The Fuqua Show

Aurni Zaman (Class of 2024) currently serves as the President of COLE, the Coach K Center for Organization, Leadership, and Ethics. She's thriving in her second year of MBA, but it wasn't an easy journey to get here. Aurni shares her challenges during her first year at Fuqua - social isolation in a new country, imposter syndrome, mental health, and recruiting consulting and not getting a...

Jaime Blaustein (MBA '18) recovered from 7 years of drug addiction before coming to Fuqua, pursuing investment banking, and becoming a mental health CEO. Combining his experiences in recovery with his business skills from Fuqua, Jaime co-founded the Sylvia Brafman Mental Health Center. As CEO, Jaime supports people with mental health conditions and substance use disorders to recover and rebui...

Jessi Aguilar, Marielena Octavio, and Besith Pineda (Class of 2024) all identify as Hispanic, with family roots in Mexico, Venezuela, and Guatemala. Though they share similar experiences (family immigration, learning English, giving back to their communities), they each bring unique and rich perspectives to Fuqua. Jessi shares about integrating his culture at home and at work, doing advertising wi...

Brian Wong (Class of 2024) has reinvented himself countless times - as an internationally competitive tennis player, social worker, real estate entrepreneur, environmentalist, and investment banker. It's an impressive resume, but one full of hardships, self-doubt, and "extreme" imposter syndrome. Brian has no shortage of stories about his unusual journey, from moving around the worl...

Dr. Keisha Cutright and Dr. Jordan Etkin teach core marketing to all Fuqua Daytime MBA students. Outside the classroom, they conduct innovative research in consumer behavior, exploring topics like goal setting, motivation, personal control, self-care, and spirituality. In this episode, Keisha and Jordan share how they ended up in this field, what they've learned through their research, and wh...

Dr. Jamie Jones (Director, Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship) earned a Ph. D. in chemistry before catching the startup bug. She left the lab, got an MBA, and co-founded an accelerator (and later VC) fund to match social entrepreneurs with investors. Nowadays, she and her team are equipping thousands of Duke students with mindsets, knowledge, and skills for entrepreneurial success. In this epi...

So Sugiyama (Class of 2025) hated cello as a kid and wanted to quit. But he stuck with it and worked his way to becoming a professional cellist, performing at places like the Royal Academy of Music in Denmark and the Manhattan School of Music. It's an inspiring story, one that involved leaving college to study with an 87-year-old cello master, working as a Starbucks barista and bartender to m...

Mary Beck White-Sutton is best known as Fuqua's consulting career coach. But who is she outside these four walls? In this episode, Mary Beck shares her journey, from her childhood in rural Georgia to her early career in DC to her 22 years and counting at Fuqua. She talks a bit about consulting (the current market, AI, DEI, tips for international students), but she mostly focuses on the parts...

Kyle Mumma (Class of 2018) never thought about starting a company during his MBA. But in Year 2, he started a project to support career outcomes for student-athletes, like the ones he'd worked with on Duke's basketball and football teams. He turned down a high-paying consulting job to become a full-time founder, scaling the business (NextPlay) and selling it after only four and a half ye...

Jacob Smith (Class of 2025) takes "non-traditional background" to a whole new level. He joined the workforce after high school, stocking grocery shelves at his local Florida Walmart. He rose up the ranks, becoming an assistant manager in his early 20s and running a store with $80 million annual revenue. He then joined the U.S. military, where he ended up leading HR wartime planning for a...

Cathy Clark (Faculty Director, CASE Center) is now one of the leading experts in social entrepreneurship, impact investing, and "business for good"...but this career path was mostly unplanned. After people literally laughed at the idea, she helped develop the standards for B Corps, now the global certification measuring companies' social and environmental impact. She has since launc...

Stephen Ezekoye (Class of 2024) rarely passes up a chance to advocate for others. As he steps up to co-lead the MBA Association, he hopes to tap into his identities - a college football player at University of Pittsburgh, a teacher in rural North Carolina, and a "U.S. presidential history nerd" - to better serve the student body at Fuqua. In this episode, Stephen shares how he developed...

