{"id":18680,"date":"2022-07-18T16:28:32","date_gmt":"2022-07-18T16:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/?p=18680"},"modified":"2026-02-27T22:48:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T22:48:01","slug":"how-to-succeed-in-business-the-macalester-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/2022\/07\/how-to-succeed-in-business-the-macalester-way\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Succeed in Business (The Macalester Way)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Erin Peterson \/ Illustrations by Davide Bonazzi<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Macalester is known for its commitment to the liberal arts, its international and multicultural perspective, and its deeply engaged students who want to make a positive impact on the world which is exactly what makes it an ideal school for anyone who wants to succeed in business and entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If that sentence made you do a double-take, you\u2019re not alone. Mac is recognized in many areas, but its success in preparing students for business careers and entrepreneurial ventures can sometimes fly under the radar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the numbers don\u2019t lie. Economics is routinely among the most popular majors on campus, and in 2019, the last pre-pandemic graduation year, 70 students\u2014a full 13 percent of the graduating class\u2014earned a degree in the field. Mac alumni can be found in top roles at Fortune 500 companies such as 3M and Ecolab as well as at investment banking firms including Goldman Sachs. They\u2019ve launched and grown successful businesses. And employers say that even when they have hundreds of applicants for roles, the resumes of Mac grads routinely rise to the top of the pile. \u201cIn many ways,\u201d says Joyce Minor \u201988, the Karl Egge Professor of Economics, \u201ca liberal arts education can be much broader and more beneficial than a technically oriented degree.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although Macalester doesn\u2019t have a dedicated business major, alumni say that they build the skills they need to excel in business careers and entrepreneurial ventures. Want to know what makes Mac alumni stand out from the crowd? Here\u2019s the road map they followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Meet your guides<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Ali Alizadeh \u201985<br><\/strong>ÈÕº«¾«Æ·ing economics professor at Macalester. He co-founded the private investment firm Hemisphere with Peter Ahn &#8217;87.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Caroline Chinhuru \u201917<br><\/strong>Investment officer at Calvert Impact Capital, a global nonprofit investment firm<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Liang Ding<br><\/strong>Professor of economics at Macalester<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Karl Egge<br><\/strong>Professor emeritus of economics at Macalester<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Kevin England \u201906<br><\/strong>Vice president of corporate development at 3M in St. Paul<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Peter Ferderer<br><\/strong>The Edward J. Noble Professor of Economics at Macalester<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Aaron Gallegos \u201913<br><\/strong>Corporate development manager at 3M in St. Paul<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Najada Kumbuli \u201909<br><\/strong>Head of investments for the Visa Foundation in Washington D.C. Previously, she was an investment director at Calvert Impact Capital.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Joyce Minor<br><\/strong>The Karl Egge Professor of Economics at Macalester<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Theo Nsereko \u201921<br><\/strong>Private equity analyst at Goldman Sachs in New York City<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Chloe Vasquez \u201924<br><\/strong>Double major in political science and economics from Denton, Texas<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Students start with these foundational courses&#8230;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"316\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2022\/07\/Business2.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of a plant growing from a pie chart\" class=\"wp-image-18768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2022\/07\/Business2.jpg 316w,  https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2022\/07\/Business2-158x300.jpg 158w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 316px) 100vw, 316px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Future investment bankers\u2026<\/strong><br>learn the ropes in upper-level economics courses from Liang Ding: Finance, Empirical Finance, and Capital Markets. Students learn to do market analysis, study portfolio management models, and use computer coding techniques to back-test quantitative trading strategies in the market (in other words, they use historical data to analyze the potential value of specific trading strategies). \u201cThese are practical, market-based courses,\u201d Ding notes. \u201cStudents taking these classes are typically interested in investment banking, wealth management, and corporate finance jobs after college.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>While budding entrepreneurs\u2026<\/strong><br>nab spots in \u201cExploring the DNA of Successful Startups,\u201d taught by Ali Alizadeh. Alizadeh, an entrepreneur himself, gives students an insider\u2019s perspective on the logistics of starting a business from scratch, as well as the mindsets that can fuel success. He explains: \u201cI want students to connect to the notion that for whatever they see around them\u2014a cup of coffee, a pair of glasses, a computer\u2014there was someone who looked at it and said, \u2018Why is it this way?\u2019 and \u2018I can do this better.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>And all business-minded students\u2026<\/strong><br>benefit from \u201cDeals,\u201d the quintessential course for students who want to pursue a business career. Dreamed up by Karl Egge and currently taught by Joyce Minor, the course is nominally about specific transactions within the business world or nonprofit sector. But its structure encourages career exploration. A different economics alum shares their trajectory in each class, and students join the speakers at class lunches and dinners. Guest experts come from fields including finance, investment banking, private equity, venture capital, corporate finance, and entrepreneurship. \u201cIt\u2019s a course that helps students broaden their idea of what\u2019s possible, and imagine what their lives can look like after Macalester,\u201d says Minor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Then continue their education outside of class.