MBA Alum Attributes Success to Scheller
Terri Nagel, a 2014 graduate of the Evening MBA Program at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Scheller School of Business, accepted a position in the Procurement Leadership Development Program at Johnson & Johnson a few weeks after graduating from business school. In her role, she supports medical and professional education for Johnson & Johnson’s North American segment of the company’s medical device sector.
Although she graduated from Scheller less than a year ago, Nagel observed in an interview with Scheller that her MBA has already proven valuable to her. “There were a few faculty who really stood out and influenced the way I think about business problems,” she said, citing finance professor Shankar Venkatamaran as one of the most influential.
“The curriculum at Scheller was equally prescriptive — so I have the foundation to speak with confidence on strategy and finance dimensions — and personalized,” Nagel said. “The elective courses I took toward the end of my degree really gave me an edge and prepared me to excel early in this new role.”
Nagel also attended Georgia Tech for her undergraduate education, graduating with a degree in Industrial Design in 2003. After college, she spent nine years working in marketing and public relations. She decided to pursue an MBA to give her already successful career a boost. She chose Georgia Tech again in part because of her familiarity with the school, and in part because it was close to her home in Decatur, Georgia. However, she says the major determining factor in her decision to attend Scheller was “the reputation of the school and its rigorous curriculum.”
Ultimately, Nagel hopes to end up in public affairs at Johnson & Johnson. “My experience working in Georgia Tech’s office of Government and Community Relations really fostered an appreciation for that function,” she told Scheller, “and I would love to be a part of that within one of the largest healthcare companies in the world.”
