Meet UNC Kenan-Flagler’s MBA Class Of 2020

Andrew Slaughter

University of North Carolina, Kenan-Flagler Business School

Describe yourself in 15 words or less: A passionate and dedicated individual committed to environmental justice, community engagement, and personal discovery.

Hometown: Rochester, New York

Fun fact about yourself I prefer cold climates to warmer ones.

Undergraduate School and Major University of Pittsburgh, Environmental Studies

Most recent employer and job title I’ve most recently been employed through the Environmental Innovation and Entrepreneurship Grant offered by Duke University to collaborate with Solaris Holdings, LLC as an Energy Technology Researcher and Project Developer.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far The biggest tangible accomplishment in my career so far is securing $250,000+ for a small non-profit (Ithaca Children’s Garden) in Ithaca, New York, as their grant manager and system administrator. The annual operating budget for the organization was $375,000 at the time, so my contributions in my 18 months in that role represented a significant portion of the organizational funding.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? One of the qualities of my MBA classmates that I’ve uncovered so far is their team-oriented attitudes. It seems that everyone is willing to share their collective experiences and positive perspectives to best support the achievements and successes of those around them.

Aside from your classmates, 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? As an environmental and energy professional, the incorporation of sustainable enterprise as a concentration and the energy industry in the class curriculum seemed to be a good fit for me. The dual-degree offering between the master of environmental management at Duke and the MBA here at Kenan-Flagler was also a significant part of my decision to choose the Research Triangle for my graduate pursuits.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? I’m looking most forward to leveraging the exceptional and unique experiences of the Kenan-Flagler professional student body to engage and impact the larger North Carolina community as a whole. One of the features of higher education that stands out most significantly to me is the ease with which it’s possible to have a transient experience in the community surrounding a person’s institution of choice. I like to make it a point to get more deeply involved in the surrounding communities and encourage my classmates to do the same.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? I wanted to strengthen my management and business leadership skillsets. In most of my job positions after my undergraduate studies, I found myself in management and administrative roles. I thought it would be beneficial for my career trajectory to build those skills in a dedicated fashion while acquiring the credentials to make that personal knowledgebase more obvious.

How did you decide if an MBA was worth the investment? My former supervisors and personal mentors assisted me in making a thoughtful decision around how an MBA could benefit me. After considering the roles I’ve had in past businesses and organizations and how I’d like to advance in my career, an MBA and the skills associated seemed to be acquisitions that would considerably bolster my appeal as a professional candidate.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? I only applied to Kenan-Flagler. I already was enrolled in the MEM program at Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke and the dual degree with Kenan-Flagler seemed to be a much better fit for me than the program at Duke Fuqua.

How did you determine your fit at various schools? My main priorities for my ideal programs were a combination of program values and the atmosphere of the student body. The Core Values at Kenan-Flagler reflect many of my personal values and the people with whom I choose to surround myself. Meeting some of my prospective classmates at Experience Weekend confirmed that those values were important to other accepted students.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? My defining moment was an internal carotid artery aneurysm diagnosis in the fall of 2016. That mortal experience forced me to confront who I want to be with the time I have – and what kind of impact I want to make on the world and the people around me before it’s my time to go. In that series on months of treatment and recovery, I reaffirmed my commitments to passions, environmentalism, and civic duty. Now, I always have a compass and experience that points me to and centers me on my moral code.

What do you plan to do after you graduate? I’m currently working with a start-up renewable energy project development company and I’d like to continue that when I’m done if we can make the company profitable. It incorporates my interests in renewable energy technology and policy, while including public and customer engagement in addition to the ability to work creatively and autonomously within a larger team structure. It’s, in theory, the near perfect opportunity for me.

Where do you see yourself in five years? I’d like to be a part of an organization that accurately reflects my beliefs and interests. I’ve also come to enjoy the Triangle area and everything it has to offer since I moved here a year ago, so I’d like to stay in this area as well if that’s at all possible.