Background

I was born and raised in Shizuoka, Japan, and obtained a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Science from Osaka University. In particular, since I was really into sports and science, I studied bioengineering and my master’s thesis was focused on developing our postural control model to understand how to maintain an upright stance. Spending three years in BioDynamics Laboratory, I also honed key skills for system developers by managing some kinds of servers. After graduation, I spent five years working for a telecommunications company, NTT East before coming to business school to pursue an MBA.

Career Path

At NTT East, I was mainly responsible for managing projects related to internal activity systems called OSS/BSS. I enjoyed the project management role collaborating various vendors and honing my tech skills. At the same time, I felt I was short of fundamental business skills and wanted to further develop my talent for decision making and leadership skills, so I decided to pursue an MBA by taking advantage of a training program sponsored by NTT East. I chose Kenan-Flagler based upon its strengths in these areas, hoping to prepare myself for tackling more complex business problems on a larger scale.

Interests and Hobbies

Outside of work and school, I enjoy playing soccer and find time to enjoy the sport as often as I can. I also love traveling, taking photos, running, hiking, and have hiked Mt. Fuji – the highest mountain in Japan. I love to get the feel of a new city so always looking to experience new cultures.

Background

I grew up in Nairobi, Kenya where my parents worked in public health, but I hail from Durham, North Carolina. I attended Appalachian State University in Boone where I studied Economics and Sustainability, and played Club Ultimate Frisbee. After graduation, I served in the US Peace Corps in Nicaragua as a Community Health Worker where I worked with counterparts from civil society and local government institutions on health outreach initiatives in the areas of HIV prevention, teenage pregnancy prevention, and maternal child heath.

Career Path

The Peace Corps highlighted the management challenges to health services delivery, whether in the US or abroad. Inadequate sources of revenues, weak health information systems, staffing inconsistent with demand, and stock outs were just some of issues I witnessed that contributed to the lack of a standard approach to care and a vacuum of accountability. Attending Kenan-Flagler and the Gillings School of Global Public Health was a clear choice where I could complement my public health training with management thinking to tackle challenges in a dynamic industry. The opportunity to work on healthcare projects under Professor Swaminathan and Professor Kesavan as a Kenan Scholar is an invaluable learning opportunity that will allow me to apply classroom tools and frameworks in a real-world context.

Interests and Hobbies

Outside of class, I support student initiatives at Kenan-Flagler, such as the Healthcare Conference and Foodcon, and I work on a research project at Gillings. In my free time, I love to run, play Ultimate Frisbee and dance bachata.

Background

I grew up north of Detroit before moving to Ohio to attend the University of Dayton for my undergraduate studies. I received a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering and a minor in Business Administration from UD. While there, I was involved in many clubs and organizations including Beta Theta Pi’s social fraternity and Alpha Kappa Psi’s professional business fraternity. Outside of school I worked at NexSens Technology, a local engineering company focused on environmental monitoring products. Post-graduation I became a full-time employee at NexSens and was involved in the launch of their next generation data logger and managed a new line of real-time environmental monitoring systems from ideation to release.

Career Path

It has been my intent for quite a while to come back to school and get an MBA. While my love for technology and innovation will never fade, I knew that I would not be an engineer forever. After working as a product manager at NexSens, I realized this was what I wanted to do moving forward in my career. However, I also discovered I had a lot to learn and thus decided it was time to head back to school. Kenan-Flagler’s emphasis on leadership and collaboration attracted me to UNC and I am excited for all the opportunities available to grow as a business professional.

Interests and Hobbies

Outside of school and work I am still a tech nerd at heart. I enjoy learning new skills and putting them into practice. For example, I am in the midst of designing and building a tennis ball launcher to help me follow another one of my passions, tennis. The machine is going to be remote controlled and will be capable of altering the spin, trajectory, and direction of the balls to ensure I get a thorough practice set in even if nobody is around. Other than tinkering and playing tennis, I am a fan of the outdoors. Camping and cycling are two of my favorite ways to get outside and enjoy the day. Lastly, traveling to new places and exploring what they have to offer tends to fill any long breaks I have. So far, I have traveled to more than 10 countries and am excited to continue the adventure.

Background

I grew up in Recife, a city of four million people in Northeastern Brazil. During middle school I moved to the United States with my family, first to Massachusetts and later to Wisconsin, where I went to high school in the Madison area. I attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison for undergrad, graduating with degrees in Management and Human Resources and also Spanish Linguistics. During that time I also studied abroad in Madrid, Spain for an academic year, and met my wife during the study abroad program. After graduation we spent a few years in San Francisco and then Chicago before moving to Chapel Hill.

