Success Stories

As the assistant general manager of information technology and chief information officer for the ninth largest rapid transit system in the U.S., you could say that all of Sarah Hsi’s, MBA - GB 2015, initiatives are mission-critical.

Elizabeth lives in one of the poorest sections of Naivasha, Kenya. The mother of three operates a thriving business operating a water kiosk and selling vegetables and charcoal to her neighbors. She is a participant in The Coca-Cola Company's 5by20 program, which aims to empower five million female entrepreneurs by the year 2020.

Scheller alumnus Antoine Wade, MOT 2015, looks back on his time as an MBA student with satisfaction in what he accomplished and gratitude for the support of his "second family" at Georgia Tech during a difficult time.

For accounting Professor Deborah Turner, it was always teaching. Turner held her first class in the basement of her parents’ home in Atlanta. Equipped with a chalkboard and lesson plans, she would teach her neighborhood playmates day after day.

Michael Smith uses his Georgia Tech education and experience to reach students in the classroom.

The secret of success in life, to quote Benjamin Disraeli, is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes. For Bobby Henebry, ME 2003, MBA 2006, opportunity came in the form of a guest lecturer at one of his MBA classes — and he was ready.

Ashley Vanderpoel's initial encounter with the MBA curriculum at Scheller College of Business was a marked contrast to her undergraduate studies in communications and Spanish.

The Board of Trustees of the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF) has appointed Dr. Jeffrey Hales to the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council (FASAC).

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has named Dr. Marie Thursby of Scheller College as a 2015 Fellow.

Founder of the "Corporate Governance" class in the Scheller College of Business, Seletha Butler is known as Tech’s very own champion for ethics. Her career and research have provided her with a vast knowledge and experience base in ethics.

Just weeks after graduating from the Evening MBA program in December 2014, Teri Nagel accepted a position in the Procurement Leadership Development Program at Johnson & Johnson. From the headquarters of one of Johnson & Johnson's medical device affiliates, Ethicon, in Bridgewater, N.J., she supports medical and professional education for the company's Medical Device sector in North America.

Kevin Smith, Senior Commercial Finance Manager with The Coca-Cola Company and Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business EMBA graduate has been named to Poets & Quants' Best Executive MBAs 2015.

Ajay Kohli, professor of marketing and the Gary T. and Elizabeth R. Jones Chair, was recently received an honorary doctorate from the Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary.

As reported in Business Insider, Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business is ranked 1st in the world for Best MBA Value.

While working as global vice president of integrated marketing communications for Coca-Cola, Omar Rodriguez-Vila spent several years living in China in preparation for the company’s sponsorship of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

Georgia Tech’s Viapore team recently won first place ($5,000) in the TiE Atlanta Young Entrepreneurs University Competition for its medical device to improve the outcomes of spinal surgery.

Fortune magazine recently ranked Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business 15th in the nation as one of the best undergraduate programs for earning a degree in business.

The first-place and people’s-choice winning teams of the Georgia Tech 2015 InVenture Prize Competition – the nation’s largest undergraduate business competition – both included business administration majors from Scheller College of Business.

Vinod Singhal, who holds the Dunn Family Professorship in Operations Management at Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business, was recently elected a fellow of the Production and Operations Management Society (POMS).

Georgia Tech’s Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL) has presented Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business faculty members Florin Niculescu and Mike Smith with teaching honors.

Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business honored faculty, students, and staff who exemplify excellence on March 12 at the College of Management's Seventh Annual Honors Day.

When people meet Roger Blythe for the first time and learn that he works for Chick-fil-A, "the first question most of them ask is, 'Which one do you work at?'" chuckles the 1978 management science graduate of Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business.

A team with technology that could help monitor the condition of cats and dogs with diabetes won Georgia Tech’s 2015 Startup Competition ($15,000, plus the Edison Prize: a $15,000 convertible note).

Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business’ Information Technology Management faculty group is ranked 4th worldwide, based on publications from 2012-2014 in the three leading Information Systems (IS) journals: Management Science, Information Systems Research and MIS Quarterly.

