Want to make something happen? You have to go where the action is – where the power brokers hold court and the decisions get made. It is the place where ideas collide, messaging gets framed, and money is awarded. Experience, expertise, authority, impact, and reach – the levers of power all concentrated in one area. That’s Washington D.C. – the nerve center, combustion engine, and memory lobe for the most powerful country in the world.
Here, you will find everything: institutions, agencies, embassies, and advocacies – the elected, the anointed, and the insurgents who shape policies and choose winners and losers. At the center of it all is Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. Grounded in Jesuit values, the program takes an interdisciplinary approach that emphasizes social responsibility. Long known for being among the most globally-minded American programs, the program has invested heavily in sustainability and research to become a program geared towards using cutting-edge innovation to achieve a greater purpose.
THE INTERSECTON OF BUSINESS AND POLICY
That fits McDonough’s DC milieu, where channels idealism, know-how, connections, and influence so things get done. For the Class of 2025, DC offers a variety of benefits. Emma Nosofsky cites the “proximity to government, politics, law, history, business, and international organizations” as something that just isn’t as expansive in any other city. After studying business at nearby American University, Victoria Bravo Ortiz has enjoyed her return to DC – and its “diverse cultures, national landmarks, museums, entertainment scene, vast networking opportunities.” Academically, Matteo Memmo considers the one-two punch of McDonough and DC as a laboratory for seeing how policy and politics impact various industries. Matteo’s classmate, Ross Drwal, reinforces that point.
“In Washington, D.C., political and economic decisions are made on a daily basis that impact people throughout the world. At Georgetown, we get to learn the theoretical framework on how these decisions impact people and institutions, but we also have the opportunity to see these decisions come to life right in our backyard!”
That comes through access, says Adriana Estevez. She praises how the program enables her to engage with “policymakers, global organizations, and influential leaders.” Indeed, the district includes nearly 16,000 non-profits and over 175 embassies. In addition, 16 Fortune 500 firms are headquartered in DC, including Fannie Mac, Freddie Mae, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Capital One, and Booz Allen Hamilton. In the past two years, Raytheon and Boeing have moved their headquarters there too. DC has also emerged as an entrepreneurial hub. Startup Genome has pegged the value of its startup ecosystem at $85.5 billion dollars – nearly three times larger than other bigger cities. Notably, the region has become known for its capabilities in life sciences, cybersecurity, and cleantech, spinning out 15 unicorns from 2021-2023 and generating over $2.7 billion dollars in early-stage funding during the same period.
Washington, DC
SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE
Between a flourishing public and private sector offerings, Washington, DC offers a wide range of opportunities for MBAs according to alumni like Esther Adusei (’23), who gravitated towards McDonough’s international offerings.
“Being in D.C. gave me the opportunity to work at the U.S. Development Finance Corporation as part of Georgetown’s Business for Impact fellowship, attend various conferences on U.S.-Africa relations, and industry-wide conferences all in the heart of D.C. Through the MBA I have been able to go on exchange to London for a semester, work on a consulting project in Rwanda, and complete my Global Business Experience in Chile.”
There is plenty more to do in DC when MBAs aren’t busy enhancing their prospects and pursuing their purpose, adds Kanokbhorn (KK) Saha (’23).
“Washington, D.C. is a destination; all things lead to it. You can enjoy everything from good restaurants scene to vibrant nightlife, and the best of it all…the museums and monuments. A regular day can involve walking to the Lincoln Memorial, then strolling down the National Mall and visiting a couple of Smithsonian Museums. From there you could have a nice meal at Le Diplomate and end the night in DuPont or U Street bars. It’s the best of all worlds, in my opinion.”
CHANGING THE FACE OF SPORTS
Coming into McDonough, the Class of 2025 already boasted impressive roles and achievements. Take Matteo Memmo. At NBC Sports, he worked as a decision sciences analyst. When COVID-19 hit, he was forced to step into the spotlight. After the lockdown cancelled major programming, he was assigned to analyze the network’s portfolio and forecast each sport’s viability. His review of NBC’s broadcast package with the NHL even made it to the desk of the company president and CFO.
“I argued that we should consolidate some of our portfolio by not renewing the NHL deal and instead focusing on sports properties with more cohesion within the portfolio. My analysis helped executive leadership make the decision to not renew the NHL deal and instead look to acquire rights to Big Ten College football – a $7 billion multinetwork deal that was finalized in late 2022. This deal offers millions of new viewers, supports the already existing Sunday Night Football broadcast deal, and positions NBC to have a major foothold in Saturday sports broadcasting.”
