Spencer Marshall

Rutgers Business School

“People-focused sales leader pivoting into mission-driven pharmaceutical marketing to deliver meaningful patient impact.”

Hometown: Katonah, NY

Fun fact about yourself: I taught myself to play guitar in the 4th grade, and it turned into a 20-year-long passion.

Undergraduate School and Degree: Gettysburg College, BA Economics

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school? ClinSearch Resources, Business Development Manager

Where did you intern during the summer of 2025? Bristol Myers Squibb, Princeton, NJ

Where will you be working after graduation? Undecided but exploring biopharmaceutical opportunities in Boston, MA!

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School:

Vice President, Student Government Association

Certosimo Family Award in Leadership recipient.

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? Serving as vice president of the Rutgers Business School Student Government Association was the achievement that meant the most to me during my MBA. I stepped into the role with a clear goal to help build a more connected and energized student community, especially across full-time and part-time cohorts whose experiences can often feel separate. I worked closely with club leaders and administrators to support more ambitious programming and ensure student perspectives were reflected in key decisions. The role stretched me because results depended on earning trust and aligning people who did not always share the same priorities. Receiving the Certosimo Family Award in Leadership was especially meaningful because it recognized the impact of my efforts by my peers and faculty.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? The professional achievement I am most proud of was being promoted to a management role at Wellhart less than a year into my career and being entrusted with building and leading a new team from the ground up. I was responsible not only for delivering results, but also for hiring, training, and developing individuals just beginning their careers in a high-pressure sales environment. The experience forced me to grow quickly as a communicator and decision-maker, while learning how to balance performance expectations with genuine investment in people. What has stayed with me most is seeing the long-term impact of that early leadership opportunity. Several of the individuals I mentored have gone on to build successful careers and assume leadership roles. That outcome reshaped how I define professional success, shifting my focus from short-term wins to the lasting influence leaders can have on others’ confidence and trajectory.

Why did you choose this business school? I chose Rutgers Business School because it sits in the middle of one of the most important pharmaceutical ecosystems in the world. For someone looking to transition into the industry, being in New Jersey means learning from companies, leaders, and real-world challenges that shape modern medicine. I was drawn to the school’s Pharmaceutical Management program and the chance to combine it with a marketing concentration, which created a direct path into the commercial side of the industry. Just as important, many of the professors and guest speakers bring firsthand experience from major pharmaceutical companies, so classroom discussions are often grounded in real decisions being made across the industry. That connection between the classroom and the pharmaceutical community is what ultimately made Rutgers feel like the right place to prepare for a career in healthcare.

Who was your favorite MBA professor? My favorite MBA professor was Val Dimitrov, who taught Financial Accounting. The course is widely considered one of the most rigorous in the core curriculum and having it at 8:30 on Monday mornings only added to the challenge. Professor Dimitrov had a way of making complex material engaging, while still holding students to a high standard. He was tough but fair, and he emphasized understanding the logic behind financial decisions rather than simply working toward a grade. His approach changed how I evaluate businesses. Since taking his class, my first move when researching a company is to pull up their 10k.

What was your favorite course as an MBA? My favorite MBA course was Team Consulting with Professor Doug Brownstone because it forced me out of my comfort zone and into a project with real stakes. My team created the concept, financial framework, and investor pitch for a large-scale film studio development, a world I knew virtually nothing about at the beginning of the semester. I had to learn quickly, earn credibility with teammates, and contribute in a setting with no clear roadmap. What made the experience especially meaningful was that the designs and pitch materials we created are now being used to engage investors and partners for a billion-dollar development effort. It showed me how much more impactful learning can be when it is tied to building something tangible.

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? My favorite MBA event was the end-of-semester gala organized by the Student Government Association. After the long grind of finals, it created a rare opportunity for students from all 22 Rutgers Business School graduate programs to come together, celebrate progress, and build new relationships outside their usual circles. It was great to see how naturally students from different disciplines connected and shared perspectives, which reflects the school’s culture of collaboration and professional diversity. The event showcased Rutgers Business School as more than just a collection of programs; it highlighted a community that values inclusivity, energy, and collective success.

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? Looking back, I wish I had made time to compete in a case competition. I challenged myself in many other ways during the MBA, but that was one opportunity I never quite prioritized. The idea of working through an unfamiliar business problem under tight time pressure alongside a new team would have been valuable to me. It is a reminder that even in a packed schedule, there is always room to push a little further outside your comfort zone.

