Real leaders don’t watch history. They imagine it. When the time comes, they step forward, embracing the uncertainty and criticism that come with leadership.  James Cochrane-Dyet’s moment arrived in 2019. Before then, he was a British military officer who’d served everywhere from the Middle East to Eastern Europe. He’d even commanded the 90 horse-mounted guards to protect Queen Elizabeth during her birthday parade. After moving into consulting, Cochrane-Dyet was tasked with a leadership role that few could fathom: spearheading a project for the UK’s National Health Service to help prepare London for COVID-19.

“As de-facto Chief of Staff, I supported senior NHS leadership and clinicians in the development of the initial crisis team and high-temperature operational plans necessitated by the significance of the challenge,” he tells P&Q. “This included coordinating multiple projects involving a wide range of governmental and private stakeholders, and included helping build the UK’s largest ICU hospital from scratch within an urgent two-week timeline, as well as the consolidation of much-needed emergency staff, equipment, and resources.”

James Cochrane-Dyet, London Business School

It was the allure of entrepreneurship and venture capital that led Cochrane-Dyet to London Business School. Here, he ran the Military in Business Club — the largest in Europe — while earning a scholarship. He guided his team to a spot in the world’s largest impact investment competition.  He studied at Harvard and MIT through exchanges and partnered with Bain and McKinsey on projects. Along the way, he launched a stealth cleantech venture through LBS’ accelerator program.

On the surface, Cochrane-Dyet checked all the boxes. More than that, his leadership served as an inspiration to his classmates, says Helen Foley, LBS’ MBA Programme Director. “From a non-typical pre-MBA industry, James has shown that your past is not what matters. The key to James’ success on the MBA is having the right mindset, energy, and passion to really make the most of his experience.”

WOMEN AGAIN OUTNUMBER MEN ON THE LIST

Such qualities make him one of Poets&Quants’ Best & Brightest MBAs from the Class of 2022. Each year since 2015, P&Q has honored 100 full-time MBA graduates at the top business schools worldwide.  You could describe these high potentials as the voice of their peers and the spirit of their institutions. They were the tireless ‘Energizer Bunnies’ of their cohorts, the ones who never quit, never settled, and never took ‘no’ for an answer. They were the unstoppable forces who never accepted anything less than excellence and always brought their ‘A Game.’ And their spark and commitment rubbed off on their classmates. These Best & Bright were problem-solvers who didn’t blink in situations where there was neither roadmap nor resources. They just made it happen. Like most, they didn’t have it all figured out. In the end, no one ever doubted that they were the ones you could count on.

In January, P&Q reached out to 75 business schools to invite them to submit nominees for the 2022 Best & Brightest. Schools were encouraged to choose candidates based on “academic prowess, extracurricular achievements, innate intangibles and potential, or unusual personal stories. That said, they also enjoyed the freedom to apply their own criteria and process for selecting students. Overall, 73 schools participated, with Harvard Business School again declining to submit nominees. This year, P&Q received 232 nominations, which were evaluated on extracurricular involvement, personal excellence, and the insightfulness of their responses and recommendations.

By the numbers, 65 business schools are represented in the 2022 Best & Brightest MBAs. The list includes 56 women and 44 men, hardly surprising considering female nominees outnumbered their male counterparts by a 132-to-100 margin. At the same time, 63 candidates were born in the United States, with another 24 already holding advanced degrees. The list also features 8 military veterans.  McKinsey & Company again ranked as the largest consumer of Best & Brightest talent, hiring 6 representatives. Deloitte plucked 5 MBAs from the list, while Bain & Company and the Boston Consulting Company each added 4. In addition, these firms hired more than one member of this year’s Best & Brightest: Accenture, Amazon, Apple, Credit Suisse, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Starbucks, and Salesforce. As of March 1st, 14 graduates remained undecided about an employer, while several more had chosen to either launch ventures or pursue further schooling. One striking feature of this year’s class: they weren’t afraid to shop around for the best opportunity. Among the 80 students who held both a summer internship and a post-graduate employer, just 44 chose to remain with the firm where they had their internship.

