MBA Insider

Becca Jordan Wright is the Founder of Piedmont Pennies, and a UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School MBA Alum. Becca focused most of her first year in business school finding a new career path after a stint in management consulting, but during the second year, she decided to pursue her entrepreneurial itch and founded Piedmont Pennies, a North Carolina’s handcrafted cheese snack. During our conversatio...

Lindsay Sage is the CEO and Founder of Sage Admit, an MBA Admissions Consulting Firm where she specializes in helping MBA applicants navigate the MBA admissions process. After previously working on the MBA Admissions Staff at NYU Stern, Lindsay has seen MBA applications from diverse perspectives. During our conversation, we spoke about what’s new with the MBA admissions cycle for 2021-2022, some o...

Michael Vilardo (UCLA Anderson, ‘21) is a UCLA Anderson Alumni, and Co-Founder of Emile. During his time at Anderson, Michael used every opportunity to explore opportunities within entrepreneurship before finding the opportunity to join Emile as a Co-Founder and COO. During our conversation, Michael spoke about his journey to UCLA Anderson, his time in business school, and how he used the programs...

Priscilla Weninger is a graduate from the Texas McCombs MBA program, a management consultant, and the Founder and Host of the Early Career Moves Podcast. Priscilla started her podcast because she wanted to use her learnings, resources and voice to help and guide first-generation students and BIPOC young professionals to help them build and grow their careers. During our conversation Priscilla spok...

Shannon Reinard Demko is a Director & Senior Coach at Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT) as well as the Founder at MindfulMBA. As someone who has coached and advised numerous MBA aspirants and applications, Shannon has seen all the highs and lows that applicants and students encounter. From the dreaded rejection to getting off the waitlist to navigating the difficulties of the first seme...

Diego Granados is a Fuqua MBA Alum, Product Manager at Microsoft, and is passionate about helping people transition and succeed in Product Management Careers. As someone who worked hard to break into Product Management during his MBA, Diego found himself asking how he could help others break into the field during the beginning stages of COVID-19, and began writing, posting, teaching, and speaking...

Derek Pando is a BYU MBA Alum, and has done tours of duty in marketing roles at companies like Salesforce, LinkedIn, and most recently, Zoom. Along the way, Derek has always been thoughtful about making career decisions and has had a genuine curiosity in career development and growing a career. During our conversation, Derek spoke about his career journey, lessons he’s learned from each experience...

Nick deWilde has spent his career working in talent development. After graduating from Stanford GSB, Nick served as the Managing Director of Tradecraft, where he helped hundreds of talented people navigate career transitions into design and marketing roles at high-growth startups. He currently serves as a Product Marketing Principal at Guild Education and publishes a newsletter called The Jungle G...

Ryan Price is a MBA Student at the BYU School of Management (Class of 2023.) Prior to BYU, Ryan worked as an entrepreneur, which fueled his decision to pursue an MBA at BYU. Ryan is also the Host and Founder of the MBA Secrets podcast, and during our conversation, Ryan spoke about his decision to pursue an MBA, the highs and lows of his MBA application journey, and what he’s learned from creating...

After graduating from UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School with her MBA, Kerry Rigley returned to her career in management consulting, and was able to take much of what she learned in business school to expand into new opportunities in her career. After breaking into serving new clients and new industries, Kerry then pivoted into an internal strategy role in the Travel and Hospitality Industry, and t...

After graduating from Yale SOM in 2019, Jasmine Ako moved across the country  to return to Los Angeles and began her post-MBA career in management consulting. Throughout her post-MBA journey, Jasmine has been able to use her MBA experience to develop and grow, personally and professionally. During our conversation, Jasmine spoke about her journey to her post-MBA career, her life after business sch...

After graduating from the University of Texas-Austin (McCombs) with her MBA, Lucero Perez began her post-MBA journey after graduating from Texas McCombs by transitioning into a career in management consulting, before switching to a career in Tech at an enterprise software company. Along the way, Lucero navigated the post-MBA career and life journey with the support of family and friends, and her o...

After graduating with an MBA from the University of Michigan (Ross) Jodi Innerfield moved to San Francisco to start her post-MBA career working in a Product Marketing role at a startup. Since then, she’s moved to larger companies and has built a career at Salesforce and moved back across the country to the East Coast. During our conversation, we spoke about her life after graduating from Ross as w...