What was the most impactful case study you had in business school and what was the biggest lesson you learned from it? One of the most impactful case studies I encountered during my MBA was the Harvard Business School case on the Army crew team. The discussion resonated with me because it showed that building a strong team is often less about assembling talent and more about setting clear standards and holding each other accountable. In some ways, it reminded me of The Bad News Bears, where progress begins only when individuals start to trust the process and commit to something larger than themselves. I have seen similar dynamics in my own experience helping to build and develop teams early in my career, where early setbacks forced honest conversations about expectations and performance. The case stayed with me because it highlighted how culture and consistency shape outcomes way before results become visible.

What did you love most about your business school’s town? Honestly, it was the food. Newark has an incredible range of authentic restaurants, and exploring new places became a great bonding experience for my cohort.

What business leader do you admire most? The business leader I admire most is Joshua Boger, the founder of Vertex Pharmaceuticals. I have always respected his view that companies should focus first on developing truly transformative medicines and trust that commercial success will follow. That perspective stands out in an industry where short-term performance pressures can easily shape decision-making. As I have explored a career in pharmaceuticals, his philosophy has influenced how I think about balancing growth expectations with long-term patient impact. I am drawn to leaders who show that purpose-driven strategy can still produce exceptional business results.

What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What insights did you gain from using AI? Rutgers embraced AI in a practical, flexible way by giving professors the autonomy to decide how to incorporate it into their courses. A great example of this was in Professor Jerry Kim’s class, where students were encouraged to fully use AI tools for assignments, but were required to submit the prompts used in the process. That structure shifted the focus from just saving time to learning how to ask better questions and produce more thoughtful work. It made AI feel less like a shortcut and more like a skill that needs to be developed intentionally.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? One MBA classmate I most admire is Spencer Donihi-Goddard. Beyond the coincidence of sharing the same first name, he was the first person I met on the opening day of orientation, and I quickly came to respect the way he creates opportunities for himself. Coming from a military background, the MBA environment was unfamiliar territory, yet he approached it with a willingness to learn and a determination to carve out his own path. He advocated for the inclusion of MBA students in Rutgers Road to Supply Chain Leadership Program, secured a unique internship at Tesla through persistence and creativity, and is now developing an app to help users better plan their social experiences. What stands out most is his completely unshakable determination and his down-for-anything mentality. Watching his growth has been extremely motivating, and I am grateful to call him a friend.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list? One of the top items on my professional bucket list is to play a meaningful role in the commercial launch of a transformative therapy in oncology or Alzheimer’s Disease. Having seen firsthand the impact these conditions can have on families, I am motivated to help bring innovations to market that meaningfully improve patients’ lives. Over the longer term, I aspire to build my own venture in a mission-driven healthcare space, combining entrepreneurship with the goal of advancing access, awareness, or the delivery of impactful treatments. I am drawn to the challenge of creating something from the ground up that reflects both strong business fundamentals and a clear sense of purpose.

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

“Spencer Marshall was a student in my Integrated Business Team Consulting course at Rutgers Business School. In the class, he worked on a semester-long project that involved planning and developing a new state-of-the-art movie studio and tourist attraction to be built in New Jersey. Spencer was extraordinarily valuable on this real-world project with an important development company.

What set Spencer apart is his imagination in creating what the movie studio and tourist attraction should be in the first place. Spencer started out by conducting a classic business school industry and competitive analysis of major producers (Apple, Amazon, HBO, Disney, Hulu, Netflix, etc.) and major existing movie studios (Paramount, Warner, Silvercup, Stiener, etc.). The analysis led to a clear understanding of what the new studio in New Jersey should offer to attract movie producers to film there.

Spencer then took this knowledge and visualized it into a full studio layout diagram filled with sound stages, recording studios, tours, restaurants, hotels, and tourist attractions. He went into detail showing places where movie set construction would take place, where everyone would park, where everyone would eat, and even lanes for the big trucks to navigate the lot.

This analysis, planning, and visualization of the studio was of immense value to the studio development company. They said that, for the first time, they could “see” what the studio would look like. And the company has now used Spencer’s work in presenting to investors, as well as Netflix and Apple.

Overall, what set Spencer apart was his ability to go beyond the analysis and his assignment to create a way for the company to better communicate its major project to the world. He even continued working for the company after the semester. This is a trait that I do not see all that much amongst my students.”

Doug Brownstone
Assistant Professor of Professional Practice, Management and Global Business
Rutgers Business School

DON’T MISS: MBAS TO WATCH: CLASS OF 2026

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