‘CREATE YOUR OWN EXPERIENCE’

Miniwei Cao, Cornell University (Johnson)

What did the Best & Brightest have in common? Over the past two years, you would’ve found them leading clubs and galvanizing volunteers. They oversaw student government, won case competitions, and organized treks, conferences and speakers. They ran resume reviews, case preps, and mock interviews.  Classmates sought their counsel and administration tapped them as advisors. Their upbeat attitudes made others feel comfortable and their intellectual horsepower elevated the classroom experience. No, the Best & Brightest weren’t just members and contributors — they were standouts and leaders. In their wake, their communities were left with one question…

How did they find time to accomplish all that?

Exhibit A: Minwei Cao. At Cornell University, she was a TA for eight classes, which ranged from finance to microeconomics to digital technology. In contrast, Audrey Dotson squeezed in time to serve as the student manager for the Duke Women’s basketball team. Across the country at UC-San Diego, Kim Pendergrass’ bluetech startup, Algeon Materials, racked up 1st place finish awards in several new venture competitions and challenges. Then again, says Dartmouth Tuck’s Lulu Carter, one of the biggest achievements for MBAs can be simply be to clear your own path. That’s what she did when she connected her interests in athletics and gender.

“Where there were structured opportunities to pursue my passion for women in sports, I took them—from completing a First-Year Project with Under Armour focused on high school female athletes to conducting a five-year demographic analysis of baseball attendance as an intern with Major League Baseball. Where there weren’t structured opportunities, I made them—from interviewing Tuck alumna and chief marketing officer of the NBA Kate Jhaveri for Tuck’s Women in Business Conference keynote, to pursuing an part-time internship during my second year with Futures Sport + Entertainment…From our orientation, Dean Matthew Slaughter has emphasized that it is up to students to “co-create” our Tuck experience.”

A RETURN TO NORMAL

Andrea Madu, Wharton School

Not just their own experience. The Best & Brightest were also busy creating opportunities for their classmates. At Southern Methodist University, for example, you’ll find Annabel Reeves, an undergraduate psychology major who jumped on a plane to Silicon Valley with little experience in the tech industry. Eventually, she moved into venture capital, honing a skill set that enabled her to help design and launch the school’s first business accelerator program.  Moving from accelerators to funds, Sam Buck co-founded the Michigan Climate Venture at the Ross School, an effort he describes as America’s “first student-run climate tech investment fund.”  In some cases, the Class of 2022 launched university-wide efforts. Look no further than Daniel Bu at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School.

“I am pretty proud to have been a co-founding member for start@ox, a student-led initiative that partnered with entrepreneurs and venture capital funds to encourage entrepreneurial thinking at the business school, medical school, and wider university,” he writes. “Through our efforts, I think we really did help to build up the entrepreneurial ecosystem at Oxford. We brought teeming ideas together, with different people who would help with ideation, let them bring it out of the room, build it, and then bring it back in before pitching for funding. To help spark innovation in a place that is nine hundred years old was an incomparable experience.”

Sometimes, a Best & Brightest MBA’s influence extends beyond her own business school. Case in point: the Wharton School’s Andrea Madu. “I am most proud of the cross-MBA DEI conference I launched last year in partnership with a team of brilliant MBA students from Tuck, Wharton, Harvard, Kellogg, Darden, and Ross. After the death of George Floyd and the resulting protests of 2020, we wanted to create a space where MBA students could learn and reflect on how they could advance diversity, equity, and inclusion and become stronger allies. There is such a need for these spaces at the MBA level. It was such an energizing experience to build a conference from the ground up that will live on long after I have graduated. Over 600 MBA students and prospective students across our six schools attended the conference, far exceeding our expectations.”