Manpreet Hora, assistant professor of operations management, was selected by Georgia Tech’s Faculty Honors Awards Committee as the recipient of the Class of 1940 W. Roane Beard Outstanding Teaching Award.

The International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) honored Scheller College Professor Peter Swire, an expert on privacy and cyber security, with the 2015 Privacy Leadership Award. Swire was recognized for his continued commitment to the privacy field in tackling emerging privacy and security issues in public policy, academia and industry.

MBA students from Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business recently placed first in the second annual Deloitte Supply Chain Challenge, winning a $7,000 prize.

Georgia Tech students placed third out of 250 teams in the Deloitte National Case Competition.

Toward the end of the 2000s, Chris Foster was growing uneasy about his industry's trajectory and what that could mean for his career.

If James T. Jones had the time to go back through the Executive MBA program at Georgia Tech again, "I'd do it in a heartbeat," says the 2009 graduate.

Knowing how to disarm explosives is good preparation for running a major corporation, according to Stephen P. "Steve" Zelnak Jr., retired CEO and chair of Raleigh, N.C.-based Martin Marietta Materials.

Yolanda Upshaw works for Equifax as a process improvement leader, a job that involves looking for efficiencies and opportunities for continuous improvement. Prior to joining the Atlanta-based consumer credit reporting agency, the Windsor, Conn., native embarked on another improvement project — herself.

Before enrolling in Georgia Tech’s MBA Program, Brian Edgerton had long been interested in sustainability. “But when I came to Tech, I had the opportunity to embrace it,” he says.

The year was 1974. Gary T. Jones, three years out of what is now Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business, had just finished his MBA and wanted to gain more experience in the financial industry.

Everywhere you go, people are focused on their cell phones: talking, texting, answering email and checking social media — and much of this activity is job related. In an age when it's possible to be engaged electronically with the world all the time, it's worth considering, How are computing technologies changing the way we work?

As digital technology links things together in useful ways, it often imparts a high level of systemic complexity. This means that developing answers to difficult problems requires a new way of thinking, according to Georgia Tech alumnus Mike Sutcliff, the group chief executive of Accenture Digital, who holds a master’s in management from Scheller College of Business.

Jennifer Carson Marr admits that she had a naive view of what it takes to make it to the top in the corporate world when she first began her career.

Joe Evans wasn't sent to college to discover the meaning of life or to "find himself." He was sent to college for one primary reason: "to make myself employable," the 1971 industrial management graduate says matter-of-factly.

Some university professors follow a direct route to their positions: undergraduate degree, doctoral degree, assistant professor, and so on. Other professors come to teaching in a more circuitous route—via other careers—and often use these varied experiences to inform their teaching. Karie Davis-Nozemack is one such professor.

As the son of physicians, Henry Sauermann expected he, too, would have a career in medicine. But after working in a hospital during his civil service in his home country of Germany, he realized medicine wasn't for him. "There were some aspects that I liked, but others that I didn't," says the associate professor of strategic management at Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business.

When Yu Jeffrey Hu began his first academic post at Purdue University in 2005, he and his wife couldn’t find all the furniture they wanted in the college town of West Lafayette, Indiana. So the couple furnished almost their entire apartment through online shopping.

Brian Jacobs discovered that one of the advantages of being an older student is that you're a bit more concerned with learning the material than you are with grades. Plus, your studies are supported by a wealth of previous industry and work experience, and you're already used to spending long hours juggling several tasks at once.

Lucy Gilson, PhD 2000, began her journey into academia by accident – after getting hit in the head with a tennis ball.

When PhD candidate Lori Shefchik was in first grade, she thought she wanted to be teacher when she grew up – that is, until she found out you had to go to college.

Elana Burton of Peachtree City, Georgia, says she was originally “dead set” on attending college out of state.