Career Path

I joined a Human Resources rotational program at Google and spent three years at headquarters in Mountain View, CA in a variety of roles. After finishing the program I transitioned into a permanent role in Learning & Development as a Program Manager supporting Large Customer Sales at the Chicago office. During that time I also was on the leadership team for the Talks at Google program, a TED Talks style program that hosts a variety of speakers at Google. I’ve always been passionate about the technology industry and the impact it has on our daily lives. I decided to pursue an MBA at Kenan-Flagler to transition from Human Resources to Product Management and work directly on technology products.

Interests and Hobbies

I absolutely love traveling, whether near or far, and spend a majority of my free time planning travel or actually traveling. While in Chicago I went through the Improv Comedy program at Second City and was part of an improv group that presented at some different venues around the city. At the time I also started to pursue stand-up comedy, and I’m looking forward to engaging in both improv and stand-up in Chapel Hill. I’m also a fan of outdoor sports like SCUBA diving, skiing, and sailing.

Background

I grew up in South Windsor, Connecticut and graduated from Babson College with a B.S. in Business Management and concentration in Finance. At Babson, I helped manage the endowment investment fund and founded two clubs – Men of Babson A’Capella and the Babson Recording Initiative.

Career Path

For nearly five years I worked at an advertising agency, outside of Boston, where I managed media campaigns, implemented digital strategies, built analytical tools, and pitched new offerings to clients. I intend to build upon my analytical and strategic leadership at Kenan-Flagler. I am very excited to work with Dr. Feldman and her team on the research database to accelerate analysis of economic development in the RTP.

Interests and Hobbies

I’ve been playing piano for 22 years and have led jazz, rock, and wedding bands. I enjoy hiking, camping, strength-training, and playing soccer.

Background

I grew up in Roanoke, Virginia before attending Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. As an undergraduate, I majored in Classical Languages (i.e. Greek and Latin). Shortly after graduating, he moved to St. Louis to pursue an M.A. in Classics from Washington University in St. Louis. After surviving a master’s thesis and two summers’ work on digs in Greece, I decided to apply the research and writing skills I’d developed as a graduate student to the nonprofit world. I helped build the research department at a boutique consulting firm in Washington, D.C. before moving into grant writing full-time. While I was writing grants, I got to see the interaction of policy, business, and place. I worked with clients in clean energy, healthcare, legal services, and a local film festival. I took the policy and sector knowledge I developed writing grants and moved to the healthcare sector where I worked as a data analyst for the year prior to business school.

Career Path

I’m in business school to combine the threads I’ve developed in my academic and professional careers. I’m hoping to find a career that combines data analysis with policy decisions. I’m particularly interested in how policy changes can encourage business creation and spur innovation.

Interests and Hobbies

I’ve maintained an interest in languages since college. Since then, I’ve taken classes in German and Arabic. I’m also an Ultimate Frisbee player (although my skills are in significant decline) and a middling guitarist. My other interests include cooking and, regrettably, the San Francisco 49ers.

Background

I was born and grew up in Nanchang, China. After obtaining my B.A. in Finance at the Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, I worked in Singapore as a derivatives trader for the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). In search of professional growth and leadership opportunities, I left RBS after two years and moved to Galaxy Futures as Chief Representative of Singapore branch office. Prior to joining the Kenan-Flagler family, I’ve had the opportunity to work in most Asian financial centers: Singapore, Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai. I loved immersing myself in different cultures and learning to become more flexible, open minded, and independent.

Career Path

While at RBS, I was one of three women working on the trading floor with over 60 men and the work environment may seem intimidating. However, that never stopped me from leveraging my analytical attributes, as I was no stranger to the rigor of applying algorithmic trading tools. I built a reputation and specialty providing clients with a wide array of dedicated multi-strategy services. At Galaxy Futures, I was responsible for establishing my company’s first foreign branch office in Singapore and building a multinational team to explore the Southeast Asia market. During this same time, I led a buyout to expand the company’s business to North America. This new opportunity allowed me to get out of my comfort zone as well gain leadership experience. I learned a lot about myself through navigating the inherent regulatory and market-entry challenges.

Interests and Hobbies

As an art enthusiast, I love music, movies and paintings. In my free time, I have always loved taking pictures. Photography makes me so much more observant and aware of the wonderful little things that surround me each day. I also enjoy swimming, traveling and cheering on the Tar Heels with my boyfriend!

Background

Born in Philadelphia, raised in Westchester county, NY, I spent the 9 years before business school in the greater Boston area. The first 4 were at Tufts University, where I majored in economics and played on the ultimate frisbee team. After graduating, I worked as a tutor at Match Middle School for a year, where I met my wife, who is a kindergarten teacher. I then worked at a boutique market research firm for nearly 2 years before switching to the startup world. I spent a year and a half at a lead generation startup before founding my own company that advised startups on how to better use data analytics and reporting. Now a Kenan Scholar, I am working with Dr. Camelia Kuhnen on a project related to behavioral finance.

