I started at ITW, a Fortune 200 manufacturer, working through a series of roles while earning my Fox MBA in Finance. Then in 2020, weeks before a pandemic, I took over NemPak — a regional packaging company — and learned fast what it means to lean on instinct when the playbook goes out the window. I transformed it into M5 Supply, grew it into an Inc. 5000 company, and was named to the Philadelphia Business Journal’s 40 Under 40.

The edge has never been size — it’s outthinking bigger competitors. I pair an operator’s instinct with the financial rigor Fox gave me — the operations and the numbers underneath them. That blend of corporate discipline, entrepreneurial drive, academic grounding, and Philly grit is how a regional player outmaneuvers national giants on judgment, not scale.

I came back because Fox gave me more than a degree — the professors went deeper on any subject I chose, if you asked. My advice to students: that access is your edge, so reach for it. In a future of work where the playbook keeps changing, the winners won’t be the biggest — they’ll be the ones who pair operating instinct with sharp analysis and keep outthinking the room.