Two Michigan Ross Executive MBAs Honored as the ‘Best & Brightest’ of 2023 by Poets&Quants
Recent Ross School of Business graduates Alex Fite, MBA ’23, and Peter Evans, MBA ’23, were named among the Best & Brightest Executive MBAs of 2023 by Poets&Quants.
The list honors 2023 EMBA class members whose “academic excellence, extracurricular leadership, and professional achievement represent the best of business education.” The publication asked 56 top-ranked executive MBA programs, including Michigan Ross, for recommendations of outstanding individuals for their ninth annual Best & Brightest list.
Read more about the standout Michigan Ross Executive MBA alumni named to this year’s list.
Alex Fite, MBA ‘23
Fite is currently the senior manager of industrial engineering at Northrop Grumman Corp., working in aerospace and defense. A third-generation engineer, she joins her father and late grandfather who have collectively worked on airplanes, satellites, and launch vehicles across many generations of technology.
Fite chose to attend Michigan Ross for her Executive MBA for a number of reasons. The option to stay close to home and attend classes at the Los Angeles location was among them.
“When I was applying to school, it was important to me to stay in Southern California to be near family, and I found out about the Michigan Ross LA location through a P&Q article,” Fite said. “I was drawn to the quality of the professors, the diversity of past cohorts, and the structure of residencies.”
Despite balancing a number of major life changes shortly after beginning the program – a cross-country job change for her husband, expecting her second child, and stepping into an interim vice president of operations role at work (and then eventually being promoted to this position) – Fite continued on her path toward an MBA.
“With the help of my support system, I decided to buckle down and make it work. I’m grateful for the sacrifices made for me to not only pursue this education, but get the most out of it, and I’m proud of myself for not giving up on it,” Fite said.
Fite learned valuable lessons in her time at Ross, which she has been able to apply in her new role.
“The concept of ‘strategy’ always felt daunting and ambiguous to me as someone who thrives in tactical and operational domains,” she said. “But the frameworks and case studies taught me new perspectives on how to develop, elevate, and define strategy. It has changed how I approach problems at work and has given me the language needed to communicate big-picture impacts to routine decisions."
Fite believes the biggest myth of going back to school is that you can learn the traditional MBA curriculum from podcasts, books, and YouTube videos. Telling P&Q, “the ability to apply [that information] via case studies, have it distilled into what is important by experienced professors, and work through the details in our group projects is where I derived the value of the tuition. And the cherry on top was the informal learning from being in the company of my cohort every month.”
Peter Evans, MBA ‘23
Evans is currently the operations leader at Novelis Corp, a position he earned while in the Michigan Ross Executive MBA Program. In this role, he is responsible for 80+ employees and oversees four departments.
With a long-term professional goal of becoming a C-suite executive at Novelis, Evans knew that he needed to develop key leadership skills and decided to earn his MBA.
Evans told P&Q that he conducted extensive research before deciding on which EMBA program he would pursue. He searched top-ranked programs and ultimately chose Michigan Ross because of the curriculum and Leadership Development Program.
While in the program, he found value in expanding his network.
“The biggest lesson I gained was learning the value and importance of building and flexing your network. I was able to apply the lesson at work to align on the next steps for my career, ultimately resulting in accepting a new role within my organization,” Evans said.
Evans believes the biggest myth of returning to school is that it’s challenging to go back while working full time, which he says is not what he experienced at Michigan Ross.
The Michigan Ross Executive MBA Program was designed for working professionals. I traveled 42 weeks for business in 2021, then welcomed a daughter, changed jobs, and moved states in 2022 — all while attending school. With the support of my classmates, my employer, and the tailored Executive MBA program, I was able to successfully balance life, work, and school.