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The classroom is the first place most students build their business and entrepreneurial chops, but Mac offers plenty of opportunities to apply those skills outside of formal courses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, the Economics Department each year brings sixteen students to New York City to socialize with alumni on Wall Street. \u201cWhen you have the chance to ask someone questions at a casual reception, you realize that they\u2019re more than just their impressive LinkedIn bio,\u201d says Minor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another popular option is the Mayo Innovation Scholars Program, helmed by economics professor Pete Ferderer and biology professor Liz Jansen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Teams of five students with backgrounds in either the sciences or economics work together for six months to assess the market potential of new technologies developed by researchers at the Mayo Clinic. \u201cWe get them to think about the potential size of the market, competitors in the market, potential licensing partners, development costs, and changes in technology that might offer an advantage or disadvantage,\u201d says Ferderer. At the end of the program, this interdisciplinary team presents their findings to the product inventors, project managers, and others at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The experience can often open doors. \u201cHaving the Mayo name on your resume is really valuable,\u201d Ferderer says. \u201cStudents build important skills, and there are a lot of career opportunities within health care.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Others may opt for the eight-week MacStartups program, which runs over the summer and offers students a $4,400 stipend and $500 in seed funding to build and launch their creative ideas. Recent projects have included personal finance apps, home hydroponics systems, and digital mental health tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>They join these student-run clubs:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Women in Economics supports networking among students, faculty, and alumni.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Students in the Macalester Investment Group manage its real-life portfolio.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Macalester Entrepreneurship Club hosts events and discussions with entrepreneurs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>(And recognize that you can develop business skills through virtually any activity.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Theo Nsereko attributes much of his success as a private equity analyst at Goldman Sachs to a surprising source: soccer. \u201cIt was huge,\u201d he says. \u201cThe competitive mindset, learning to work on a team, managing your schedule\u2014it helped shape who I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Caroline Chinhuru, now an investment officer at Calvert Impact Capital, says that her conversations with members of the student organization Afrika! fueled her desire to use her economics degree in ways that could effect positive change around the world. \u201cI had so many conversations with people in which we looked at the world around us and thought, \u2018This could be better,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201c\u2018It doesn\u2019t have to be this way.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"362\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2022\/07\/Business5.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of plants growing out of a globe\" class=\"wp-image-18770\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2022\/07\/Business5.jpg 600w,  https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2022\/07\/Business5-300x181.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">They draw on the distinctive &#8220;Macalester mindset.&#8221;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>These five traits have helped alumni thrive in business environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Critical thinking: <\/strong>Joyce Minor will be the first person to tout the value of practical, applied courses for students who want to pursue business careers\u2014and she adds that the core economics courses provide students with a powerful foundation of knowledge. But she\u2019s also quick to add that these classes are not enough. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019ve taken fourteen finance courses if you can\u2019t figure out how to solve a problem,\u201d she says. \u201cCritical thinking is a key skill developed in a liberal arts education, and that\u2019s beneficial for any business career.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Flexibility: <\/strong>Aaron Gallegos of 3M is grateful for the kind of curiosity and mental agility that he honed at Mac. \u201cYou can learn all about different concepts, but the reality is that nothing in business is ever how it\u2019s \u2018supposed\u2019 to be,\u201d he jokes. \u201cYou\u2019re dealing with many different problems or challenges that you\u2019ve never thought about before. And when that happens, you\u2019ve got to find a creative way to solve a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Global Mindset: <\/strong>Caroline Chinhuru says the international perspective she internalized at Macalester has been particularly useful in her work at Calvert Impact Capital, a global nonprofit investment firm. \u201cI work with people from so many different countries,\u201d she says. \u201cEveryone comes at an issue in a different way. Although I don\u2019t always agree with them, being able to appreciate those differences and communicate effectively with people who are different from you is a really valuable skill set.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ethics and Integrity: <\/strong>\u201cMacalester students want to change the world,\u201d says Ali Alizadeh. \u201cAnd they want to do that in an ethical, principled way. They\u2019re driven to do well, and they\u2019re driven to do good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Commitment to Inclusion: <\/strong>Theo Nsereko of Goldman Sachs says that Macalester\u2019s attention to diversity and inclusion was something he\u2019d mostly taken for granted\u2014until George Floyd\u2019s murder pushed those discussions to the forefront, both nationally and within the smaller world of Wall Street. \u201cIt didn\u2019t occur to me that in the rest of the world, it wasn\u2019t the norm to have these kinds of conversations,\u201d he says. In discussions of systemic racism and how to achieve equity, \u201cpeople on Wall Street were often pushed out of their comfort zones,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I was comfortable discussing those topics. That was a real benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2022\/07\/Business3.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of hot air balloons surrounding a silhouette\" class=\"wp-image-18769\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2022\/07\/Business3.jpg 600w,  https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2022\/07\/Business3-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">They pursue the work they find meaningful&#8230;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Why do Mac alumni and students decide to work in business or pursue entrepreneurship? We asked a few to share what drives them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>They seek a challenge: <\/strong>\u201cMy favorite part of my job is tackling really hard problems with great teams. I am very lucky to be able to work for people that I really look up to in my current role and in prior roles.