The Favorite MBA Professors Of The Class Of 2026

“My favorite professor was Dr. Rogelio Oliva, who taught one of the supply chain management courses. What set Dr. Oliva apart was how he brought every case to life. We didn’t just analyze the problem, we walked through the entire narrative, debated whether better solutions existed, and were expected to defend our reasoning when he pushed back. His class was daunting on some days and exhilarating on all of them. That style of teaching, where no idea went unchallenged and every detail of the case mattered, changed the way I approached problems. Dr. Oliva showed me that behind every successful business is a reason for its success, and the only way to discover it is to pay attention to all the details.”
Marcus Glass, Texas A&M (Mays)

“My favorite MBA professor was Xavier Sztejnberg. “Professor X,” as we call him, brought tremendous credibility from his success in industry. However, what stood out to me even more was how fully invested he was in the success of his students. He did not just teach finance—he built the Wall Street for McCombs ecosystem into what it is today. When he arrived at UT in 2016, the program was sending only a handful of students to New York for investment banking each year. This year, Wall Street for McCombs students across the undergraduate and graduate programs will earn approximately 120 investment banking internships. That kind of transformation does not happen by accident. Professor X is direct with feedback, intentional with his time, and deeply committed to helping students reach their potential. Through my experience as Co-President of Wall Street for McCombs and as his TA, I had the chance to see that up close, and I benefited enormously from his mentorship, counsel, and example.”
Daniel Sewell, University of Texas (McCombs)

“My favorite MBA professor was Professor Hong Luo, who taught Strategic Management. Her energy in the classroom made every lecture fly by, and she pushed us to think critically about each case by putting ourselves in the shoes of the decision-makers. She challenged our assumptions, encouraged us to defend our viewpoints, and broadened the way we approached strategic problems. What stood out even more was the empathy she brought to her teaching. She was always available for one-on-one conversations, whether to clarify concepts or to support students during the more stressful stretches of recruitment and academics. That combination of intellectual rigor and genuine care made her class one of the most meaningful parts of my program. I am grateful to have stayed in touch with her beyond the classroom, and she remains someone I look up to both as a teacher and as a person.”
Anureet Kaur Mann, University of Toronto (Rotman)

“Jerry Engel. A legend, and not always a “gentle” one. His Lean LaunchPad course embodied Berkeley’s scrappy, honest approach to entrepreneurship, and Jerry himself embodied it most: He was blunt, candid, and completely uninterested in polished answers. He challenged us to get out of the building, talk to real customers, and confront uncomfortable truths early.”
James Wang, UC Berkeley (Haas)

“My favorite professor was Mathias Kahl, who taught my Venture Capital & Private Equity course. Coming into business school without a formal finance background, I appreciated how he made investing and financial concepts both approachable and genuinely interesting. He has a great ability to break down complex ideas while keeping the class engaged. At the same time, he often took time to learn about our individual interests, which made the class feel very personal. One of his favorite phrases when walking through a formula or financial concept was, “Isn’t that just beautiful?” – I still quote him to this day!”
Serena Agrawal, UCLA (Anderson)

“Scott Abrams is an incredible professor, and impossibly, an even better mentor. I am so lucky to have had him explaining finance in a way that was understandable to me (via entertainment cases)! What could have felt intimidating instead felt engaging and practical because of how thoughtfully he taught it.

Beyond the classroom, Scott serves as the faculty advisor for the Business of Entertainment Association, where I’ve had the privilege of working closely with him. In that setting, I saw just how deeply he invests in his students. He is generous with his time, thoughtful in his guidance, and genuinely committed to helping us grow – not just as business leaders, but as people. His mentorship has been steady, encouraging, and incredibly meaningful to me.

We are so lucky to have him in the Trojan family: Scott truly embodies what makes this community special.”
Tessa Vande Creek, USC (Marshall)

“My favorite MBA professor is Dr. Brian McCann. I had the opportunity to take three of his classes during my time at Owen, but I especially enjoyed his Corporate Strategy course. What stands out most about him is how engaging he makes the material while still striking a great balance between lectures and case discussions. He has a way of putting students and himself on the same level and really meeting us where we are. Combined with his realistic expectations and clear desire for us to actually learn, it naturally made students want to put in the effort, which in turn made the learning even more meaningful. He is also incredibly intentional in how he designs the course. Every class session, assignment, and discussion feel thoughtfully structured around clear learning outcomes.”
Maree Smith, Vanderbilt University (Owen)

“My favorite professor at Darden is Gaurav Chiplunkar, who taught my Global Economies and Markets course. Gaurav has a gift for making sure no one is left behind in the classroom by asking multiple students (back-to-back) for different explanations on foundational concepts until they were truly internalized by the entire room. He also brought great laughter to subjects that could feel dense or intimidating. Beyond the classroom, Gaurav has been a friend and confidant, embodying the kind of faculty-student relationship that makes the Darden experience special.”
Elena Céspedes Subirá, University of Virginia (Darden)

“My favorite MBA professor was Professor John Colley, who taught Strategic Thinking. With deep industry experience, particularly in mergers and acquisitions, he brought intense and demanding credibility to the classroom. He wasn’t teaching from theory; he was teaching from decades of lived experience, sharing both successes and cautionary tales from boardrooms and deal tables. His ability to translate complex strategy into real-world judgement made every session feel grounded, exciting and relevant.

