Meet Washington Olin’s MBA Class Of 2027

It’s the foundation of business. You come up with an idea. You research it. You test it. You pitch it. Over time, you adjust and fine-tune it until it is ready. This is your venture: your identity, purpose, and legacy. With any luck, it’ll disrupt the system – or at least provide a comfortable living.

Entrepreneurship is the centerpiece of Washington University’s Olin Business School MBA program. In 2025, Olin again ranked as the #1 MBA program for Entrepreneurship according to Poets&Quants – the sixth time it has achieved that feat over the past seven years. Among Olin’s first-year class, this distinction made them take notice.

“The entrepreneurship program and opportunities were a deciding factor in choosing Olin,” writes Miles LeBlanc, a private equity analyst before joining the MBA Class of 2027. “While the official entrepreneurship program is amazing, I love how it is integrated into our core course work. For example, when students are in marketing class, our decisions are examined through the eyes of an entrepreneur or business executive, instead of a mid-level marketing manager.”

INTENSIVE SUPPORT FOR STUDENT FOUNDERS

The numbers bear out LeBlanc’s assertion. In 2024-2025, 91% of Olin MBA students were involved in entrepreneurship – and another 88% took a class related to the field. A third of the faculty teach entrepreneurship, with 44% of students being part of an entrepreneurship-related club. Not surprisingly, 27.8% of Olin MBA graduates from 2020-2024 ultimately launched a startup – the highest percentage of any business school. One reason: Olin is extremely generous when it comes to supporting its MBA entrepreneurs. The school allocates $19,528 per student to fund ventures. More than that, Olin averages 129.1 mentor hours per student and a 5.58-to-1 ratio of mentors-to-students in entrepreneurship – both higher than any other school.

These mentors, along with alumni and local entrepreneurs, are deeply involved in helping students get their ventures off the ground. That offers a huge advantage to Olin MBA founders, says Doug Villhard, Academic Director for Entrepreneurship at Olin.

“Being a founder is often very lonely. You’re waiting around, trying to make something happen, wondering if the way you’re going about it is the right way. The beauty of our program is that we have so many founders who remember that feeling. They open their networks, connect students to investors, and pay it forward.”

UNIVERSITY COMES TOGETHER AT OLIN

Externally, MBAs benefit from the St. Louis startup ecosystem, which has spun out unicorns like Beacon Hill and Varsity Tutors. The area boasts a series of public-private partnerships to nurture new ventures, particularly in biotech and agriculture. That includes Arch Grants, a funding source that has supported nearly 300 startups that have raised nearly $900-million in funding and created over 4,000 jobs in the St. Louis region alone since 2012. The area also hosts over 30 accelerators and incubators, including the famed Cortex Innovation Center and T-Rex, which house a combined 600 ventures. And that doesn’t count November’s St. Louis Startup Week, which brings together thousands of entrepreneurs, investors, and experts for five days of pitch competitions, workshops, panels, and networking events across St. Louis.

Olin is an active participant in the area’s startup community, providing talent and expertise at every level. On the Washington University campus, the business school is the driving force for entrepreneurship, bringing together students, alumni, and faculty from every discipline. All this is centered around the Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship. An all-in-one space, the center provides MBAs – and the entire university – access to competitions, coursework, hackathons, networking, funding, clubs, legal clinics, and industry-specific and technical expertise.

“At many universities, the business school is separate from the main campus,” says II Luscri, Assistant Vice Provost for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Managing Director of the Skandalaris Center. “At WashU, Olin sits right in the middle of everything. You’re getting a lot of interactions with the entire campus community that creates ongoing ideation and support from that. Students in the MBA classrooms are sitting alongside engineers and law students.”

“I could not imagine a better place to earn my MBA, especially as a founder,” adds St. Louis native Ginette Rhodes. “St. Louis is uniquely rich in resources for entrepreneurs. When you combine that with the support of Olin and the Skandalaris Center, you gain a powerful ecosystem that helps you build, scale, and confidently launch your venture.”

TOP ENTREPRENEURSHIP COURSES

As a whole, the Olin MBA Entrepreneurship track runs two years, which includes a 10-week summer internship in the Skandalaris Launchpad accelerator. Among the center’s famed coursework is The Hatchery, a business development course that is more action than theory. Here, students place the problem at the center. That means building the venture outward with a heavy emphasis on interviewing customers and continuously adapting the solution as students develop financial models, prototypes, and pitch decks in the process. Among the Class of 2027, Aïcha Camara touts Doug Villhard’s Intro to Entrepreneurship course.

