Griffin Mueller 

Duke University, Fuqua School of Business

Describe yourself in 15 words or less: I’m an active and adventurous person who “geeks out” over both system thinking and utilizing technology to drive social change.

Hometown: I’ve been living in Durham, NC for the past three years.

Fun Fact About Yourself: I represented the USA as part of a world championship team in track and field.

Undergraduate School and Major: Stanford University, BA American Studies, MA African Studies

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation: Health Care Consultant at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation; Strategic Planning Program Manager at Cisco Systems Inc.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: It was an initiative I designed to increase Cisco sales transactions in the Americas was implemented globally, driving a 47% year-to-year increase in key sales program use, which corresponded with a $5M revenue increase.

Looking back on your experience, what one piece of advice would you give to future business school applicants? I believe that the concept of “fit” is incredibly important. I wrote down the characteristics of the environments where I had thrived and grown in the past, and I was really intentional about looking for those same characteristics during my school search. For me, campus visits were invaluable – they were the single factor that allowed me to differentiate between incredible business schools and business schools where I would have an incredible experience.

What was the key factor that led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you? I’ll never forget when I listened to Ruba Borno share her career journey at Cisco’s Women for Impact Conference. I was incredibly inspired by her story, and how she had become a member of Cisco’s Executive Leadership Team before she turned 35. After connecting with her, I realized that going back to school would allow me to pursue a similar career path and prepare me to advise C-Suite executives at an early stage in my career.

What would success look like to you after your first year of business school? Success would be finding a role that allows me to employ enterprise-wide strategic thinking to solve particularly intransigent business problems that significantly impact a company’s performance.