In this episode, we spoke to Austin Lavin , and Elle Wisnicki , two Haas Student Ambassadors and Class of 2022 MBA students at the Haas School of Business. During our conversation, Austin and Elle shared their journey to Haas, their own beliefs in why Haas is a unique place, and what made them choose to pursue an MBA at Haas. As Haas Student Ambassadors, Elle and Austin talk to numerous prospectiv...

In this episode, I spoke to Anh Phillips and Gerald Kane, two experts in the fields of digital transformation and the future of work, and 2 Co-Authors of The Technology Fallacy: How People Are The Real Key To Digital Transformation, and the upcoming book, The Transformation Myth: L eading Your Organization Through Uncertain Times . During our conversation, we spoke about what MBA students need to...

Dr Lisa Orbe-Austin is an Executive Coach and Psychologist, as well as the author of Own Your Greatness: Overcome Impostor Syndrome, Beat Self-Doubt, and Succeed in Life. As someone who is an expert in imposter syndrome, Lisa shared her journey to studying imposter syndrome, the foundations of imposter syndrome, and why it impacts high-achievers and career strivers like MBA students. She also prov...

Lizzie Ann Jones is a MBA Student In the Class of 2022 at Rice University. Prior to business school, Lizzie was a Corporate Recruiter at Expedia and Amazon, where she learned the ins and outs of hiring and the job search process. Now, as an MBA student, Lizzie is continuing to broaden her business skillset to grow her own career coaching business while preparing for a transition to a career within...

Ashley Lautzenehiser is an Associate Director at the Forté Foundation , and heads up the Forté MBALaunch program This 10-month program provides a structured road map for applying to business school, including step-by-step application guidance and supportive peer groups. During our conversation, Ashley spoke about Forte’s mission to empower more women leaders, and how the Forté MBALaunch program he...

To celebrate the 100th Episode of the MBA Insider Podcast, Daniel Liu , the Managing Director of Career Education & Coaching for the Texas McCombs School of Business joins us to talk about career development for MBAs. As the world of work continues to evolve, Daniel has the task of thinking how he and his teams will equip students with the career development skills they need to succeed in a fa...

In this special episode, we’re joined by UNC Kenan-Flagler Dean Doug Shackelford. An award-winning researcher and educator, business education innovator and internationally recognized scholar, Doug Shackelford has led UNC Kenan-Flagler for the past 7 years as Dean of the Business School. During our conversation, Doug shares his perspective on what makes the UNC Kenan-Flagler community special, and...

Paul Bauer is a University Recruiter and Program Manager at Tableau Software. After starting his career working in University Career Services, Paul made the jump to University Recruiting, and has recruited university students at companies including Northwestern Mutual, Expedia Group and Amazon. During our conversation, Paul spoke about his journey into University Recruiting, the MBA University rec...

The MBA Insider Podcast is officially a year old! In this episode, we invite five of our past MBA Insider Podcast guests, to talk more in depth about their journey over the past year. During our conversation, we talked about how they’ve been managing through COVID-19, how the MBA has helped them navigate through the past year, and what they are looking forward to in the year to come

Jenene Vernon is a Director at the MBA Tour, an organization that helps connect MBA candidates with business schools. During our conversation, Jenene spoke about how The MBA Tour made the pivot to virtual events, the insights she got from candidates and recruiters on the virtual events, and how the MBA Tour has evolved over the past year. She also shared a look into what’s ahead for the MBA Tour i...

After serving in the military, Katherine Rowe (UT-McCombs, ‘20) chose to get an MBA to pursue a new career, and landed at UT-McCombs. Throughout her time at McCombs, Katherine not only took advantage of the resources and opportunities to expand skills, but also built meaningful relationships that led to growth and development. In this conversation, Katherine spoke about her journey to McCombs, how...

In this episode, we learn about all things Vanderbilt with Rob Schickler, Associate Director of Recruitment at the Owen Graduate School of Management. During our conversation, Rob gave his own unique perspective as an Owen Alum who now works in Admissions, and shared with us what makes Owen unique, what they look for in applicants, and why Owen is a great place for potential MBA students.