See Pages 4-5 for 100 in-depth profiles of this year’s Best & Brightest MBAs 

Ardelia Djati Safira, National University of Singapore

In the aftermath of COVID, where the MBA experience was upended by keeping distance and moving online, sometimes restoring can be just as valuable as creating. “Being on the Darden Student Association during a rebuilding year has been a true honor,” notes Isabel Fortuño Seitzer. “Coming out of a hybrid school year and having to recreate traditions without having ever attended the events has been a challenge, but one that has yielded great results. I have greatly enjoyed working with this team and having the opportunity to shape the Darden culture.”

MAKING A DIFFERENCE, BIG AND SMALL

Along the way, the Class of 2022 also made history. At the National University of Singapore, Ardelia Djati Safira became the first woman — and first Indonesian — elected to be president of the student council.  Along the same lines, Francesca Sally became the first Black President at Georgia Tech’s full-time MBA program. “I felt honored that my classmates believed in my ability to represent the program and effectively lead the student body moving forward. It felt encouraging that Scheller is not only talking about making systemic changes but is building an environment where people of all backgrounds not only feel comfortable in this space but feel comfortable stepping-up to lead it.”

Richard Williamson, Georgetown University (McDonough)

Those weren’t the only achievements racked up by this year’s Best & Brightest since they returned to campus. Rotman’s Peter Zhang had a paper accepted by the British Medical Journal Global Health. At INSEAD, Priya Mangat created WalkSead, an online group where students “buddy up” for personal safety on campus. In one MIT Sloan class, Kenny Groszman was part of a team that helped a non-profit produce an algorithm that enabled its volunteers to deliver over 100,000 meals last year. In this same spirit of service, Richard Williamson helped over two dozen former convicts earn a Certificate of Business through Georgetown University’s Pivot program.

“One example from this experience is the opportunity that I had to engage with corporate sponsors who were actively looking to recruit people of this demographic,” Williamson writes. “We conducted numerous conversations regarding the capabilities of the organizations to hire our Pivot Fellows for a variety of roles. As a result, we were able to secure both internships and full-time offers at Deloitte, Amazon, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and many others.”

Before starting her MBA at Stanford, Suhani Jalota launched the Myna Mahila Foundation, a nonprofit that provides health services and employment opportunities to women across the world. By 2025, the organization hopes to reach 2 million women for services like feminine hygiene products. For her efforts, Jalota and her team became finalists for Cisco’s Global Citizen Prize, which honors individuals whose efforts have made an impact against extreme poverty.

“We received more than 100k votes for it from India and all over the world! Our team was working so hard – we had even made it to Twitter’s top hashtag in India for seven hours with our momentum. We had people who had never heard of our work before reach out to me in support along with their own communities. It was like a domino effect with so many networks coming together to make us realize how loved and supported we were in our mission. The outcome almost didn’t matter, since we’d won the process as is.”

WOMEN ELEVATING THE SPORTS INDUSTRY

Maram Albutairi, ESADE

This year’s Best & Brightest also features graduates with big personalities, great stories, and major achievements. You’ll find all three with ESADE’s Maram Albutairi. A single mom, Albutari is a corporate finance executive with Saudi Aramco, where she once closed a $2 billion dollar deal. However, her passion is football — so much so that she became the chairperson for Saudi Arabia’s first female club. In the process, Albutairi was recognized by Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud for her contributions to the sport.

In fact, her expertise is so respected that she served as the head coach of ESADE’s football team…the men’s team. “Her dream is to become a role model, not only for her daughter, but for other women in her country by boosting their self-belief and showing that you should never be afraid of taking up a challenge,” says Laura Bonavia, ESADE’s MBA programme director.

Alexia Sabogal also made her name in soccer. Before joining the University of Michigan’s Ross School, she worked in business development for Major League Soccer (MLS). Here, she helped secure one of the largest brand partnerships in league history, She made history again in business school, launching the first-ever Michigan Ross Sports Tech Conference in 2021. Over five months, she led a team that brought together sports professionals from across the globe, including speakers from companies as diverse as Google, Fan Duel, and WHOOP. It was an event, Sabrogal says, that firmly established Ross as a leader in the intersection between technology and sports.