COVID-19 also brought out the best in Pavan Singh. At Woodland Shoes, which he describes as “India’s premier footwear retail brand”, he went on a mission to boost store growth. Despite being the firm’s vice president for growth strategy, he personally visited over 100 stores across India, “spending 3-4 days in each state talking to customers, managers, and sales staff.” As a result, he says, he gained a “nuanced understanding” of the forces buffeting the consumers and their demands.
“I was able to identify a gap in the apparel market where Woodland could play a role. Accordingly, I created a design strategy to revamp our summer apparel collection by integrating these learnings. This included planning the depth and width of sub-categories as well as color schemes and product features that enriched the offering. The merchandise I curated included 60 apparel SKUs and received 100% approval from regional sales teams and was launched in 400 retail stores across all regions of India.”
Joe Weinstein, Senior Director at Business for Impact, speaking to a crowd of students interested to learn more about the impact internships available through Business for Impact at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business
A GLOBAL MINDSET
Sade Oyalowo worked as a copywriter for Penguin Random House. Here, she helped to develop ads for The 1619 Project, The New York Times, and The New York Times Magazine. At Visa, Adriana Estevez designed go-to-market solutions that boosted adoption rates by 21% and revenue by $1.7 million dollars. By the same token, Gio O. Tantoco created the Philippines’ first cloud kitchen company from the “ground up,” ultimately opening 195 restaurants in six months. In Columbia, Alejandra Giron worked on behalf of the government to handle construction licenses for non-port projects for nearly three-quarters of the 950-mile-long Magdalena River. In the process, she protected the populace from dangers ranging from flooding to erosion.
“Most of the Colombian population is in Magdalena’s River watersheds; 129 urban zones are in its riverbank, with 78% at risk of erosion or soil scouring,” she writes. “Thus, as a team leader, I decided to establish as a primary goal the improvement of the approval times for the allocation of permits for the execution of flood controls, considering the girl phenomenon and all the changes in the river due to climate change and infrastructure for transportation. At the end of that year, 42 projects met all established requirements, with 51% related to flood control, and we denied licenses for 30 more.”
One quality that unites the Class of 2025? They bring a heavy dose of international experience to the mix. Working in international teams, Alejandra Giron cautions classmates to adopt a holistic view. By taking time to absorb other cultures and practices, she says, MBAs gain empathy – and an ability to adapt quickly.
“Over the years, I have seen that in the execution of public projects in Latin America is not possible to duplicate the same kind of infrastructure from one place to another, even if it’s in the same continent,” she adds. “Because all cultures have unique features and it is important to see them through a different lens.”
THE GLOBAL BUSINESS EXPERIENCE
For Gio O. Tantoco, the global mindset took hold during a stint in Silicon Valley, where he witnessed the possibilities of “thinking big” and its applications to his startup ideas for the Philippines. In contrast, when Sade Oyalowo worked for L’Oréal in social media, the collaborations between global teams enabled the firm to establish a clear and consistent brand. Such examples reinforce why McDonough builds a global class that embraces curiosity as much as cooperation.
“More likely than not, we’ll all find ourselves working with people from different cultures or parts of the world throughout our careers,” writes Michaela Nesson, a Harvard-trained grants manager. “Exposure to global diversity helps prepare us to collaborate effectively in cross-cultural work environments, understand different approaches to business, and remain open-minded and adaptable.”
The Global Business Experience (GBE) is one way that the McDonough MBA achieves this end. A semester-long international consulting project, GBE pairs small teams with organizations ranging from startups to Fortune 500 firms (with past projects featuring the likes of Coca-Coa, Lamborghini, Citi, 3M, and Boeing). Earlier this year, MBA teams completed 46 projects, working in countries as different as the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Spain, Ghana, and Peru. After spending time working in the remotely at McDonough, teams head to their given country for a week abroad, which includes company visits, alumni dinners, and client presentations.
The GBE binds McDonough students, past and present, with 9,300 students completing 1,700 projects since its inception. For Gio O. Tantoco, the experience was an opportunity to hone the skills he’d been learning.
“Being able to concretely apply the global mindset we have learned in an international setting is a way for us to go out of our comfort zone and experience what we have been learning inside the classroom outside of it. I believe that this opportunity that Georgetown gives us to apply in-class principles in a real-world international setting even before we graduate gives a concrete idea of what to expect when we do graduate and are thrust into these contexts.”
Next Page: An Interview with Sudipta Dasmohapatra, Senior Associate Dean of MBA Programs
Page 3: Profiles of 11 Members of the Class of 2025
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