“For the first time, core business principles truly clicked,” exclaims Camera, who comes from the public service space. “It connected my other coursework and taught me to think like an entrepreneur—especially to ‘fall in love with the problem, not the solution’ and ALWAYS take feedback. These are lessons that truly shaped my approach to everything since.”

Her classmate, Joey Griffith – a Harvard-trained project manager and professional singer – gives equal accolades to the Entrepreneurship Seminar.

“[The course] has brought in different practitioners and leaders in different areas of entrepreneurship. From exploring entrepreneurship through acquisition with a WashU alum who is a leading speaker in the space, to hearing more about venture capital through the lens of local VCs, the course has given me a deeper understanding of the different layers of what it means to be an entrepreneur.”

RUNNING A MULTI-MILLION STARTUP

Not surprisingly, several class members joined Olin after test-driving entrepreneurship themselves. That includes Rohit Kumar Gupta, a researcher who co-founded Turms, which he describes as a “venture-funded, nanotechnology-enabled apparel brand, into one of India’s leading D2C fashion companies.”

“I built the business from a lab-stage idea into a nationally-recognized brand, grew it to multi-million-dollar revenue, and led a 120-member organization spanning product innovation, supply chain, and digital commerce,” he adds.

Ginette Rhodes’s startup, Netty’s Juicery, was inspired by studying holistic wellness in Panama.

“When I returned home, I realized how many people wanted to improve their health through cold-pressed juicing, but lacked the time or access to make it part of their routine. Building an e-commerce brand that ships handcrafted cold-pressed juices and a growing apothecary of artisan teas and herbs nationwide has allowed me to make healthy habits more accessible. Growing Netty’s Juicery from an idea into a functioning, scalable business has been the most meaningful and transformative achievement of my career.”

And it is a venture that Rhodes continues to scale as an Olin MBA student. “My biggest achievement in the MBA program so far was pitching Netty’s Juicery in the Skandalaris Venture Competition and advancing to the semifinal round,” she writes. “The competition felt like a mini–business accelerator. I refined my pitch deck with stronger data, incorporated new strategic insights, and conducted in-depth customer discovery. The latter revealed valuable information about my target customers’ needs, motivations, and decision-making. The experience not only provided feedback that elevated my venture for future funding, but also strengthened my confidence as a founder.”

ENTREPRENEURSHIP-ADJACENT EXPERIENCE

In recent years, Olin has beefed up its offerings in family business, including adding the Koch Center for Family Enterprise. That aligns with the background of Joey Griffith, who worked for a Boston-based family foundation. Here, he focused on improving educational outcomes across Massachusetts, even starting a podcast in partnership with National Public Radio. Miles LeBlanc also experienced a taste for startup life by working in private equity before starting business school.

“I was put into a lot of new, often high-pressure situations, from working on multi-billion-dollar deals to international travel for publicly traded company board meetings. Even though those opportunities are a blessing, they can often be daunting for a young person. A tremendous personal achievement was becoming confident in myself that not only I belonged in those rooms, but my abilities add true value.”

Alas, startups don’t always work out. That’s what makes Justin Traenkle so valuable to the Class of 2027. He once helped shepherd a firm through Chapter 11 restructuring.

“As the Director of Supply Chain & Operations for a company unable to pay its bills for a period of time, it was a terrifying task to find a way to keep serving customers in the midst of restructuring,” explains Traenkle, who once ran an oyster farming business. “However, this experience helped me evolve my leadership beyond just being an individual contributor and taught me the value of building trust amongst your teams and partners.”

A LOOK BACK ON YEAR ONE

Eric Abeiku Ackom started his career as an EMT, where he performed life-saving CPR. After arriving at Olin, he was elected president of the Graduate Student Association President – his biggest achievement (so far).

“Participating in the election process was meaningful, and I am honored that my classmates have placed their trust in my ability to listen, represent them, and serve our community. I am excited to step into the role and work alongside the executive team to support our class in the coming year.”

The class collected several more honors. Aïcha Camara was selected to be part of Olin’s United Way Board Fellows program, where she served as a voting member of the nonprofit board. By the same token, Miles LeBlanc was named a corporate ambassador for the WashU Boeing Center during second semester.

