future alumni
entering the network

by Andrea Ferdinand
arturo de la rosa, mba ‘07
full-time mba
At age 13, Arturo de la Rosa, MBA ’07, became the youngest member of his sports club to earn his scuba diving certification. At age 17, he became the youngest English teacher at an English as a Second Language (ESL) school.

“I have always been labeled as the one who is the first to do something at my age,” de la Rosa says. “It has given me the confidence that you don’t need age or experience—what you need is dedication and passion.”

It should come as no surprise that when de la Rosa left his secure job at Procter and Gamble to come to McCombs, he did so with an eye toward his future. “I had to ask myself, ‘Am I being too greedy or ambitious by leaving my good position with a good salary?’” de la Rosa remembers. “But then you have to realize that even if you don’t get a big salary jump, the education opens possibilities for the future.”

De la Rosa will likely get that big salary jump. Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly and Booz Allen are actively recruiting him—all are offering a significant salary increase. But for de la Rosa, the salary is secondary. “College made me see life differently than high school. Work made me see life differently than college,” he says. “Now that I’m getting my MBA, my whole perspective has changed.”

This change in perspective could also be attributed to the fact that de la Rosa, who grew up in Mexico City, moved to the U.S. a little over a year ago. When deciding which school to attend, de la Rosa looked for a school that embodied the same community values as his hometown, such as team work and a collective focus. After narrowing his search to Columbia University and The University of Texas at Austin, de la Rosa says the team spirit of the full-time McCombs MBA program convinced him to come to Austin.

“I didn’t want to come to school and be in a trench competition with other students,” de la Rosa says. “I felt the atmosphere in Austin was great—people here are more friendly and collaborative—plus the apartments are much cheaper than in New York.”

Before coming to McCombs, de la Rosa spent three years working for Procter & Gamble at their laundry detergent plant in Mexico City. This experience, combined with his desire to improve the lives of others, motivated him to seek a job in the health care industry after graduation.

“I loved the way Procter & Gamble made you think about detergent—we weren’t doing detergent, we were making people’s lives better,” de la Rosa says. “I believe the health care industry is the best way to use my skills to make lives better.”

meredith mccarthy-winczewski, mba ‘07
houston mba
As an undergraduate at McCombs, Meredith McCarthy-Winczewski, BBA ’01 and MBA ’07, recognized the school’s quality and had no doubt about where to go for her MBA. But after graduating and securing an enjoyable job in Houston, she was hesitant to leave the city and her career to return to Austin.

So when she saw a billboard on a Houston freeway advertising the McCombs MBA program at Houston, she knew what to do.

“I really enjoy what I do, and I didn’t want to give it up,” Winczewski explains. “The Houston program affords both the opportunity to work and go to school.”

Winczewski works 50-60 hours per week as project manager with National Oilwell Varco. “No one in the program has typical 40-hour work weeks,” says Winczewski. “Toss in a family and personal life and it’s challenging.”

Winczewski thrives on this challenge. “Not having a job as a BBA enabled me to study and understand the business concept,” she says. “However, working and getting my MBA [concurrently] allows me to learn about a concept one day and go to work the next day and see it implemented.”

Because students in the McCombs MBA program at Houston work full time, they seldom have time for an internship. But the ENHANCE program, which Winczewski describes as a “mini-internship,” allowed her to gain practical experience by working with Minute Maid to develop a strategy to get the juice on a new aisle in stores.

She has also had a hand in establishing new student organizations in Houston. During her undergraduate years at McCombs, Winczewski heard several prominent guest speakers—an opportunity she missed while studying in Houston. With the help of Career Services, Winczewski began calling companies and soliciting executives to speak in Houston; this project eventually became the Executive Speaker Series. To date, Winczewski has recruited executives from Shell, Deloitte, Oracle, Infosys Consulting and National Oilwell Varco.

“It’s been very popular,” Winczewski says. “This program has given the students an opportunity to see the business concepts we learn in class applied to real life and to network with high-level executives.”

The Executive Speaker Series is part of the Graduate Marketing Network, a group co-founded by Winczewski and the first student organization formed at the McCombs MBA program at Houston. As Winczewski and the other founders prepare to graduate, she hopes to pass the torch to current students to continue the program’s success.

afolabi ojumu, mba ‘07
full-time mba
Some may not see the connection between African drumming, accounting, a New York City theater company and investment banking. But for Afolabi Ojumu, MPA ’02 and MBA ’07, the relationship is obvious.

With a master’s degree in fine arts, a master in professional accounting and—soon—an MBA, Ojumu balances his passion for his culture and the arts with his love for his career.

“Two degrees are for my job and one is for my cultural consideration—two parts of my life that are very important to me,” Ojumu says.

After earning his fine arts degree and traveling up and down the West African coast studying drumming, Ojumu founded Ethnic Actors in Action, a New York theater company focused on producing African-American, Latin American and Native American stories. But as Ojumu soon realized, obtaining funding for a nonprofit organization is not easy.

