Meet The MIT Sloan MBA Class of 2019

Liz Nagler 

MIT, Sloan School of Management 

Describe yourself in 15 words or less:  Exceedingly enthusiastic / Outdoors aficionado / Adventure traveler / Unexpectedly corporate.

Hometown: Huntington Woods, Michigan

Fun Fact About Yourself:  My friends and I pretend we’re news anchors on Snapchat. We post stories “Reporting LIVE” to each other as local correspondents. The trend has spread to our mutual friends, who participate as guest anchors.

Undergraduate School and Major:  University of Michigan, Economics

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation:

Mortgage Operations Intern – Quicken Loans, 2012 (at height of Detroit’s housing crisis)

ACA Compliance Oversight Intern – Blue Cross Blue Shield, 2012 (measuring Obamacare compliance)

Analyst Intern/Associate Analyst, Strategy & Emerging Businesses – Disney Interactive, 2013

Product Manager, Disney Interactive Labs, 2014-2017

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: At Disney Interactive, senior leadership allowed me to create employee programs outside of my product management work. The most notable were the Women in Technology Peer Mentorship Program, which brought a strong community to a small minority, and the Peer-to-Peer Education program, enabling employees to learn new skillsets while providing others the opportunity to lead a class. Both received high approval ratings and sign ups, emphasizing that internal change can stem from anyone.

Looking back on your experience, what one piece of advice would you give to future business school applicants?  Meet the current and recently-graduated students! While established alumni are helpful with understanding your post-grad opportunities, the current students are KEY to applying. Not only do they help provide nuances on the schools you’re applying to, but the admissions teams are familiar with (and have selected!) these students for a reason. Current students provide a window into what you’re about to begin, and are often the most candid.

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?  Sloan’s culture of self-sufficient innovation. This characteristic permeates throughout the faculty, students, and the resources we’re given, while sufficiently pushing us out of our comfort zones. This is the optimal time and place to experiment and fail as we’re learning key fundamentals, getting advice and feedback from experts, and surrounding ourselves with an innovative community. I’ve heard the argument that technologists don’t need MBA’s… but as much as businesses need new technology, new technology needs a well-rounded business understanding to thrive.

What would success look like to you after your first year of business school?  After my first year, success means that I’ve explored careers I’ve previously considered but have been too nervous to pursue. For example, I’ve got an idea around data I can’t wait to flesh out with our entrepreneurship center, and I’m interested in getting involved in Sloan’s space conference!