Scott Dempsey

Scott Dempsey ’13

Hometown:
Buffalo, New York

Industry of Interest:
Commercial Banking

Undergrad:
University of Maryland

Undergrad Major:
Government

Prior to attending Columbia Business School, my career followed a nonlinear path. I served in the US Marines, including a deployment to Fallujah, Iraq; worked at the Clinton Foundation in New York; and returned to the government as a foreign service officer with USAID in southern Afghanistan and Washington DC. As a career switcher, my MBA experience has focused on learning business fundamentals, including an internship with a distressed debt hedge fund. At Columbia Business School, I am a peer advisor and an active member in the Military in Business Association and the Midwest Club. After graduation, I will be working in a finance role at a commercial bank in Buffalo, NY. I enjoy distance running, traveling, and hopelessly rooting for the Buffalo Bills.

 

Foram Doshi

Foram Doshi ’14

Hometown:
Anaheim, California

Industry of Interest:
Media and Entertainment

Undergrad:
University of California, Los Angeles

Undergrad Major:
International Economics and Global Studies

After spending a few years working in process improvement consulting, I decided to pursue an MBA to build skills across functional areas and to transfer to a strategic role in-house. The exposure to global management and the diversity of the students drew me to Columbia Business School. I am furthering my career interests on campus through the Media Management Association, the Business Technology Group, and the General Management Club. I volunteer through the Hermes Society and the Harlem Tutorial Program. I enjoy mentoring, traveling, NBA basketball, fine chocolate, and mystery novels. After graduation, I hope to work in a global strategy role at a children's media and entertainment company.

 

  Anthony Hsiao

Anthony Hsiao ’14

Hometown:
San Jose, California

Industry of Interest:
Education and Entrepreneurship

Undergrad:
University of California Davis

Undergrad Major:
Chemistry

I grew up in a traditional Asian household and spent the first 20 years of my life preparing for medical school. Right before my 21st birthday I realized that being in school/training for another 8 years wasn’t right for me. Consequently, a few years after graduation I found myself in Shanghai running a school helping Chinese students transition to the United States education system. I found the experience incredibly rewarding, both personally and financially, and am using my Columbia MBA to obtain the requisite skills to scale my company. I am active in the entrepreneurship community here at Columbia, as well as the Rugby Club and Greater China Society. I am an avid nerd, and enjoy playing poker, chess, and computer games. I am also active in sports, in an effort to ward off the inevitable chubbiness that comes with age.

 

Ted Kirby

Ted Kirby '14

Hometown:
Raleigh, North Carolina

Industry of Interest:
Consulting, Healthcare

Undergrad:
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Undergrad Major:
Business Administration

Prior to Columbia Business School (CBS), I spent several years working for Quintiles, a large biopharmaceutical services firm in Durham, NC. I spent two years as an internal consultant before moving into sales strategy, where I ran competitive intelligence and analytics. At CBS, I have continued to pursue my passion for healthcare through our Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Management program. The program has allowed me to interact with several transformational leaders and has challenged me to think about the sector in new ways. I am also Co-President of Cluster Q, our GLBT student group, and am active in the Healthcare Industry Association, the Management Consulting Association and the Hermes Society. In my spare time, I enjoy CrossFit, live music, and traveling to far away lands.

 

Maya Mendel

Maya Mandel ’13

Hometown:
Netanya, Israel

Industry of Interest:
Technology and Entrepreneurship

Undergrad:
University of Michigan

Undergrad Major:
Computer Engineering

Prior to attending Columbia Business School I was the product manager for charging and smart energy management at Better Place, the leading global service provider for electric vehicles. I also served as a technical intelligence captain in the Israeli Defense Forces. At Columbia, I am the president of the Outdoor Adventures Club, an Investments from Student Interaction with Technology and Entrepreneurs (InSITE) fellow, an Investor's Circle MBA venture fellow, a CaseWorks fellow, and a proud Cluster D'13 reporter. Over the summer I interned at Gemini Israel Ventures, a leading Israeli venture firm specializing in early and seed stage investments in technology companies. After graduation I will return to Israel and plan on joining an early stage startup and launch new products, ideally in the efficient resource usage space.

 

Alex Melecki

Alex Melecki ’14

Hometown:
Yellow Springs, Ohio

Industry of Interest:
Strategy

Undergrad:
University of Notre Dame

Undergrad Major:
Finance and Philosophy (Double Major)

Prior to attending Columbia Business School, I worked as a change management consultant in Chicago and Washington DC. I helped transition multinational natural resource companies into new ways of doing business. While working in consulting I was exposed to a variety of firms and became fascinated by the question of what sets the most successful companies apart. At Columbia, I have joined the Management Consulting Association and am recruiting for strategy positions — both in-house and with consulting firms. I'm also one of the social chairs for my cluster and spend quite a bit of time organizing community-building events for my classmates. Outside of school, I love college football (Go Irish!), international travel, good pizza, and craft beer.

 

Natali Naegle

Natali Naegle ’14

Hometown:
Salt Lake City, Utah

Industry of Interest:
Consulting, Retail, and Consumer Packaged Goods

Undergrad:
Utah State University

Undergrad Major:
Marketing

I am a newly minted resident of New York City. I was born in Salt Lake City and worked there and in Los Angeles before coming to Columbia Business School. I love living in the city; there are definitely things here that are unlike anything I have ever experienced before. At Columbia, I am a member of the Hermes Society, Columbia Women in Business, the Management Consulting Association, and the Photography Club. In my spare time, which there is less of now than ever before, I play golf and tennis, water ski, get lost in a great book (I am currently trying to finish Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow), and explore the wide variety of dessert options in New York City (current favorite: always classic banana pudding from Magnolia Bakery.) The theme of my Voices posts is “Everything I Never Knew about Business School” and I hope to pass along some hard-earned lessons to future Columbia Business School classmates.

 

Krista Sande-Kerback

Krista Sande-Kerback ’14

Hometown:
Chatham, New Jersey

Industry of Interest:
Technology, Media

Undergrad:
Dartmouth College

Undergrad Major:
Geography and Public Policy

Before attending Columbia Business School, I taught English in a Muslim migrant community and studied immigration policy at the University of Hamburg in Germany through a Fulbright Grant. I then worked as a business analyst for Opera Solutions, a data analytics firm, and most recently served as head of strategy for 85 Broads, a global professional women's network. At Columbia, I am exploring my interests in media and technology through membership in the Technology Business Group, the Media Management Association, and the Marketing Association of Columbia. I am also passionate about connecting people globally and am a peer advisor and member of the Hermes Society, Columbia Women in Business, and the International Development Club. In my free time, I enjoy ballroom dancing, yoga, wine tasting, traveling, and volunteering as an ambassador for Couchsurfing.org. After graduation I hope to work in a strategy or marketing role at a technology or media company.

 

Terrence Smith

Terrance Smith ’13

Hometown:
Columbia, Maryland

Industry of Interest:
Marketing, Consulting

Undergrad:
Columbia University

Undergrad Major:
Economics

Prior to attending Columbia Business School, I spent three years as an analyst at Goldman Sachs, most recently in the Securities Division. I worked with the division’s Sales Management Team to develop client relationship management strategies for some of the firm’s biggest institutional accounts. At Columbia, I have been taking a myriad of courses that have rounded out my skill set, and more importantly, have been very interesting – some of my favorites have been The Management and Economics of Professional Sports and Retailing: Finance, Marketing & Strategic Integration. On campus, I am involved in the Wine Society, Running Club, and Cluster Q. I enjoy traveling, running, and Sunday brunches!