MBAs To Watch: Class Of 2026

THE RIPPLE EFFECT FROM GOING DIGITAL

Michael Coyne followed a similar philosophy. Before joining Emory University’s Goizueta School, he worked for a firm that helped USAID divvy out foreign aid and development programming across the globe. As a member of the Texas Army National Guard, UT Dallas’s Jonah Raymond took part in six humanitarian missions, including one that distributed nearly 3-million meal boxes during the COVID pandemic. A former Miss District of Columbia, Jude Mabone formed a partnership between the American Heart Association (AHA) and her employer, Seward Kissel. This included a 5K race to support AHA research – an issue that resonated with the Michigan Ross grad, who suffers from heart disease. At the same time, working as a medical doctor, Tevarus Naicker gained exposure to marketing through a mobile healthcare unit he ran in South Africa. Managing 81 staff and treating over 600,00 patients, Naicker developed a medical education campaign that spoke directly to young people.

“Through multiple forms of media, the campaign helped dispel myths, build trust and increase youth vaccination uptake,” explains Naicker, a Cambridge Judge Business School grad. “What makes this experience so meaningful to me is the scale of the responsibility I was given so early in my career, and the chance to see what committed teams can achieve when they work with communities, not just for them.”

During internship season, Bayo Adelaja wasn’t polishing a pitch deck or crunching terabytes of data. Instead, she was deciding how to slice up £100m in funding through the Social Investment Foundation, where she was a member of the investment committee. At London Business School, Adelaja also continued to build Do It Now Now, a non-profit that offers funding and training to UK charities and social ventures run by Black leaders. Over the past five years, she says, Do It Now Now has doled out £3m to over 200 charities. In contrast, Peatros Haile found his calling in the public sector. He worked for the New York Senate and the New York State Department of Health before joining the City of Albany as the deputy chief city auditor. Here, he moved the city’s accounts payable system from paper to electronic. In the process, Haile’s efforts cut processing times by a third, resulting in faster payments. More than that, the conversion ended up addressing a crisis he didn’t anticipate.

“Just months into the pilot, COVID-19 forced our 1,200-person workforce to shift remote,” adds Haile, a Dartmouth Tuck MBA who joined the UnitedHealth Group in August. “Although remote work was never the original use case, the digital platform enabled uninterrupted city services during a moment of crisis. What began as an operational efficiency project became critical infrastructure.”

OVERCOMING A PANDEMIC…AND A FIRE

Haile wasn’t alone in being an evangelist for efficiency. ESSEC Business School’s Anish Ranjan Jal was equally impactful at Deloitte in that area. His human resources team was responsible for managing 45,000 reviews, with each review’s validation taking two days. After automating the task, he slashed the process down to four hours. Likewise, other MBAs To Watch identified needs and crafted solutions to address them. At KPMG Ghana, Cambridge Judge’s Melissa Akita masterminded the firm’s first Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SME) Centre of Excellence, which she describes as a “hub connecting entrepreneurs with training, capital, and investor networks.” Tyler Bryant took this feat a step further at Booz Allen, overseeing the design and construction of the firm’s Helix Center for Innovation to Life.

“I later became the first marketing lead, developing its programming strategy and digital presence while hosting executives and policymakers exploring emerging technologies like AI and cyber,” continues Bryant, who completed her MBA at Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School. “During this time, Helix received multiple awards for innovation and marketing excellence.”

While Akita and Bryant were busy launching initiatives, Sam Borja Truax was tasked with rebuilding his family’s business. In 2020, COVID grounded company operations “to a halt.” Soon after, their offices were burned down during the George Floyd riots. It was a test that prepared him for whatever came next, including pursuing an MBA at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School.

“We had lost everything, with no clear path forward,” Borja Traux admits. “Despite these setbacks, I never gave up. I worked tirelessly to reinvent the way we did business, keeping my team productive and safe while delivering consistent results to our clients. While it is tough to say exactly when this chapter of my professional career “ended,” I am incredibly proud to say that the business came out the other side with a more robust, profitable model, and did so without laying off a single employee.”

LESSONS IN LEADERSHIP

Arriving at business school, the MBAs To Watch quickly emerged as the leaders of their classes. They were club presidents and relentless networkers who moderated panels and organized treks. One student – Alisha Agrawal – even served as a teaching fellow in four different courses at NYU Stern. Another student, Charlotte Vance, co-authored a case study covering AI and negotiation with Yael Grushka-Cockayne, who was promoted dean of the University of Virginia’s Darden School earlier this year. Better still, Vance was tapped to teach the case in her Sports Economics class.

“Teaching 50 of my classmates pushed me well outside my comfort zone, but it also affirmed that I want teaching to be part of my career, something I’ve long suspected. Being able to guide a discussion around a topic I care deeply about was both challenging and rewarding.”

Leadership is one reason why the Class of 2026 features so many MBAs To Watch. Exhibit A: Sophia DellaMaria from the Wisconsin School of Business. As president of the Graduate Business Consulting Association, she delivered much-needed “reinvention” to the club. Among her achievements, DellaMaria beefed up case interview prep, launched a pro-bono consulting program, and established an alumni mentorship network. At UC San Diego’s Rady School, Luis Cortes Dequidt rolled out the school’s first Investing Club, attracting 50 members to the group. As co-president of the Global Business Association at the University of Washington’s Foster School, Aarushi Singla points to the annual Diwali celebration as her achievement. Being a native of India, the event hit home for Singla, who describes it as “our Christmas.”