“I went to my father to find out how to get funding and he said, ‘I think you’ll have to get business degrees.’” So Ojumu did just that. He earned his MPA from McCombs in 2002 and went to work as a senior accountant for Deloitte, where he was fortunate to have access to big-name clients at a young age.

After three years with Deloitte, Ojumu decided to return to school full time to pursue his MBA at McCombs, where he is currently a fund manager of the MBA Investment Fund, LLC. As part of the fund, Ojumu and 19 other students manage assets exceeding $14 million.

“It’s an experience that can’t be replicated,” he says. “It will definitely help me in my new job.” After Ojumu graduates this spring, he will head to Charlotte, N.C. to begin working as an investment banker with Bank of America.

So while Ojumu has temporarily shifted his focus from his passion for the arts to his love for his career, he hopes to eventually link the two together. “Accounting and finance help me make sure any nonprofit is sustainable,” Ojumu says. “We need to be able to trust that we won’t run out of money, and these degrees are the best way to [help me] do that.”

benjamin judd, mba ‘07
executive mba
Kicking down doors, breaking into buildings, driving 100 mph behind police escorts and having the National Guard accompany him to disaster areas was definitely not part of Benjamin Judd’s job description as a field operations manager with T-Mobile USA.

But when Judd, MBA ’07, was called to restore wireless coverage to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, he was forced to adapt quickly to various challenges. “I love solving problems and facing challenges,” Judd says. “So being thrust into that situation was perfect for me.”

Challenges are not foreign to Judd. At age 17 he created his own consulting business and succeeded in restructuring a bankrupt company’s debt to restore the company’s profitability. This experience left Judd with a desire to pursue an MBA.

“I had always planned to come back to get my MBA,” Judd says, adding that his inspiration came from helping his father, a CPA, with bookkeeping when he was 14. “But forming my own consulting business definitely renewed my interest.”

When Judd was offered the option to transfer to Austin with T-Mobile, he jumped at the chance to enroll in the McCombs Executive MBA program. “I’ve been working full time since I was 17,” Judd says. “So it only seemed natural to continue working and going to school.”

One of the pitfalls of working full time while pursuing an MBA is that students rarely have time for internships. But Judd made sure to carve out time to participate in the ENHANCE program, where he helmed a team of eight students and developed a fuel hedging analysis for Continental Airlines.

“It was a great experience because there was so much we didn’t know—we definitely faced a large learning curve,” Judd says.

While Judd is currently interviewing with several companies in various fields, he is unsure of what his future career will hold. But that ambiguity doesn’t faze Judd, who never shies away from uncertainty and challenges.

amanda lea, mba ‘08
full-time mba
When Amanda Lea, MBA ’08, began working for the San Francisco CRM software pioneer, salesforce.com, she thrived on the energy of the small, growing company. But a few years—and 800 additional employees later—Lea recognized the flexibility and excitement of a small company were gone.

“Once we became big I realized software wasn’t my passion,” Lea says. So she decided to return to school full time to find it. After putting off her decision to the last possible day, Lea chose The University of Texas at Austin over New York University and Columbia University because of its personable culture.

“You can customize your curriculum to what you want it to be,” Lea says. “It’s not, ‘You’re lucky to be at this school.’ It’s, ‘We’re lucky to have you.’”

Once Lea decided on a university, she set out to hone her career interests. As a member of the Graduate Women in Business, the Entrepreneurship Society, the Graduate Real Estate Society and the Sports and Entertainment Media Association, Lea had plenty of options to choose from. After sorting through her many interests she reverted back to a childhood hobby—music.

From singing in the choir and playing piano as a child to taking music business classes as an undergraduate at Vanderbilt, Lea grew up immersed in music. Her involvement in the Sports and Entertainment Media Association revived her interest in the music and entertainment industry. She currently markets bands and events with High Wire Music, a local company that provides recording artists with sales, marketing and management services.

This spring, Lea plans to compete in the Open MIC Challenge, a national case competition held during the South by Southwest Music Festival and Conference (see page 11). The Open MIC Challenge gives students an opportunity to analyze a current challenge facing a company in the music industry. Given the constantly changing media environment, this challenge should give Lea a glimpse into her long-term goal of helping the record industry transition to digital media.

But despite current focus on music, Lea hasn’t forgotten her other interests.

“In the long run I want to start my own business,” Lea says, noting the Entrepreneurship Society has helped her understand some of the ins and outs of running a business. Her involvement with the Graduate Real Estate Society also affects her future planning. “Real estate is more of a side note—I see it as an exciting hobby while pursuing my career in music. And if the music route doesn’t pan out, I see it as a viable option to fall back on.”

But as Lea is quick to point out, her true passion lies in music. “I’m going to go full force toward my dream,” she says. “If it turns into a great career, then I could do it forever.”