Best & Brightest Online MBAs: Class Of 2026

UNDERESTIMATED NO MORE

Sometimes, MBA coursework paved the way for Best & Brightest class members to take on bigger roles. Maria Allen, an English major as an undergrad, started out as a financial services representative at Goldenwest Credit Union. She says her MBA from the University of Utah’s Eccles School gave her the “credibility” to be named a company vice president – and charged with strategically growing its branches. In contrast, Mark Calendine had planned to start a business as an MBA. After being exposed to consulting during the Ross School’s Multidisciplinary Action Project, Calendine decided to test out on-campus recruiting. The result?

“I will be an incoming consultant this summer at Bain & Company.”

Even more, the programming accelerated the class’s growth, enabling them to elevate their current roles. Durham University’s Alexander Craig points out that it is easy for junior employees to be “quietly underestimated.” Over time, the MBA gave him the quiet confidence needed to take charge when he would have previously shied away.

“I now co-lead the communication of our company strategy, run the workshops that help shape it, and own projects I would have hesitated to put my hand up for two years ago: managing our relationships with frontier model providers, leading our internal AI transformation project, and stepping in as interim head of Product.”

A NETWORK YOU CAN COUNT ON

Gul Sanliturk worked in international business development during her time at ESMT Berlin. She believes the MBA program trained her how to look at issues holistically, instead of simply from financial, operational, or strategic lenses.

“In areas I was already familiar with, it has added more structure and depth,” she continues. “In areas further from my day-to-day, it built enough fluency to understand what is happening, why it matters, and have more in-depth conversations across those boundaries.”

Looking back, the Best & Brightest credit their classmates for raising their game. Showing up for class and contributing to discussions, says Raphael Garcia, produced a ripple effect on his communications, including “tighter briefs for senior leadership” and “cleaner one-on-ones.” Beyond that, adds Kasra Khalili, classmates provided a support network from various industries, roles, and areas of expertise that he can tap into throughout his career.

“When something comes up at work that I don’t have an answer to, I now have peers in specific industries I can reach out to, and professors I can email about a specific strategic question. That access has made me measurably better at my job.”

PLENTY BUSY OUTSIDE WORK AND CLASS

While an online program may seem like a solitary pursuit on paper, it actually requires a common purpose that ultimately fosters community, says Becky Blankenship, a Kelley Direct grad.

“Kelley’s online MBA felt different because connection had to be created on purpose. Live classes, breakout rooms, group projects, peer discussions, and conversations between sessions all required us to participate rather than simply attend. I expected an online program to feel more distant, but I found the opposite. It pushed me to be more engaged, more prepared, and more intentional about how I showed up for my classmates.”

Away from work and school, the College of William & Mary’s Adash Lutchman pilots Cessna airplanes. Jennifer Nutini – a graduate of the University of Wisconsin MBA Consortium – competes in ultramarathons. Charell Brinkley’s global travels have enabled her to “swim with dolphins in Mexico and play with tigers in Thailand. When Ashley King isn’t busy managing investments, the Carnegie Mellon grad is being hired to paint landscapes and portraits. And let’s just say David James Pinto left a mark before selling his business and moving into the nonprofit sector.

“My company’s black-and-white graphic art for babies ended up in the hands of over a million families worldwide,” says Pinto, who earned his MBA online from the University of South Florida’s Muma College.

You could call Charles Sepulveda a late bloomer. An MBA From Boston University’s Questrom School, he took 12 years to finish his undergraduate degree…becoming a CEO for two companies along the way. Before a 20-year career in the U.S. Marine Corps, the University of Florida’s Chris Taylor majored in Opera as an undergraduate. Becky Blankenship also completed a hitch in the U.S. Air Force. Stationed in the United Kingdom, she enjoyed an unforgettable deployment.

“I met Queen Elizabeth II, British Prime Minister John Major, and U.S. President Bill Clinton. At the time, I also lived just minutes from Major’s home in Huntingdon, so national politics felt surprisingly local.”

MAKING IT WORK WHEREVER AND WHENEVER

The online MBA was attractive to the Class of 2026 for many reasons. They didn’t have to relocate or pause their careers, let alone add another commute or find someone to watch their children. And they could operate at their own pace on their own schedule. At the same time, it provided a way to keep up and remain relevant, a dilemma summed up by Patrick Surrett’s mother: “If you rest, you rust.”

“I noticed the world around me changing quickly, and I knew I needed to change with it,” Surrett continues. “I wanted to build new skills and learn concepts I could apply directly to my work. An online MBA allowed me to do that without stepping away from my career.”

