THEIR IMPACT STILL REVERBERATES AFTER LEAVING FOR BUSINESS SCHOOL
Mohit Ganesh Gupta’s legacy may stretch even further at Eide Bailey. Here, he developed training for new hires in its M&A practice so they could quickly absorb concepts and workflows – even going as far as authoring cases that “simulated” real projects.
“The impact was immediate. Despite being based in India, I was soon conducting virtual onboarding for new hires across the U.S. — trusted as the go-to trainer regardless of geography. When I decided to pursue my MBA [at Ivey Business School], my managing partner was reluctant to lose the consistency and quality of training we had built. To ensure continuity, I worked closely with the firm’s Learning & Development team to convert my training content into a structured, interactive learning module, complete with recorded walkthroughs and assessments. It’s been over two years since I left, but to this day, every new M&A team member starts with those modules — my voice, my methods, and my material.”
Arshween Kaur, Imperial Business School
In some cases, the Class of 2025 received the highest recognition from their employers…and industry. Look no further than Alejandro Waterhouse. In 2021, the University of Florida MBA was named Employee of Year by Cognizant, beating out over 2,000 employees for his “exceptional performance and embodiment of the company’s values.” At the same time, INSEAD’s Angel Chen was named a Forbes 30 Under 30 for her work with the social impact consulting firm she co-founded.
“This led to a gamut of opportunities to work across dozens of causes and collaborate with thousands of beneficiaries, CEOs, boards and multidisciplinary teams – far beyond what I had ever imagined for my 20s.”
CONNECTING STUDENTS AND EXPERTS
These MBAs To Watch continued to capitalize on opportunities as they moved through business school. At Imperial Business School, Arshween Kaur launched two finance publications – The IB Finance Chronicle and The Equity Research Snapshot – for her classmates. Columbia Business School’s Serena Moss supported her classmates as a core tutor across three courses, while Cornell University’s Iris Fernanda Arguedas Salgado served as a TA in three other classes. Not only did Beatriz Marqui Monreal DJ business school parties, but she was also the singer of the IMD band that finished 2nd at the MBA Olympics (MBAT). When Alice Zhou wasn’t busy serving as a VP in five clubs at USC’s Marshall School, her case teams were collecting trophies.
“Participating in these competitions gave me a bird’s-eye view of the consulting process—from inception to execution—and helped me understand what it means to own a full project. I also feel incredibly lucky to have tackled these challenges alongside my friends. Bonding over late-night food and problem-solving sessions brought us so much closer. In fact, my entire case team came to my wedding a few weeks ago!”
Mohit Ganesh Gupta, Ivey Business School
Launching conferences was among the Class of 2025’s crowning achievements. At Georgia Tech’s Scheller College, Brooke Sharee Luster established the two-day TechForward MBA Conference, which drew executives from Salesforce, Microsoft, Techstars, and Nvidia. When Aaron Altabet wanted to bring together the best minds in climate entrepreneurship, he organized a four-day retreat at the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Labs that attracted “105 climate tech nerds” – 80% of whom came from outside the university. At Ivey Business School, Mohit Ganesh Gupta resurrected the famed Graduate Business Conference (GBC), a global summit that attracted MBA class presidents and club leaders from over two dozen global programs.
“This conference had not been hosted anywhere since the COVID-19 pandemic, and bringing it back was widely seen as an uphill — if not impossible — task,” Gupta tells P&Q. “From securing Ivey’s bid to building the organizing team, fundraising from corporate sponsors, curating speaker lineups, managing logistics, and leading external communications — I had to wear every hat…Pulling it off wasn’t just a personal milestone — it also revived a powerful global tradition for future student leaders. It reminded me that leadership is not just about ambition, but about persistence, community, and the courage to act.”
MEETING YOUR HERO…AND WORKING FOR HIM
And the courage to ask too! You’ll find several MBAs to Watch capable of taking up Zig Ziglar’s sales mantle. At the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School, Garrison Kiefer’s Carlson 4 Community team raised over $35,000 for a Twin Cities nonprofit. Leading the Board Fellows at the University of Texas’ McCombs School, Chastity Lovely closed a $1.25 million dollar grant from Golub Capital to continue the organization’s work. Amir Parikh was so persuasive that he got his Northwestern Kellogg classmates to rack up 35-million steps as part of the Fitness Club’s Step Challenge. And he did this in Chicago…in frigid February, no less. Then again, Elvio Rossini should have a statue erected in his honor at SDA Bocconi. After all, he got their annual Ski Weekend underwritten by corporate sponsors.
“Thanks to an incredible team effort, we secured support from several highly recognized sponsors, including Eurocar (Porsche Holding, for whom we organized a hackathon in exchange), EQT Partners, Red Bull, Level Gloves, MC2 Saint Barth, Sidel, and Snowitt – all despite the demanding MBA schedule. This initiative helped forge new and stronger connections between these companies, the university, and the new MBA cohort.”
Beatriz Marqui Monreal, IMD Business School
That said, some achievements were more personal in nature: Exhibit A: IMD’s Beatriz Marqui Monreal embraced public speaking. “More than just improving my presentation skills, this journey was about self-awareness and turning insight into action,” she writes. “By understanding my trigger points and recognizing what was hindering my leadership potential, I was able to take deliberate steps to address them. I went from freezing in front of my classmates to confidently presenting at a major healthcare conference in Basel within just a few months.”
