MBAs To Watch: Class of 2021

MBAs NOT ALWAYS WHO YOU EXPECT

Before earning his MBA at Fordham, Curt Huckley held the distinction of being the youngest communications director in the Texas Senate. Speaking of politics, Northwestern Kellogg’s Jonathan Harris won an election to be a member of Prince George’s County Board of Education in Maryland. Then again, prodigy might be the best term to describe Warwick Business School’s Jeff Slater. He didn’t attend college, serving an apprenticeship instead. By 19, he was already managing 30 apprenticeship participants before moving into consulting. And if you are looking for the most intriguing member of the class, you might start with Claire Herting, who once worked on the production of movies like Batman vs. Superman and Transformers 5.

“Claire is passionate about using data, analysis, and insight to make the world a better place. That may seem like a ‘typical top 20 MBA program student profile,’ but Claire is anything but. Rather, she is that but also so much more,” writes Dan Turner, associate dean for the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business. “Did I mention that she brings to the world a ‘triple BA’ undergraduate degree from the University of Washington in Cinema Studies, Literature, and Mathematics?… with a Minor in Spanish to boot? Or that she left a career in digital marketing to manage a large comics & game store in Ann Arbor, MI, all before joining the UW-Foster MBA community? Or that she enjoys community building… and playing board and video games… and championing diversity… and watching horror films…?”

Think Herting is interesting? Just ask the University of Wisconsin’s Natalie Marinello about her brush with fame. “During my tenure as regional manager for Davos Brands, Jonathan Goldsmith (famous for playing the Most Interesting Man in the World in the Dos Equis commercials) was an investor in one of our brands and I was able to spend an entire week with him (which included attending the Kentucky Derby) during an activation in one of my markets.”

MAKING HIS MOTHER PROUD

That wasn’t the only celebrity encounter among the MBAs To Watch. The University of Minnesota’s Jeffrey Merkel, for example, once sang onstage with Michael Bublé. More often than not, these MBAs were the ones in the spotlight. Ivey’s Kathryn Donville was a champion synchronized skater for the Canadian National Team. As an undergrad, the University of Wisconsin’s Carolyn Kane was a two-time Division III swimming champion (and four-time Academic All-American).  By the same token, UCLA’s Gaelen LeMelle-Brown — a singer and pianist — has released two EP albums on streaming platforms.

That creative impulse is central to many of these MBAs to Watch. INSEAD’s Broderic Dytoc’s shelf is packed with championship trophies from being a professional street dance artist.  Alex Ignatius, now an Accenture-bound graduate of Washington University, started her career as a member of the Lexington Ballet Company. Swetha Rajagopal is busy writing her third fantasy fiction novel, while Jeff Slater has published a children’s book. And how serious was CEIBS’ Raluca Georgescu about business? She left a fashion modeling career to become an auditor with Deloitte.

A radical change? Not as far as the Class of 2021 is concerned. Southern Methodist University’s Morgan Mitchell started out as a biologist before earning her CFA (and later joining Guggenheim Securities as an investment banker).  Angela Wan spent three years as a nurse, where she counts all the lives she saved as her biggest achievement. After earning her MBA at UC San Diego’s Rady School, Wan is combining her love for medicine and business as a healthcare advisor for KPMG. When UC Irvine’s Lucio Chen started work as a consumer technology analyst, his industry knowledge was limited to operating a smartphone. Fast forward six months and he was being quoted by the Wall Street Journal.

“The proudest moment was my live interviews with BBC and CNBC (Squawk Box) on TV,” he writes. “My parents and friends were exhilarated to see a familiar face on TV. It was the first time in my professional career that my mom was incredibly proud and able to share something tangible with her friends about her son.”

MAKING A UNICORN UNIFORM

You could say the same about the rest of the moms (and dads) whose children made the MBAs To Watch list. Take Carnegie Mellon’s Priya Gupta. She led a project for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, creating a framework to guide the education arm’s grant-making strategy. Gupta’s classmate, Alvin Huff, became tagged as the “public art guy” in the City of Marietta. An economic development project manager, Huff handled everything from logistics to fundraising to put up an award-winning 130 foot mural celebrating the history of Elizabeth Porter Park. At the same time, IMD’s Anthony Wilson turned a near-bankrupt small juice company into a “premium” South African brand.

“I valued this as a professional achievement in South Africa, which has an unemployment rate of over 35%,” he explained. “The fact that I was able to save the company meant that approximately 20 people who worked there could still be employed and support their own families of five people or more. Saving one company therefore meant food security for employees and dependents who desperately needed a source of income. To me, this was even more meaningful than the professional achievement.”

It wasn’t always the fledgling firms that needed support from the MBAs To Watch. Tarun Bhatia experienced a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity when he introduced one of India’s largest unicorns to basic operational practices. How dire was the situation?  “Imagine a company worth billions that operated year-on-year with financial targets set in silo, that were allocated top-down by leadership without any discussions around how to achieve them,” Bhatia writes. In the end, Bhatia helped the firm create an integrated and transparent operation that enabled stakeholders to quickly identify the resources needed to execute their long-term strategy. In the process, Bhatia gained a deeper understanding of what it takes to become a credible leader who can drive transformative change.

“I learned that I needed to revamp key elements of my personal leadership style. Specifically, I learned that empathy and humility go a long way in engaging people and earning trust. As a leader, I understood that there exists a fine balance between displaying credibility and constant learning. Not always having the solution is acceptable, but a dedicated effort to solving problems is non-negotiable. The process wasn’t only about my vision of the end goal but also about two-way communication and sharing of responsibility.”

NEVER A DULL — OR UNUSED — MOMENT

When you look at the numbers, the MBAs To Watch are the MBAs who deliver. Thanks to his analytics know-how, Broderic Dytoc was able to boost his category’s sales to grow by 141% in just six months! Oxford’s Dave Miriuki has raised millions of dollars for Kenyan startups from his financial advisory firm. When it comes to sales excellence, it would be hard to top Christina Gohl. She hasn’t met an annual target that she couldn’t beat. That doesn’t mean she didn’t have a lot still to learn, she adds.

“I had progressed to the senior leadership team… and I remember sitting at the boardroom table realizing that while I understood the sales vertical very well, I couldn’t always predict with accuracy the impact my sales strategies would have on other areas of the business. I was a highly competent middle manager, but I needed to up-skill to become an executive.”

Most MBAs To Watch experienced that same epiphany, which is why they ultimately returned to campus. In many cases, they raced around the business school on a crazed mission to leave a legacy. Case in point: the University of Rochester’s Khushi Vijayakumar. An engineer-turned-banker, Vijayakumar managed two school investment funds when she wasn’t busy acting as a first-year coach or admissions ambassador…or serving as a teaching assistant for three courses…or making the Dean’s List. At the University of Texas, Kyle Johnson stayed busy organizing the McCombs School’s annual Elevate DE&I Conference. Despite taking the conference virtual, Johnson increased attendance to 426 people, all while adding corporate sponsors like Deloitte, Deloitte, and Chevron. To support Georgetown classmates, Rohan Shamapant, co-president of the Net Impact Club, held a fund-raiser.

“When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, several of my colleagues suddenly lost internships that were secured, while others wanted to devote their time to help fight against the pandemic. We raised $150k in two months from students, faculty, administration, and alumni, which supported over 20 Hoyas to take on impact-oriented internships without compromising their financial security. I am proud to have empowered other incredible business leaders in a critical and uncertain moment.”

Pages 4-6: 139 profiles of the MBAs To Watch (Class of 2021)