“I wanted it to feel joyful, welcoming, and true to the spirit of the festival,” she tells P&Q. “I also made a conscious effort to pull people in early: sharing what Diwali means, involving classmates in decorations and dance choreography, and building excitement before the celebration even started. Close to 170 people participated. What made it special was how much love people showed for it: classmates from different backgrounds borrowed Indian outfits from their friends, joined group dances, and fully embraced it. It wasn’t just a successful event; it felt like we created a little piece of home for those who really needed it.”

In many cases, running these clubs taught the Class of 2026 about the true nature of leadership. “Leading peers who are as ambitious and capable as you forces you to listen more deeply, decide more thoughtfully, and lead with humility,” writes NYU Stern’s Alisha Agrawal, the co-president of the school’s Graduate Marketing Association.

GIVING BACK WHEN IT IS NEEDED MOST

Others practiced leadership in case competition teams. That was particularly at the University of Texas at Dallas’s Jindal School. Jonah Raymond credits his team winning the 2025 Raytheon Business Case Competition with elevating his expectations for himself while removing the imposter syndrome he experienced. His classmate, Lola Fadiran, competed in the Global MBA Case Competition, with her team beating out 100 business schools to claim 1st place. As part of the competition, Fadiran’s team spent 70 hours conducting research and developing an expansion strategy for a Mediterranean restaurant chain.

“Leading the team helped me navigate differing opinions and translate complex, ambiguous problems into clear strategies under tight deadlines.”

In some cases, it wasn’t just competition that required the Class of 2026 to step up. Nihitha Alicherry came to IIM Ahmedabad to turn an idea into a business. However, she considers a school-sponsored drama competition to be the moment that truly stretched her.

“I performed as the lead female protagonist for an inter-IIM fest and secured third place,” Alicherry shares. “For the first time in my life, I delivered an entire performance in Hindi, which is not my native language. Stepping onto that stage required a very different kind of courage because I had never acted before. It pushed me outside my comfort zone, helped me find my voice in an unfamiliar setting.”

Other class members rose to the occasion in response to events outside their doors. That was the case for USC Marshall’s Tessa Vande Creek. After the Los Angeles fires, she reached out to studios like Disney and Network to provide furniture from film and movie sets to families who had lost so much.

“As someone who lost my own home in a fire as a child, being able to support families going through that same disorienting loss was deeply personal,” she tells P&Q. “It meant a great deal to give back to a city that had welcomed me so openly. What stayed with me most were the conversations with families – helping restore a small sense of normalcy during an incredibly difficult time. It reminded me that leadership is, at its core, about care and community.”

FUN FACTS ABOUT THE CLASS

Speaking of entertainment, the MBAs To Watch featured their fair share of musicians. Daniel Sewell (Texas McCombs) is a professional drummer who has played in 50 venues, while Daniel Serpa (Ohio State) is a guitar teacher. And Gisèle Urujeni (ESSEC Business School) regularly performs solo in front of 400 people.

“It’s the ultimate training for high-pressure client environments,” Urujeni adds. “Once you’ve mastered the nerves of a live performance, a boardroom Q&A feels like a natural conversation.”

Animals are also a big part of the class’s lives too. Georgetown McDonough’s Enrique Pinon, who moved from JPMorgan banker to BCG consultant, is a former California State Champion rabbit judge. Sam Borja Truax’s dog is Instagram famous, attracting over 6.5-million views on his site. And EDHEC Business School’s Jared Caine can share quite a few tales from living in the African island nation of Mauritius.

“I love interacting with wild animals. I’ve ridden an ostrich in South Africa, walked with fully grown lions in the wild, petted cheetahs, and snorkeled with dolphins and whales in the open ocean.”

Seldon Warner’s response? Hold my beer. “I hail from Miles City, Montana, I’ve been charged by elk, startled bears while fishing, and even spent an intense afternoon being stalked by a mountain lion.”

A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE

As Labor Day approaches, the MBAs To Watch are now settling into their first post-MBA roles. What do they hope to do long-term? Not surprisingly, you’ll hear the usual ambitions: work overseas, teach, write, sit on board, start a business, and (of course) open a brewery or coffee house. Being a “nerd at heart,” Tessa Vande Creek hopes to someday direct strategy at a leading studio.

“I care deeply about the role stories play in bringing people together. Some of my favorite moments are sitting in a theater surrounded by strangers, all reacting to the same story at the same time. I hope to help shape the future of studios in a way that preserves that sense of shared experience, while building thoughtful, sustainable strategies for a changing industry.”

Jude Mabone is quite specific about the organizations she hopes to lead. “I am obsessed with the Olympic and Paralympic Games. I view them as one of the most important sports moments in the world and a powerful mechanism for cross-cultural communication and peace-building. My undergraduate degree is in international studies, and as a former collegiate athlete, sports are an integral part of my life.”

While Enrique Pinon has fulfilled his dream of working in consulting, his next step is the type of professional he hopes to become. “What excites me most about this work is the relationship side of it: being the person a client calls when they need a fresh perspective, helping them work through a tough problem, and being genuinely invested in their success. If ten years from now I am the first person they call, that will be a real milestone for me.”

The same could be said for Olayimika Ajibola, a graduate of Indiana University’s Kelley School who seeks significance over spotlight.

“I want to leave a legacy where my life’s work is measured not only by titles held or companies built, but by the lives touched along the course of my journey. If the story of my career is ever told, I hope it is written in the language of impact: people reached, systems improved, and doors opened for those who come after me. True success, to me, is creating opportunities that outlive you. If my work can help even a small part of the world become healthier, more hopeful, and more accessible for people who do not even know my name, then I will know I spent my life building something that truly mattered.”

Next Two Pages: 117 profiles of the MBAs To Watch

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