What made him especially impactful was how he taught. Rather than lecturing from slides, he guided discussions through probing, thought-provoking questions, using case studies as springboards for real strategic debate. He also spoke to us as peers, not students, which elevated both the conversation and our confidence. Observing someone who continues to operate at the highest levels of business yet teaches with such humility and clarity was deeply inspiring. Every student wanted to pick up his brain during breaks or after lectures, and he was never too busy to chat to every single student lined up. Despite his extraordinary career, he was deeply intentional about sharing his time and wisdom with the next generation of business leaders.”
Megan Dirgins, Warwick Business School

“I enjoyed Professor Samuel Chun’s class for how he challenged students to think independently in Marketing Management. He pushed us to develop our own analytical structure for approaching business problems rather than relying on rigid frameworks. At the time, that steep learning curve felt uncomfortable, but as I have worked on more projects throughout business school, I have come to appreciate how valuable that skill is. The cases and simulations in his class required us to make a choice, defend our assumptions, and understand all the factors that could affect a company’s competitiveness in the market. These lessons all become very applicable once you leave the classroom and must stand by your choices at your place of work.

Additionally, as a student transitioning into business school and thinking carefully about my next professional chapter, I greatly appreciated his office hours. Professor Chun wants to help students prepare for life after business school, and he shows that by offering thoughtful insights not only about marketing concepts but also about navigating a career and approaching problems with curiosity and discipline. Looking back, his class taught me to get comfortable building my own template for analyzing complex problems — a lesson that we would all benefit from applying to the ambiguous decisions we face throughout our careers and beyond.”
Jasdeep Kaur Dulay, Washington University (Olin)

“My favorite MBA professor was Kelly Breslin Wright, Affiliate Instructor of Marketing and International Business. I took her Culture-Driven Sales and Go-to-Market Strategy class, and she brought the kind of energy that immediately pulls you in: passionate, sharp, and clearly an expert in her subject. What I appreciated most was how she could challenge perspectives while still keeping the room fully engaged.

One moment from the first class has stayed with me. She asked, “Who here is in sales?” and almost nobody raised their hand. Then she said, “Everybody is in sales.” Whether you’re pitching an idea, building trust, or even presenting yourself for a job, you’re selling in some form. That completely changed how I think about sales. The other thing I admired was how well she met people where they were; she explained things in language the audience understood, which made her teaching style effective.”
Aarushi Singla, University of Washington (Foster)

“Professor Gad Allon, who teaches Scaling Operations – one of the most popular courses at Wharton. His course is essentially a masterclass in what happens after a company finds product-market fit, and that’s exactly the stage of company I want to spend my career in. Professor Allon teaches you to think about a company as a system: Is the business model aligned with the value proposition? Where’s the real constraint? What does the culture actually reward versus what leadership says it rewards? The course changed how I evaluate companies, and I still use his frameworks in my current internship at an early-stage fintech.”
Harshwardhan Singh, Wharton School

“Ewelina Forker made managerial accounting one of the most engaging and practical courses of my MBA. Her structured, clear teaching style and use of real‑world examples brought concepts to life in ways that felt both accessible and immediately applicable. She was also incredibly approachable, creating an environment where students felt comfortable asking questions and exploring the “why” behind the numbers.

One of the most memorable experiences was the Berkshire Toy Company simulation. Our class split into “departments” and had to defend our budgets to avoid seeing our fictional managers fired, while a student board of directors made tough final decisions. Professor Forker stepped fully into her role as CEO—complete with a wig—which made the exercise both fun and insightful. It highlighted the qualitative tensions and interdepartmental dynamics behind variance analysis, not just the quantitative mechanics. It was a standout example of how she made accounting human, memorable, and deeply connected to real organizational decision‑making.”
Sophia DellaMaria, University of Wisconsin

“My favorite professor is A.J. Wasserstein, the Eugene F. Williams, Jr., Senior Lecturer in the Practice of Management and a two-time recipient of Yale SOM’s Faculty Teaching Excellence Award. In Leading Small and Medium Enterprises, Professor Wasserstein ran a demanding, cold-call-driven class built around Teddy Roosevelt’s conviction that what counts is not the critic but the person “in the arena.” Every session required me to develop and synthesize financial analyses, valuations, workforce management, operational practices, and management strategy – simultaneously with all the infinite possibility and uncertainty that real decisions actually elicit. What I most valued was a perspective I hadn’t fully considered: an MBA doesn’t have to mean a slow climb at a Fortune 500. MBAs step directly into CEO roles at small and medium enterprises, take real ownership, and drive enormous impact from day one. By the time the course ended, I didn’t just understand that path. I believed I was ready for it.”
J.B. Horsley, Yale School of Management

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