“In this opportunity, I acted as a project manager to a group of other masters and PhD students, who constructed an inventory management and supply chain tools over 12 weeks,” he tells P&Q. “This project was similar to a consulting engagement. During this engagement, I was able to apply my operations and supply chain technical skills, first learned in class, to a real corporation. However, I am most proud of orchestrating a group of students who have different backgrounds, native languages, and core skill sets to execute and present on a project that creates tangible business value.”

For Maria Paul, a Psychology major who became a researcher, her biggest achievement has been acing her quant-driven courses in accounting, finance, and economics.

As a student, I tend to gravitate towards class material related to social science and communications. Completing the numbers-heavy courses in the core curriculum for the MBA program has been extremely rewarding. The hard work I put into grasping difficult concepts in these classes has allowed me to come away with a more holistic understanding of how businesses function and how the people side of the equation can impact the numerical side.”

THE BEST OF TIMES

And Paul’s best memory – thus far – has been the three-week orientation before classes started. “This program allowed for bonding experiences among the cohort, as well as unique learning opportunities, such as professional development workshops, and community service work. After the orientation was over, I felt connected to my peers and excited to embark on the MBA journey!”

Mateo Mendoza, an Ernst & Young analyst, would point to claiming second place at an AI case competition at Carnegie Mellon as his best moment at Olin. In contrast, Ginette Rhodes fondly recalls her lunch with Michael Dorf, the founder of Knitting Factory and City Winery, and being inspired by his achievements and vision. Still, the best memories often harkened back to childhood. For Eric Abeiku Ackom, that meant the laughter and energy surrounding Kickball Day. For others, it was a day trip to nearby Six Flags with classmates.

“For some classmates, it was even their first time on a roller coaster, which made the experience especially memorable to witness,” recalls Aïcha Camara. “Moments like these are the ones we’ll cherish forever. They also solidify why I chose Olin, as this program goes beyond academics to truly helping us cultivate lasting relationships with a great group of people driven to make an impact on the world.”

Even more, St. Louis sits at a great spot – a 3-5-hour drive to Chicago, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Louisville, and Nashville. This proximity to top employers and events further enhances the value of an Olin MBA.

“My favorite memory so far was taking a road trip with four other classmates from St. Louis up to Chicago for a conference and being back in St. Louis 30 hours later,” writes Justin Traenkle. “We all packed into the same car together and brought along our favorite road trip snack to share. It was one of those organic experiences that allowed us all to get to know one another super quick and create some memories that we will share forever.”

Sometimes, though, the best memories came closer to home, adds Joey Griffith. “Since moving to St. Louis, have been singing at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis. At our annual Christmas concert, a large contingent of my cohort came to support me and see me sing. Seeing nearly a third of my total cohort at the concert reiterated to me how special the Olin community is, and how Olin students continually show up for each other, both professionally and personally.”

WHERE EVERYONE KNOWS YOUR NAME…AND STORY

Technically, Washington Olin falls into the small school category, even with roughly 1,800 students across its undergraduate and graduate programs (and 28,000 alumni to boot). Over the past three years, the school has averaged 95-member class sizes, which has turned out to be among its marquee attractions to the Class of 2027.

“I chose Olin for its small class size,” admits Eric Abeiku Acko. “I wanted a program where professors knew who I was and took an active interest in my development. Establishing that level of connection and mentorship was important to me, especially as I looked for a program that would help me grow as a leader and strengthen my ability to serve others.”

Joey Griffith was equally smitten with Olin’s size. “[The smaller cohort] gives you the opportunity to truly get to know and learn from all of your classmates. It’s a unique feature that allows my classmates and me to engage in thoughtful collaboration that isn’t just surface level. This cultivates a warm and supportive community among students, faculty, and alumni that is nearly impossible to find in other programs.”

It was a difference noticed right away by Jasdeep Kaur Dulay, a 2025 grad and Best & Brightest MBA.

“This support proved true when I needed guidance on which electives would best prepare me for my summer internship, and I was able to walk into four different professors’ offices (Michael Wall, Seth Carnahan, Sam Chun, and Bradley Larsen) during the first two weeks of the semester to brainstorm. Each of them took the time to have thoughtful conversations about my summer role, professional goals, and optimal course selection to support those goals. Being in an environment where faculty were invested in my growth made it clear this was the right place to expand my impact.”

Next Page: Student profiles and an interview with Assistant Dean Luke Bretscher.

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