Phil Brabbs, managing director of Business+Tech at Ross, agrees with Sabrogal’s assessment. “Starting from scratch, Alexia built a plan then used her relational skills to build a team. In short, the conference, which took place in the middle of the pandemic, drew over 500 virtual attendees. In addition, there were close to 50 panelists and speakers for a one-day event.”

A BRAVE NEW WORLD

Jacob Schrimpf, Vanderbilt University (Owen)

Sabrogal wasn’t alone in deepening their programs’ ties to emerging industries. At New York University’s Stern School, Angie Siefert co-founded CannaNetwork, which connects the business school to cannabis-related resources in legal services, health policy, and business development across the university. In addition, she raised over $45,000 through a gala to support the Epilepsy Foundation of Connecticut.  It is a condition that propelled Siefert’s move into the alternative and holistic healthcare space.

“After I had my first unexpected grand-mal seizure at age 24, my professional dreams took a back seat for four years as I navigated my health and underwent several failed treatments. Following a miraculously successful neurosurgery at NYU Langone, today I am seizure free. I have been given a second chance to not only let my career take the front seat again but also dedicate myself to others with healthcare difficulties.”

Some Best & Brightest MBAs come from non-traditional paths. That includes Samuel Deason, president of HEC Paris’ MBA Council. Before he was dissecting business cases and financial reports, Deason had earned a doctorate in Musical Arts at Northwestern, where he became a professor. By the same token, Jacob Schrimpf may be joining the Boston Consulting Group this summer. Two years ago, the Vanderbilt Owen grad was a professional actor who found his greatest fulfillment as an arts educator.

“Through organizations such as Music Theatre Philly, Walnut Street Theatre, and the Kimmel Center, I developed and led acting curricula, directed music, and taught private lessons for students ages 2-to-adult in settings ranging from weekly theatre school to public school residencies to summer intensives. I taught hundreds of students over the course of my arts education work and firmly believe that this experience improved the creativity, positivity, and empathy of my students. It deeply enriched my life, and I hope it brought joy and growth to my students as well.”

STANDOUTS FROM NEPAL AND MONGOLIA

Sodontuya Nerguidavaa, University of California-Davis

At the same time, the Class of 2022 also emerged from the most remote corners of the world. Take Nikita Acharya from Nepal. A decade ago, she founded Urban Girl, an online platform that sells products like jewelry, clothing, electronics, and home décor. A few years later, Acharya expanded her empire into an online bakery serving cakes. Now, her UG Bazaar acts as an eBay for the Himalayas. For her work, Acharya was listed among Forbes’ 2020 30 Under 30 in 2020.

“I am proud to have built a team of 60 youths at my business,” writes the Warwick Business School MBA. “In Nepal, more than 1,500 youths leave the nation every day for better opportunities abroad! Many never come back. By creating jobs, especially for females and people from marginalized communities, I feel I’m helping them stay with their family in Nepal. They too are contributing to the local economy.”

Sodontuya Nerguidavaa describes herself as “a Mongolian nomad, the youngest CFA charter holder, entrepreneur, publisher, former judo wrestler and basketball player.” You could add author to the list after she published her autobiography to inspire young women. Now ticketed to the Bank of New York Mellon as a VP in its risk and compliance division, the UC Davis MBA looks back fondly to her education startup — and its impact on her home country.

“I personally trained over 500 industry professionals for the CFA designation exams, the globally-respected professional designation in finance. By enhancing the knowledge of industry participants and regulators and increasing the standards of ethics, my team has contributed notably to Mongolian developing financial markets.”