Runo Obafemi (Class of 2025) turned tragedy into a tool to help her community. After witnessing firsthand the failures of healthcare in her home country, she and her husband founded telehealth startup Betacare, whose long-term vision is democratizing healthcare across the African continent. In this episode, Runo shares about the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, working with your spouse, and runn...

Medha Bhardvaj (Class of 2025) helps people find their voice...literally. After working with children during high school, she pursued a career as a speech therapist, working first in Texas schools and then in home health. In this episode, Medha describes her unconventional path from speech language pathology to MBA. She also shares about teaching her dogs to communicate and reaching a breakthrough...

Stiv Fico (Class of 2025) fought (mostly) metaphorical fires as manager of his family's Italian restaurant. He then fought real ones as a firefighter in Phoenix, Arizona. Through both experiences, he learned a great deal about leadership, teamwork, and managing high-pressure environments. In this episode, Stiv reflects on lessons from his immigrant parents, his appreciation for life, and doin...

Kareem Ragab and Joyce Akanbi (Class of 2024) wanted to pay it forward, so they stepped up to serve as Orientation co-chairs. They both experienced many ups and downs during their first year - pursuing their passions (sports and travel), recruiting until June, and stepping up to lead. In this episode, Kareem and Joyce offer advice, encouragement, and humor for all Fuquans, in Class of 2025 and bey...

Dr. Dan Vermeer (Founder and Director, EDGE Center) began his professional journey in rural Nepal and India, where he saw the impacts of big companies on the "powerless periphery". He made his way to Coca-Cola, advising corporate leaders on "wicked problems" in water and sustainable agriculture, before ending up at Fuqua. In this episode, Dan discusses his winding career and li...

Dr. David Ridley (Faculty Director, Center for Health Sector Management) has taught at Fuqua for 20 years. He has spent his career working to foster innovation and expand access to healthcare, culminating in new policies passed at the Food and Drug Administration and Environmental Protection Agency. In this episode, David discusses his professional journey, passing the priority review voucher at t...

Shari Hubert (Associate Dean of Admissions) could have never predicted how her career would play out. Since graduating from Dartmouth College and Harvard Business School, she has worked at nine different organizations, including Merck, BCG, NBC, GE, Citi, Peace Corps, Georgetown University, and now Duke University.  In this episode, Shari offers life lessons and words of wisdom from her personal e...

Cory Dowd (Class of 2023) fiercely believes in the power of understanding others and building connections - from the poker table to a rural Ghanian village to Duke University. In this episode, he shares his learnings and reflections about building bridges, from striving to be a professional poker player, to serving in the Peace Corps, to researching "Political Polarization and Self-Censorship...

Tati Dasso (Class of 2023) grew up in Peru with a family of nine kids. After starting a finance career, she began applying her skills in the community, supporting lower-income women to grow their businesses. She came to Fuqua to pursue mergers and acquisitions in the U.S., with a long-term goal of working towards financial inclusion in Latin America. In this episode, Tati discusses navigating grie...

Eliza Johnson (Class of 2023) loves to follow whatever seems like the most interesting path. After growing up in rural Washington, she dropped out of high school to study art history in Paris. She continued exploring in early adulthood, from community organizing to managing commercial real estate to running an organic grocery store. Field experiences in India and Zambia sparked her passion for glo...

Nikhil Sreekumar (Class of 2024) is a global citizen and lifelong athlete, winning four karate world championships and playing professional cricket in Saudi Arabia and Australia. After his sports career, he pivoted to sustainability and worked on the green transition in Australia's public and private sectors. In this episode, Nikhil shares his lessons from athletics, experiences presenting to...

Tyler Kendrick (Class of 2023) is passionate about empowering peers to achieve great things. Through her experiences in an HBCU, the corporate world, and Fuqua, she has learned countless lessons about improving oneself and developing others. In this episode, Tyler shares about mentorship, inclusion, leadership development, mental health, and entrepreneurship - which she views as tools for better l...

Derrick Haynes (Class of 2023) has lived a "tale of two cities", having worked in both a bulge bracket bank and a sixth grade classroom. After growing up in Harlem and attending HBCU Morehouse College, he pursued a finance career before returning home to teach in his childhood neighborhood. In this episode, Derrick shares about his upbringing, pathways to success, and words of advice for...