.

What did you love most about your business school’s town?

What I loved most about Wellesley is how peaceful and welcoming the town feels. It is one of the most scenic towns in Massachusetts, yet it remains warm and friendly. People genuinely appreciate Babson and its students, and you feel that support in everyday interactions around town. The setting makes the MBA experience even more special. Wellesley is beautiful in all four seasons, but fall is unforgettable when the trees around campus turn bright red, orange, and yellow. Just a short walk from campus, a beautiful golf course adds to the sense of balance between intense academic work and the calm of the surrounding nature. At times, it almost felt too good to be true to study in such a peaceful place.

What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into its programming? What insights did you gain from using AI? One way Babson has integrated AI into its programming is through courses such as AI for Business and Thinking, which explore how AI is shaping organizations, the future of work, and how intelligent systems are designed and deployed. Beyond coursework, Babson is also building practical infrastructure for founders. Initiatives such as the AI Entrepreneurship Console and The Generator allow students to experiment with AI agents and venture ideas, while Babson also provides AI tokens to founders developing AI platforms so they can test and build their solutions. These initiatives reflect Babson’s ambition to become a leader in AI-powered entrepreneurship education.

Personally, one reflection I developed while working with AI during my MBA relates to how these technologies influence the way we think. Analytical AI does not raise the same concerns for me because it primarily supports data analysis and decision-making while still relying on human judgment. Generative AI, however, makes me more cautious. Given the level of accuracy it currently offers, there is a risk that people may rely on it too heavily and gradually stop questioning the output it produces. My biggest takeaway is that while AI can be an incredibly powerful tool, we must be intentional about preserving the critical thinking and independent reasoning that make human judgment valuable.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? One MBA classmate I greatly admire is Roberta Maldonado. We were in the same section at Babson, and throughout the program Roberta and I often found ourselves on opposite sides of classroom debates. She consistently brought thoughtful, well-reasoned perspectives that challenged my assumptions and deepened discussions. What I admire most about Roberta is her ability to engage in strong intellectual debate while maintaining respect and collegiality. Our arguments, counterarguments, and spirited discussions always stayed in the classroom; they were never personal. That dynamic created a space where ideas could be tested openly, and I grew tremendously from it. Roberta played a meaningful role in shaping how I think about complex problems, and I am grateful to have shared that learning experience with her.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list? Two items stand at the top of my professional bucket list. First, I want to contribute to advancing research on intrapreneurship and corporate entrepreneurship by developing practical frameworks that help organizations unlock innovation from within rather than relying solely on top-down initiatives. I am particularly interested in understanding how companies can create environments where employees feel empowered to identify opportunities, experiment with ideas, and translate them into real value for the organization.

Second, I aspire to work closely with companies as a consultant to help build those environments in practice. My goal is to help organizations move beyond traditional hierarchical structures and cultivate cultures where entrepreneurial leadership and bottom-up innovation are embedded in everyday work. Ultimately, I hope to bridge research and practice by helping organizations design systems that consistently encourage initiative, creativity, and long-term value creation from within.

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

“Beyond working hard and working smart, Drin stands out for his ability to integrate a broad portfolio of business skills – ranging from discovering insights in unstructured data to appreciating nuances in team dynamics – and apply them effectively across his leadership roles to elevate the Babson community. Whether serving as a teaching assistant for my Strategy course, founding the Babson Intrapreneurship Initiative, representing his fellow students on the Graduate Academic Policy Committee, or leading the Graduate Soccer Club to a national runner-up finish among more than 20 MBA programs, Drin consistently demonstrates initiative, intellectual rigor, and entrepreneurial leadership. He approaches each responsibility with curiosity, humility, and a commitment to empowering the people around him. We are incredibly proud to have Drin as a student and fortunate that he will continue contributing to the Babson community as a colleague.”

Richard D. Wang, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Strategy
Babson College

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