Tyki Wada considers one of his best MBA moments to be when worked as a TA for Goizueta’s Strategy class. Here, he built an AI grader that he jokes took “five hours to build, graded everything in 20 minutes, [and] cost 2 cents.” At Yale SOM, Rui Li served as a TA for her hero, Professor Mushfiq Mobarak, who was part of the interim government in Li’s native Bangladesh after they had “overthrown their corrupt predecessors.” For Angel Chen, the highlight was Master Strategists Day, the culmination of INSEAD’s core strategy course that taps into the school’s cosmopolitan spirit.
“We conducted an external analysis into the sustainable farming industry in the South Pacific and then worked on providing strategic recommendations for an organisation based in Fiji (within a 24-hour timeframe),” Lin writes. “I’m really proud of how our group of six, who all came from different backgrounds (consulting, start-ups, aerospace engineering to executive search) and from different countries (Thailand, Germany, India, Spain and U.S.), worked together.”
A BREAKNECK PACE
There was plenty of fun to be had too. Just ask Ryan Jewe, who backpacked an 80-mile stretch of Patagonia with several of his MBA classmates from UC Berkeley’s Haas School. While some graduates equate business school to drinking from firehose, some pursued a whiplash schedule that left little time for R&R.
“I wanted an MBA program that would support my pivot to a new industry and give me the time and encouragement to explore possibilities I would not have otherwise considered,” explains Snehal, a merit scholar, blogger, ambassador, stream representative, and club co-president at the London Business School. “I have completed four part-time internships, studied abroad at Columbia Business School, taken up an elective in Buenos Aires (Argentina), and travelled to bucket-list destinations like the Pyramids and Machu Picchu! These experiences have expanded my skill set and given me the courage and confidence to embrace the unfamiliar. And, of course, have the best time along the way!”
Andrew Chetcuti, Georgia Tech (Scheller)
Think that sounds exhausting? Just wait until you see what Rui Li has done away from Evans Hall. “I produced a 137km adventure race that involved mountain-biking down the Great Wall of China. Before all that, I used to fail PE in high school, but now I ski, sail, kiteboard, scuba-dive, and paraglide. I’ve run marathons, ski-mountaineered a 5,100-meter peak, and crossed a desert on foot.”
A PAINTER…AND A MARKSWOMAN
In fact, some MBAs to Watch brought backgrounds to class that you might not expect. For example, EDHEC Business School’s Simone Whale played professional Ultimate Frisbee with the Raleigh Radiance, earning $40 a game to boot. Andrew Chetcuti, a Scheller College grad ticketed to Bain & Company, represented Malta for swimming in three Olympic Games, even carrying his nation’s flag in two opening ceremonies. UCLA Anderson’s Michelle Hernandez holds a triple black belt. And let’s just say coaching against Alabama’s Nick Saban – and his #1 Alabama football team – wasn’t quite the honor it might seem on the surface for Emory Goizueta’s Tom Moak Jr.
“It did not go well,” he acknowledges. (As in 45-3)
The best story among the MBAs to Watch? That honor belongs to CEIBS’ Jeanne DE GAYFFIER. “Once, I took two friends on an Iceland trek, underestimated the difficulty, got lost in the wild for 3 days with no signal—surrounded by arctic foxes and seals. It was scary but incredibly beautiful: a humbling reminder of our fragility in nature.”
Best example of an MBA with two completely different lives? Bidisha Sarkar doesn’t even hide it. “In the winter, I channel my inner Picasso, spending cozy evenings painting and letting creativity flow like a well-mixed palette,” write the newly-minted graduate of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School. “But when summer arrives, I swap my brushes for a semi-automatic firearm and head to the shooting range—where the real show begins. As a short, brown woman in my 20s, I never fail to amuse my peers. Their surprised expressions when I enter the range are priceless—it’s as if they’re witnessing a plot twist in my biography. One minute, I’m the delicate artist; the next, I’m hitting targets with precision, proving that versatility isn’t just a skill—it’s an art form in itself.”
WHAT’S AHEAD FOR THE CLASS OF 2025
As the MBAs to Watch head out to start jobs in technology, finance, or operations, each carry long-term goals often divergent from where they find themselves today. After working in the energy sector, Simón Cormack used the Rice MBA to transition to consulting with Bain & Company. Long-term, however, he pictures himself making his impact in a more intimate setting.
David Kwame Dumorgah, Fordham University (Gabelli)
“I have a dream of owning a coffee shop that will bring people together in a more personal, tangible way. Coffee shops are more than just places to grab a drink; they foster conversation, creativity and community. I envision creating a welcoming space with great coffee, an inviting atmosphere and a business model that supports both customers and employees. After years of working in high-level strategy and operations, I want to take those lessons and apply them to something I can truly call my own — creating a business that not only thrives, but also enriches the lives of those who walk through its doors.”
David Kwame Dumorgah, who joined the Royal Bank of Canada after earning his MBA at Fordham University’s Gabelli School, plans to pay it forward in a different way. His goal: share his wisdom through teaching and coaching.
“My goal is to become an expert in my field and use that expertise to guide aspiring professionals, whether through university guest lectures, corporate mentorship programs, or independent coaching sessions. Helping others develop key skills in finance, strategy, and leadership would be incredibly fulfilling, allowing me to give back and shape the next generation of professionals.”
Anna Batty harbors a similar pay-it-forward spirit, hoping to someday publish work that’ll be studied by MBA students. In the meantime, she plans to relish every moment after business school, knowing just how much is still ahead of her.
“I want to share the lessons I’ve learned from my journey as a cancer survivor, a musician in London, a Disney World employee, an MBA candidate, and a future business leader. My story is very much still being written, and I hope to inspire others along the way!”
Page 3 MBA Profiles: Arizona State to the University of Maryland
Page 4 MBA Profiles: McGill University to Yale SOM