Career Path

In my career so far, I have consistently moved towards more strategic projects while still focusing on data-driven decisions. I came to Kenan-Flagler to try to put that big picture strategic focus together, so I have been trying to participate in as many activities as my schedule will allow. After building a solid business foundation and combining that with my varied experience, I hope to offer companies a well-rounded perspective on whatever they need. I do not recruit for any specific industry, instead focusing on roles where I can help the company succeed and they can help me grow. My long term goal is to work in a lead strategic role, and I know that there are many paths that lead there.

Interests and Hobbies

Through KFBS, I participate in a myriad of activities, including Tech club and EVC club. I also try to stay involved in the community, taking part in MBA Ambassadors, non-profit board consulting, YES consortium, and other volunteering. I’ve stayed involved in ultimate frisbee after graduating college, playing and coaching in Boston for the last 5 years and now playing and coaching here in NC. In the free time I have left, I enjoy cooking, craft beer, and relaxing with my wife, Kathryn, and puppy, Josie.

Background

I was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but I have already lived in a lot of different places. When I was three years old, my family moved to Portugal to live in Lisbon and later on in a very rural city between Mafra and Ericeira. This was a very pleasant experience because my three older sisters and I could run freely throughout the neighborhood playing with the other kids. This was the first time that I was an international student, so I had to develop my social skills and empathy to adapt very quickly in a new culture. After two years my family came back to Rio. Once more I had to adapt while I was finishing high school. Finally, I joined IBMEC-RJ to pursue my Bachelor’s degree in Economics. Immediately after completing my undergraduate education, I started a part-time MBA program at IBMEC-RJ and completed Advanced Studies in Business Administration.

Career Path

I started my career at the BNDES (Brazilian Development Bank) working with infrastructure projects during the subprime crisis. After graduating, I switched careers and started developing business plans for startups in various industries including solid waste management, wedding planning, and event ticket selling. While I was working in this sector, I was invited to become a part-time statistics professor, and became the youngest professor at IBMEC-RJ teaching undergrads and later on MBA students. Two years after graduation, I was invited to become the National Operations Coordinator of Corporate Solutions at IBMEC-RJ. I oversaw the logistics, operations, finance, and legal departments for the Leadership Development Corporate Courses. After two years, I was invited by one of the IBMEC’s founders to join his business school, IPL – Leadership and Performance Institute, in Sao Paulo, where I started to develop my turnaround skills and a passion for restructuring processes. It was at this moment that I realized that I wanted to help businesses solve complex, global problems, which is why I applied to UNC Kenan-Flagler.

Interests and Hobbies

I am passionate about Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DIB). I am involved with different clubs and projects at UNC that enable me to give back to my community and help bring awareness to the student body. Those clubs and projects are the Pride Club, Community Service Club, Net Impact Club, Carolina Women in Business (male ally), Dean’s Fellows, Nonprofit Board Consultant, MBA Ambassadors, and Kenan Institute, becoming a Kenan Scholar. The Kenan Institute is providing me with an amazing opportunity to work with Dr. Jim Johnson and Lingmei Howell to understand how the current student body faces DIB at UNC and what actions we can take to increase awareness of this topic. In my free time, I enjoy cooking, watching horror movies and drama series, listening to electronic music, and talking to my family and friends from Brazil.

Background

As the second oldest of nine children, I always felt it was important to be a part of something larger than myself. I recognized Army ROTC at Wake Forest University as an opportunity to join one of the greatest teams in the world. After graduating college, I was stationed at Fort Bragg, NC where I served four years as a Human Resources Officer in the U.S. Army Special Operations Command.

Career Path

As the Human Resources Officer in an organization that continually deploys hundreds of soldiers across ten countries in the Pacific Region, I discovered my passion for managing human capital and building organizations. It is much more than putting the right person in the right position. I realized the value of leveraging the Army’s greatest asset: our people. I am pursuing my Master of Business Administration to further develop my passion of shaping organizations through expertly crafted human dynamics. I believe business has the power to drive change, but behind that change is always people—people making decisions and questioning the status quo. I am pursuing a career in Finance with a long-term goal of being able to use my experience in managing Human Capital and Finance to invest in small businesses. I currently work as the VP of Marketing for a Durham based startup, Babykixx.

Interests and Hobbies

I remain active in the Kenan-Flagler Veteran’s Association, Carolina Women in Business and VC Angels. I also serve as a Service to School Ambassador and am a Pat Tillman Scholar. In my free time I play tennis, run, and spend time with family.