That’s not to say online programs didn’t come without their challenges. Many times, the Best & Brightest MBAs were pulled in every imaginable direction by work, family, and school – often at the worst possible times. That’s on top of returning to school after absences that could stretch 20 years or more. That said, the online format provided students like Ashley O’Brien with the flexibility to complete a student session during a Florida vacation or watch a lecture from an airport. Rather than dictating their lives, the online MBA could be squeezed into whatever they were doing, says Jennifer Nutini.

“Over two-and-a-half years, I wrote papers and discussion replies from the back seat of our minivan, hockey rinks and swimming pools throughout Michigan and Wisconsin, airports and hotels from Baltimore to the Grand Canyon, and AirBnbs in Florida and the Caribbean.”

A REMINDER OF THE THINGS WE OVERLOOK

Of course, online students weren’t just tethered to their laptops during business school. Many programs incorporated international treks, where students completed site visits and projects in destinations ranging from Dubai to Singapore. And they had plenty of fun along the way too,” says Hofstra University’s Kwi Jessica Ha.

“During my MBA global practicum to Japan, we were going to be stuck in a bus for 3+ hours. I started a karaoke party, and it became one of the most memorable and fun parts of the trip. We were still singing after we parked in front of the hotel and even got the professors to sing!”

Kasra Khalili completed an overseas trek that took him to the United Kingdom to meet with brewers and rugby executives and France to visit Cartier and Station F. However, it was a class week spent on Kelley’s DC campus that left the biggest impression.

“[We were] hearing from former members of Congress, trade association executives, lobbyists, and regulatory experts on how business and policy actually intersect. Living here, I’d been steps away from all of it and never really appreciated how the system works until that week.”

A BIG DIFFERENCE FROM UNDERGRADUATE DAYS

For the Class of 2026, the online MBA’s biggest may have been the ‘learn today and apply tomorrow’ proposition – “constantly testing [concepts] against real projects, real stakeholders, and real organizational challenges” in the words of Carnegie Mellon’s Alex Holder. Working through the ‘how’ after learning ‘why’ proved to be an unbeatable combination for David James Pinto, whose leadership experience gave him a context that he was missing as an undergraduate.

“Twenty-plus years of running a company gave me the lived experience to actually argue with the frameworks, to know when Porter’s Five Forces maps cleanly onto a situation and when it is the wrong lens entirely. The MBA was less about learning and more about organizing what I already knew, stress-testing it, and finding the gaps.”

And the online platform – often a mix of live (asynchronous), recorded (synchronous) and on-campus courses – proved to be particularly effective in facilitating this approach. At Durham University, Alexander Craig appreciated how he could “rewatch the trick bits on [his] time, which he admits was far easier than his undergrad “scribbled-notes approach.” In some cases, such as the University of Michigan, the technology was deployed in a way that reinforced the messaging.

“Ross’s studio makes the online experience very similar to the in-classroom experience, but in some ways even more fun,” writes Ashley O’Brien. “I remember one simulation where they changed the background to look like the professor was in a trading room, overlayed sound effects of the trading floor, and quickly changed our groups via break out rooms to add realistic pressure to the decisions needed within the simulation.”

ADVICE TO FUTURE MBAs

What advice do this year’s Best & Brightest MBAs offer to students starting business school this year – or professionals considering an online degree? “Give yourself grace” is one answer. For Vira Aleksandrova, a graduate of Santa Clara University’s Leavey School, that mean eschewing perfection for consistency. However, grace takes a different meaning for Ashley King.

“There will inevitably be a learning curve as you balance coursework, a career, and life. What matters is building a structure that works for you and holding yourself accountable to it.”

Working as a Deloitte strategy consultant while studying at Wake Forest University, Lilah Maguire embraced a different mantra: Say yes to everything – be it professional events, study abroad, or even networking calls. For Becky Blankenship, saying yes meant deliberately choosing what was sometimes uncomfortable.

“The flexibility of an online MBA can make it tempting to stay in familiar lanes: work with people like you, choose topics you already understand, or contribute in ways that feel safe. The real growth comes from doing the opposite. Volunteer for the part of the project that stretches you. Take the elective that challenges your assumptions. Partner with classmates from industries you know nothing about. Ask the question you are worried everyone else already understands. An online MBA gives you the ability to customize your experience, but thriving requires using that freedom to grow, not just to stay comfortable.”

In the end, saying yes also means getting off the fence and committing to an online MBA program in the first place.

“There’s never going to be a perfect time to pursue a graduate degree; I told myself that for years,” says Tori Clark, an entrepreneur and newly-minted graduate of Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business. “At some point, you just have to decide you’re going to make the time and go all in. For me, thriving in an online MBA came down to being disciplined with my schedule and staying fully engaged, even on the days I didn’t feel like it. I treated it as an investment in myself, not just something to get through.”

Next Page: In-depth profiles of 52 members of the Best & Brightest Class of 2026.

© 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.