See Pages 4-5 for 100 in-depth profiles of this year’s Best & Brightest MBAs 

Hannes Harnack, Stanford Graduate School of Business

BUILDING THE BIGGEST BRANDS

Many Best & Brightest had made sizable impacts on the world’s top brands — and long before they started business school. At Procter & Gamble, CEIBS’ Raffaele Ragini launched one of the firm’s most profitable European brands. Looking for scale? Try Harita Byluppala, who worked as a digital manufacturing engineer at Nestlé. The IMD MBA pushed her firm to move their factories — over 400 in all —to a higher digital standard for automation. After pitching to the executive team, she mobilized a team to roll out the changes across the globe, a transformation that has cut manufacturing costs by millions of dollars. At Germany’s premier automaker, Hannes Harnack helped frame its top’s brand long-term identity.

“Working at the strategy department of Mercedes-Benz gave me the opportunity to redefine how we will move from A to B in the future,” explains the Stanford MBA. “I coordinated all the corporate functions involved in the new product development process and learned how to lead a large project team without having formal authority. Drawing on the expertise of my team members, I defined the cornerstones of a Mercedes-Benz vehicle architecture and the drivetrain electrification strategy for 2025 and beyond. In an intense three-hour presentation to the CEO and the board of Mercedes-Benz, I finally succeeded in getting approval for our proposal.”

Ellis Odynn, Queen’s College

Strategy is also Kaumudi Tiwari’s forte. At Edelman she worked on public relations campaigns for brands like Royal Dutch Shell. Eventually, the IIM Ahmedabad grad moved to Lufthansa Group Airlines, where she became the youngest person to run point on social media for a market as big as India. Fast forward to Nupur Gadkari, a Warwick MBA who most recently headed up marketing and strategy for All Sports, an arm of Star Sports-Walt Disney India. During her 15 year career in marketing, Gadkari has earned awards around products as disparate as Barbie Dolls, ICC Cricket World Cup, and Castrol Oil. While Tiwari and Gadkari may have toiled in anonymity, Ellis Odynn of Queen’s College has grabbed the spotlight. She is a highly regarded speaker who has presented at events held by organizations like the Asia-Pacific Economic Corporation (APEC) and PayPal. When Odynn wasn’t on stage, she was busy signing speakers from Google, YouTube, and Uber for the Women In Leadership Summit that she organized.

“Her list of accomplishments is simply breathtaking,” observes Len Anderson, an accounting lecturer at the Smith School. “She’s a speaker, journalist and podcaster. She has a passion for all things technology-related and she’s constantly exploring opportunities at the forefront of FinTech and AI. This energy and vitality is apparent in all that Ellis does.”

A SPIRIT OF SERVICE

So too is the commitment to service among this year’s Best & Brightest. In college, Yale SOM’s Kelechi Umoga started a health clinic, elementary school, and several businesses in a Nigerian Village where he grew up. And he is still operating these organizations from afar. Adam Cochran enjoyed a comfortable living at JPMorgan Chase, where he spent eight years at project and team management roles. However, he felt a calling to be something more. That impulse led him to South Africa’s Hope Schools, which caters to impoverished children suffering from HIV.

“During the five-and-half years I was there, we experienced incredible growth – both with the campus and the children and staff,” Cochran writes. “I grew a lot as well. We built 12 classrooms, a Skills Development Center, admin buildings, a 1,000-seat hall, a hiking trail, an obstacle course and more.

Ryan Hall, University of Chicago (Booth)

My role constantly evolved as we grew. You name it, I did it…It was life-changing to play a role in building Hope from a small, growing school up to Grade 5 in one 60-year-old building to a fully-fledged campus up to Grade 12 with almost 300 children.”

The military is synonymous with service. The Class of 2022 didn’t disappoint in this measure. Before Georgetown, Richard Williamson had attained the rank of Company Commander in the U.S. Army, where he managed a 180-person team and equipment worth nearly $90 million dollars. Before that, he was awarded a Joint Services Commendation Medal for leading a multi-national team that provided services like food and shelter to 300,000 Syrian Civil War refugees. The University of Chicago’s Ryan Hall participated in similar operations in Afghanistan. Last August, the Navy veteran worked to evacuate Afghan allies. His involvement in “The Digital Dunkirk” became a testament to his past perseverance.