\u201d \u2014<em>Aaron Gallegos<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>They get to work across many different fields: <\/strong>\u201cI really appreciate the opportunity to work on deals in a multitude of sectors including technology, health care, consumer goods, industrials, and more alongside interesting people who are passionate about investing.\u201d \u2014<em>Theo Nsereko<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>They make a broader impact: <\/strong>\u201cIn my roles within the impact investment ecosystem, I get to use capital to drive not just financial returns, but social and environmental returns.\u201d \u2014<em>Najada Kumbuli<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>They create something new: <\/strong>\u201cI have a project plan to start anti-venom companies in places that don\u2019t have anti-venom made for their region.\u201d \u2014<em>Chloe Vasquez \u201924<\/em>, who used the principles from the \u201cDNA of Successful Startups\u201d course to develop a product idea after her mother was bitten by a venomous snake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Then return to help the next generation.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Aaron Gallegos can trace many of his roles back to Macalester connections\u2014including his current role at 3M, which he learned about, in part, from Kevin England \u201906. It\u2019s one of the reasons he\u2019s always happy to help a Mac student, and when students reach out for a call, he\u2019s an open book. \u201cI\u2019ll always talk to a Mac person for twenty minutes,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Building on a longstanding collaboration between Alumni Engagement and Career Exploration, Macalester recently has increased its investment in supporting the alumni network for all majors and career paths by dedicating a staff position as a liaison between the two offices, to help facilitate more of these connections through networking programs on and off campus. After seeing alumni in his classes while he was a student, for example, Gallegos has been thrilled to return to campus to speak in Joyce Minor\u2019s investment banking class multiple times. Says Gallegos of the full-circle moment: \u201cThe first time was pretty surreal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Joyce Minor likes to joke that the alumni network resembles the kids\u2019 game Barrel of Monkeys\u2014one alum will lend a helping hand to a graduating student or young alum, who will go on to help future grads years down the road. \u201cAny alum can start a chain, and other alums will help keep it going,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m so thankful to the many alumni who pay it forward by helping current students.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The six degrees of Karl Egge<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Spend enough time with most Macalester economics alumni working in business today, and you\u2019ll probably discover a connection back to Karl Egge. Egge, who developed the alumni-focused Deals course in 2006, has nurtured relationships with Macalester students and alumni in business since 1970.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhenever my group was looking for junior people, I knew I could email Karl,\u201d says Kevin England of 3M. \u201cHe\u2019d have his Rolodex and could reach out to five or ten people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Egge takes his role as a career matchmaker seriously. \u201cIf you didn\u2019t grow up with parents who could tell you how to get business internships, you might not know that you were supposed to do that,\u201d he says. \u201cSomeone has to lead you to the water\u2014and then you can drink it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Joyce Minor, who now teaches the Deals class and who also connects alumni and students, describes Egge\u2019s work as building a \u201cfamily tree\u201d of economics students and alumni. She\u2019s committed to maintaining what he started. \u201cAt the root of all of it is Karl,\u201d she says. \u201cI see myself as the watering can who helps keep those amazing roots alive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Here\u2019s how the Mac alumni community works:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2009, Margot Kane \u201902, who at the time worked at Calvert Impact Capital, learned that Najada Kumbuli \u201909 was looking for her first job. The two met for coffee before Kumbuli interviewed\u2014successfully\u2014for a position as an analyst at the organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Years later, Kumbuli was looking for someone to fill an analyst role and reached out to her Macalester professors to get a handful of recommendations for candidates\u2014and at the end of the interview process, Caroline Chinhuru \u201917 had risen to the top of the pack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chinhuru has since had the opportunity to introduce other Macalester students to Calvert Impact Capital, and after an informational interview with Preeta Raghunathan \u201919, Raghunathan was hired as an investment analyst and spent two years in the role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"187\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2022\/07\/Business4.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of people walking up a mountain\" class=\"wp-image-18771\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2022\/07\/Business4.jpg 600w,  https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2022\/07\/Business4-300x94.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Erin Peterson is a Minneapolis-based writer.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alumni and faculty reflect on the Mac roadmap that prepares students for business careers and entrepreneurial ventures.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1077,"featured_media":18731,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-18680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","tag-economics","mediatype-articles"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"fields":{"article_type":[8],"flickr_photoset_id":"","youtube_id":"","square_thumbnail":false,"press_photos":false,"story_title":"","story_caption":"","rotations":false,"maps":false,"marker_title":"","marker_text":"","geographic_location":false,"feature_embed":"","custom_link_url":"","news_icon_name":"","image_options":false,"main_feature_story":"","custom_image":false,"custom_feature_title":"","custom_feature_caption":"","custom_markup":"","custom_markup_link":"","custom_markup_title":"","custom_markup_caption":"","byline":"","post_thumbnail_style":"default","press_downloads":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1077"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18680"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30843,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18680\/revisions\/30843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}