Fabian Koenig

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

“Vision-driven problem solver and systems builder helping institutions and companies see and serve people more fully.”

Hometown: Frankfurt, Germany

Fun Fact About Yourself: I served as principal flutist in three orchestras, and music took me on concert tours as far as Brazil.

Undergraduate School and Major: Harvard University, B.A. in Psychology, with a citation in Chinese

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Consultant, Boston Consulting Group

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of the Wharton School’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? Wharton’s Health Care Management program stands among the most rigorous in the world. As I aspire to reimagine how health care is delivered in the US and abroad, its curriculum and community will be indispensable to that goal.

Through consulting, I learned that health care’s hardest problems rarely stem from a shortage of promising ideas. More often, they arise because incentives, institutions, and human needs fail to align. As a result, care fragments around the very patient it is meant to serve. To help build better models of care, I realized I need to understand the system end-to-end, across providers, payers, life sciences, technology, policy, and capital.

Wharton would let me study those parts of the system together rather than in isolation. Their advantages include HCM’s rigorous curriculum and close-knit community, Wharton’s connections to Penn Medicine, CHOP, and Venture Lab’s entrepreneurial resources. Together, they create an environment where I can examine health care from multiple perspectives and translate ideas into practice. Alumni describe HCM not simply as a two-year program but a lifelong community. In fact, many trace their most pivotal career moments back to relationships forged there.

That combination made Wharton the clear place for me to grow into a leader who can improve health care at scale while keeping the human being at its center. What draws me most, though, is the freedom Wharton offers to test that ambition. This comes in the classroom, through a field project with a real health system and during a summer inside an institution I had previously known only from a distance, or at a conference where a speaker might become a mentor. I see those two years not simply as preparation for a career, but as an opportunity to discover how this ambition might shape the life I am meant to lead.

What course, club, or activity excites you the most at the Wharton School? I am most excited about exploring Wharton’s global opportunities. Many of my most formative experiences have occurred when I entered a context I did not fully understand. Growing up in Germany, studying Chinese in college, and collaborating across international teams at BCG taught me that crossing borders is an exercise in humility. It forces me to question which assumptions are universal and which are merely familiar.

Wharton Leadership Ventures, offered through the McNulty program, embodies that philosophy. I’m particularly excited about the possibility of joining the expedition to King George Island in Antarctica which – beyond being a once-in-a-lifetime experience – develops the very capabilities I expect to need as a leader: navigating extreme uncertainty and collaborating under pressure.

In addition, I have always believed in putting theory into practice. My interdisciplinary instinct started in undergrad, where I conducted applied research on policy and business problems. Wharton Global Health Volunteers reflects that spirit, allowing me to bring classroom learning and consulting experience to meaningful, pro bono projects that advance health equity around the world.

When you think of the Wharton School, what is the first word that comes to mind? Why? Ensemble.

As a flutist, I learned that an orchestra does not become powerful because every musician plays louder. It becomes powerful because people listen closely enough to adjust to one another and make the collective sound better.

Wharton feels like an ensemble of exceptional individuals whose differences create extraordinary range. It brings together classmates who share my deepest interests and people whose experiences challenge my assumptions, and (most importantly) expand my imagination. Dedicated communities such as HCM, alongside more than 100 clubs, give every student a place to find their people – even around the most niche interests.

I hope to contribute in the same way I learned to contribute to an orchestra: listening closely, connecting different voices, and helping the group become more than the sum of its parts.

What makes Philadelphia a great place to earn an MBA? Philadelphia offers a metropolitan experience while remaining intimate enough for classmates to become part of one another’s everyday lives.

Its size makes shared meals, spontaneous conversations, and ordinary weeknights together feel like a natural part of the MBA experience.

For someone interested in how institutions shape people’s health and well-being, Philadelphia is also a compelling classroom. It is home to world-class health institutions like Penn Medicine and CHOP, alongside entrepreneurial resources such as Venture Lab. It also sits at the center of a major health care and life sciences ecosystem.

Philadelphia’s airport and rail connections also make it easy to pursue global opportunities and remain connected to other major East Coast cities, including NYC.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: My proudest professional accomplishment was building a pricing algorithm for a global laboratory-equipment company after discovering that its discounts often rewarded negotiating power rather than underlying customer value.

I turned data from thousands of transactions into practical pricing guidance, then supported its deployment across 27 countries. I helped train more than 50 sales managers and managed two junior teammates as we adapted the tool to different markets.

The solution is projected to generate more than $115 million in incremental revenue, and BCG subsequently codified the approach into its intellectual property. I’m proud of the commercial result. However, I’m even more proud that the system created a more consistent and transparent pricing approach across customer segments, from hospitals to universities to large corporations, replacing a tangle of complex, ad hoc decisions with something coherent.

What is your biggest passion – and how has it helped you make an impact? What I care about most is helping people be seen in full by institutions inclined to see them in pieces.

Back in my home country, Germany, I saw talented public servants from underrepresented backgrounds navigate workplaces where they were frequently overlooked and underestimated. Together with friends who were directly affected, I founded DIVERSITRY, a nonprofit organization that supports public servants who establish employee-led networks capable of changing institutions from within.

We supported more than 120 public servants, engaged stakeholders across 14 federal ministries, and more than doubled the number of ministries with self-sustaining networks.

I hope to carry the same spirit with me into my two years at Wharton. I aspire to a version of health care that can see people and their conditions fully. At the same time, I’m motivated to navigate the complexities of the health care ecosystems to build solutions that can advance this ambition. I also serve on the board of the Harvard Gender and Sexuality Caucus, where I work to foster belonging and community around gender identity.

Across these efforts, I do not want to build systems that people must fit into. I want to build systems that fit people.

What do you hope to do after graduation (at this point)?  After graduation, I hope to help build and scale a health care company that improves how care is delivered, ideally at the intersection of care delivery, technology, and patient experience.

I want to learn how to recruit the right people, allocate capital, use technology thoughtfully, and turn a strong care model into an organization that can scale.

Long term, I hope to lead such a company as CEO. I am energized by the responsibility and complexity of the role. That challenge motivates me to build the skills and judgment I will need during my MBA and throughout the years that follow.

Ultimately, I hope to build an organization that demonstrates that better care and better business can reinforce one another, so that scale does not have to come at the expense of seeing each patient as a whole person.

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into the Wharton School’s MBA program? Don’t sand down the parts of your story that feel unconventional.

Before writing anything, look for the recurring instinct in your own history. Experiences you once filed as unrelated may share a common motivation. Identifying it helps an admissions reader understand not only what you have done, but why you repeatedly choose to do it. A memorable application is rarely just a list of impressive activities; it is a clear account of the motivation connecting them.

Then explain honestly why Wharton is the next place where that instinct can grow, and how it will shape what you contribute to the class.

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