One of the best pieces of advice Art Brannen ever heard went like this: "When someone asks you to do something, and you're not sure if you should do it because you have so many demands already, say 'Yes' anyway," he advises.

When it comes to naming her favorite colors, Kelly Barrett is divided. On weekends – especially during football season – she favors Georgia Tech's white and gold. But during the week, orange is her color of choice.

Sophia Bromfield believes that environmentally friendly design is going to be a factor that influences every company's real estate decisions in the future.

Mansoor Baloch recognizes that those interested in sustainable business practices sometimes get labeled as "tree huggers." But that's an oversimplification, he says.

Parrish Brown is thankful that she hasn’t had to worry about job hunting during her senior year. She was offered a business analyst position at Chic-fil-A right after her summer 2013 internship at the company’s headquarters.

As Jeffrey Hales was finishing his doctorate at Cornell University in 2003, Wall Street was still nursing serious wounds inflicted by corrupt accounting practices at industry leaders such as Enron and Worldcom. Those scandals got him interested in playing a role in strengthening accounting standards.

Mikey Mulford (MBA 2007) wouldn't have envisioned that the passion he developed for green business during his time at Georgia Tech would translate into working on projects related to oil and natural gas drilling.

As CEO of North Highland, a top-drawer consulting company headquartered in Buckhead, Daniel Reardon oversees a $650 million operation with 2,300 employees in 50 offices located in the U.S., Asia and Europe.

Edmund Prater, PhD 1999, knew it was time for a career change when the Russian mafia came calling.

As a foodie who enjoys trying new restaurants, Zoey Chen became fascinated with the consumer reviews posted on Websites such as Yelp. Reading them eventually inspired her to study factors (including immediacy) influencing the impact of online reviews.

The early days of European economic integration stimulated Marco Ceccagnoli’s interest in innovation. At the time, in the early 1990s, he was working on his master’s thesis at the University of Rome, theorizing on whether the formation of the European Union would have beneficial economic effects.

David Rowland considers himself a rare breed in today’s business world, as far as corporate loyalty goes. He still works for Accenture, the company he joined in 1983 just after earning his bachelor’s degree from Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business.

Soumen Ghosh loves helping business leaders get better at running companies. That’s been a big part of his job for the past few years, as he’s served as faculty director of non-degree and custom programs for the Scheller College’s Huang Executive Education Center.

Carolyn Holcomb (MSM 1991) encourages companies to focus on consumer and employee privacy not only because it’s the law, but also because it’s the right thing to do.

Seeing movie star Michael Douglas wheeling and dealing on a beach via a brick-size cell phone made an indelible impression on Jonathan Clarke when he first watched the film Wall Street in 1987.

Sara Dommer doesn’t have to open her mother’s cupboard to tell you exactly what brands of spaghetti sauce and other products are housed inside. “She’s a big brand loyalist,” she explains.

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“When you do business overseas, are your ethics portable?,” asks Professor Lucien Dhooge. “Do they follow you to Russia or India, where bribery is often a standard business practice?”

Sophomore Christine Proctor was already a successful business owner – with years of experience under her chef’s apron strings – when she decided to start the Scheller Society of Entrepreneurs last fall.

As a young girl growing up in Turkey, Beril Toktay accepted water and air pollution as a fact of life. “It wasn’t until I went abroad that I saw how much better it could be,” says the professor of operations management and holder of the Brady Family Chair at Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business.

Developing his entrepreneurial skills through Georgia Tech's Executive MBA in Management of Technology program gave Matt Hopp the confidence he needed to start his own business.

Second-year MBA student Heather Y. Kim credits a lot of her drive for success to her father, who brought his family to Atlanta from South Korea with only $300 in his pocket when she was four years old.

Although Cristina Lara was attracted to Georgia Tech by the opportunity to participate in the International Plan for undergraduates, she already had more experience living overseas than in the United States.

When Josh Bank (MBA 2011) enrolled in Tech's full-time MBA program, he was open to wherever his education might take him. But he didn't expect it to be managing commercial real estate transactions all across Asia on behalf of some of the world's largest corporations.