“I was rejected by various Navy commissioning programs four times over seven years. Every time I got rejected, it just hardened my resolve. On my fifth try, I got picked up for Officer Candidate School in 2007. Every day, I remind myself that I’m the kid that grew up to get to do his dream, and it’s a big part of the passion and energy in my leadership style.”

At Rutgers University, J. David Wiessler held mock interviews with 230 undergraduates — which equates to four work weeks…minimum. However, his real legacy will be the courage he showed in his second year.  A former explosive ordnance disposal officer, Wiessler suffered serious burns across his hands, arms, and face last summer. His response: Stay focused and push forward.

“I spent a month in the ICU and was released the same week that classes started,” he remembers. “Instead of taking time off, I decided to remain a full-time student. I’m thankful to the university administration and my support network for accommodating for my condition. I maintained a 3.8 GPA despite having limited function in my arms and hands. Enrolling in classes while recovering will allow me to graduate on time and finish the MBA program without issues.”

Emily Aguilar, USC (Marshall)

A LOOK BACK…AND A LOOK AHEAD

Between COVID-19, political unrest, and economic downturn, the Class of 2022 faced adversity like no other. That said, business school also brought some pleasant surprises. USC Marshall’s Emily Aguilar, for one, watched her connections and opportunities expand as she invested more time in coffee chats and extracurricular activities. Similarly, Torrey Mayes learned that business school valued far different outcomes than undergraduate programs.

“The biggest surprise was the full focus on experimenting and learning,” writes the UC-Berkeley second-year. “Up until business school, it always felt like GPA and test scores were the most important criteria to be a successful student. Once I got to Haas, I learned that what matters most is learning and growing. I was encouraged to take the classes that were difficult and interesting because it mattered more that I challenged myself than to maintain a certain GPA.”

More than anything, it was the diversity of thought and experience that MBAs cited as the most surprising aspect of their experience. Amelia Parlier didn’t expect to fit in at the Katz Graduate School of Business. After all, she describes herself as a “queer artist” who dresses unconventionally, and supports unions and higher corporate taxes and greater regulation. Despite that, Parlier says, her perspective was welcomed in the community.

“I don’t necessarily support a lot of the practices of the companies that we study, and I can be quite loud about it. I was fully expecting to be rejected or shut down by students and professors, but my experience has been the exact opposite of what I was expecting. My viewpoint has been treated as an asset and a value in discussions. Professors have seemed interested to hear my thoughts and I have had productive and engaging discussions with other students — some of whom have similar ideas to mine and some of whom have very different ideas. My cohort is incredibly diverse, and I don’t even represent the most radical viewpoints.”

What’s next for the 2022 Best & Brightest MBAs? They carry a wide range of ambitions. Many hope to run their own business, live overseas, write a book, support a cause or even return to business school to teach. In the end, most plan to follow the career path blazed by MBAs before them: impact, autonomy, service, and connection.

“I want to be able to use my passion for servant leadership and ethics to lead and positively influence employees, customers, and a community for good,” explains Adam Cochran. “I want to be a leader of people: someone that people say he got in the trenches with them, got his hands dirty, brought everyone together, and led them to do more than they thought they could.”

See pages 4-5 for 100 in-depth profiles of this year’s Best & Brightest MBAs. 

DON’T MISS:

2021 BEST & BRIGHTEST MBAs

2020 BEST & BRIGHTEST MBAs

2019 BEST & BRIGHTEST MBAs

2018 BEST & BRIGHTEST MBAs

2017 BEST & BRIGHTEST MBAs

2016 BEST & BRIGHTEST MBAs

2015 BEST & BRIGHTEST MBAs

Class of 2022: Best & Brightest MBAs

Class of 2022: Best & Brightest MBAs

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