Online MBA Alumni Profiles

• Class of 2023
• Hometown: Luxemburg, WI
• Previous Industry/Company(s): Deloitte, Northwestern University, and Suite Partners
• Affinity Affiliations: Female

“I think it sends a message to people who can’t necessarily meet me in person that I believe in myself. I am capable of this, and I have the ambition and willingness to invest in myself and my career. The ability to attend from my house or my computer, wherever that may be, is hugely important and it makes my life much more efficient."

• Class of 2023
• Hometown: Woodbury, MN
• Previous Industry/Company(s): Analytics Consulting & Mu Sigma Inc.

"I chose Carlson due to its global focus and its relationships with leading corporations. The CGI offers amazing opportunities to deploy skills learned in class into different global contexts. Carlson's unique relationship with the Minneapolis-St. Paul business community gives us an opportunity to learn directly from leaders across diverse industries. These experiences are critical in supporting my growth in current and future roles!"

• Class of 2022
• Hometown: Waseca, MN
• Previous Industry/Company(s): US Army
• Affinity Affiliations: Female & Military

"The MBA is helping me become a more well-rounded professional. Coming from a purely military background, I've acquired a great deal of leadership experience and soft skills that are difficult to teach, but I was missing some of the key knowledge necessary for business leadership roles. The Carlson MBA is filling in the gaps I have in terms of general business acumen."

• Class of 2022 (Fall 2021)
• Hometown: Aurora, IL
• Previous Industry/Company(s): Food Tech - Grubhub
• Affinity Affiliations: Female

"After working in HR in a few different industries, I found my passion in Food Tech. My current role is Director, HR for a start-up called Tovala where I am building out the HR department from scratch. I was attracted to the Carlson MBA as the online program offered me the flexibility to balance work and school."

• Class of 2021
• Hometown: Isanti, MN
• Previous Industry/Company(s): US Army
• Affinity Affiliations: Military 

“Though I’m still in my first semester, I’ve already found I can use some of the coursework in my current job,” he says. “Whether that’s with strategic planning or budgets, these are skills I hope to hone and help launch my second career.”

• Class of 2021
• Hometown:  Champlin, MN
• Previous Industry/Company(s): Medical, Ecolab, and UHG
• Affinity Affiliations: Female & Student of Color

“That’s one of the main reasons why I chose the Carlson School. It has a great network and I’ve seen that firsthand. You can submit your resume to all kinds of people but if you don’t have that networking resource or someone to refer you, it’s hard. But working with the career center, they were able to refer me to someone with the UnitedHealth Group, and we’re in process of working with them on a role for me.”

• Class of 2019
• Hometown: Minneapolis, MN
• Previous Industry/Company(s): Consumer Products
• Specializations: Finance & Banking

"I started my MBA because I wanted to do a better job of providing for my family. I considered a number of schools ranging from UWEC to Harvard. Carlson had the best employment statistics for the cost of tuition, so I chose it almost exclusively because of the ROI. While I was in school I used a lot of the lessons learned in class to improve my performance at the office, so earning power was less of a worry. However, I discovered that I had a knack for Finance, and so the degree became more of a tool used to change industries."

• Class of 2018
• Previous Industry/Company(s): Morning Consult and K&L Gates
• Affinity Affiliations: Female

“The Carlson School has an excellent reputation and offered me the flexibility that I didn’t see in other highly rated programs I looked at. In my field, I cannot afford to take time off to go to school full time, but also have a tough schedule, so the flexibility of doing the accelerated program on my own time was vital.”