Though freshman Janani Raj lives in a Coke town, she idolizes Indra Nooyi, the CEO of PepsiCo. "She comes from around the same area in India that I'm from," Raj says.

HOPE was running out for Keegan Christensen before he learned about a new scholarship opportunity for students in the Denning Technology & Management (T&M) Program at Georgia Tech.

After earning two degrees from Georgia Tech, Sam Ransbotham considered pursuing his PhD in information technology management from a different institution for the sake of variety.

When Sourjo Basu visited the Czech Republic during Spring Break 2011, it wasn’t just a leisure trip. As a participant in the College of Management’s International Practicum course for Full-time and Evening MBA students, he had a job to do.

For Mark Stewart, the career services offered by Georgia Tech College of Management proved instrumental in his landing a new job as director of investments for Batson-Cook Development Company during his studies in the Executive MBA in Management of Technology (EMBA-MOT) program.

Next year, Matt Moulthrop (MBA 2004) will have his turned-wood vessels join those of his father and grandfather in the permanent art collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.

Fred Carlson, who received the 2011 Outstanding Young Alumnus Award from the Georgia Tech Alumni Association, understands the importance of a strong professional network. In fact, he credits his many Georgia Tech connections with contributing to his success as an entrepreneur.

When John Schneider first heard about Georgia Tech’s International Plan as an entering freshman, he knew it was his ticket to a world of business opportunities.

Mark Mele doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to do his job. But ATK ̶ an aerospace, defense, security, and sporting products company ̶ benefits from the vast business expertise he brings to the launch pad.

At a time when the market was downsizing, earning a Global Executive MBA at Georgia Tech led to a promotion for Khuram Babar. He was named assistant vice president at the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta after earning his degree in 2009.

As Matt Price was graduating from Georgia Tech College of Management in 1978, he hoped he'd one day be in the position to give back to the school in a major way.

Though he hasn't even earned his bachelor's degree yet, 20-year-old management major Cooper Littlejohn is already breaking new ground in health care insurance.

While the importance of creativity to business is widely recognized, many organizational processes actually stifle it, says Jill Perry-Smith, PhD 2002. Much of her research has focused on how companies can create environments that are conducive to creativity.

Management Education Prepared Emily Martin for Unexpected Opportunity

Even as a young girl taking dance classes, Shilpa Arya (BSM 2007) was focused on improving efficiency, from easing the entrance of dancers to the stage to how parents filed in for recitals. So she already knew she had a strong interest in process improvement by the time she enrolled as a Management major at Georgia Tech.

When Janice Carrillo began her master's studies at Georgia Tech College of Management in 1990, she had no idea she'd one day be teaching business classes herself.

When Michael Ehrhardt was in ninth grade, testing revealed that he was best suited for a career in animal husbandry. Fortunately, college professor wasn't far behind livestock breeding on his list of likely occupations.

Within a month of starting her Co-op job at Wandering WiFi in early 2007, management major Brandi Herringdine was running the whole marketing department for the wireless technology startup. Her supervisor, the company’s only other marketing person at the time, had left for another job.

Unlike a lot of entering freshmen, Chinedu Ezeamuzie knew exactly what kind of career path he wanted to follow when he started at Georgia Tech.

Drew Hess believes his endless curiosity, which he considers crucial for any PhD student, was stifled during his five-year career in the rigid world of banking.

Supervising workers who are many years older than she is felt a little strange at first for Colleen Gootee, 22, who graduated from Georgia Tech with a BS in management in spring 2008.

Like a lot of college students, Courtney Necessary often has trouble dragging herself out of bed in the morning – but not because she keeps hitting the snooze button. She needs that extra 10 minutes because of the tremendous toll ballet dancing takes on her body.

Bryan Grant, BSM '06, recently launched his career at NASA, landing a permanent position at Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, thanks to his participation in Georgia Tech's Cooperative Education Program.