March 13, 2017
Ross Women Dominate Poets & Quants ‘Women to Watch’ List
Who run the world? Well, like Beyoncé asks in her hit song, “Run The World": Girls. At Michigan Ross, it's no different. Not one, not two, but four Michigan Ross MBAs are featured in Poets & Quants’ recent “Women from the Class of 2018 to Watch” list.
The strong showing from Ross on the list shouldn’t come as surprise to anyone familiar with the incredible community of women on the Ross campus. Women make up 40 percent of the current MBA class, and hold 56-percent of professional club leadership positions across the school. And as our Admissions Director noted in a recent blog, interest in Ross from female applicants is at an all-time high.
The four women highlighted by Poets & Quants are great representatives of this growing, supportive, high-achieving, and ambitious community – they hail from top universities and reached incredible heights in their careers. Their stories will impress you––and so will their dreams.
Anjin Stewart-Funai
The professional opera singer and poet dreams of directing a major opera house and changing the course of a struggling industry: “The fear that ‘opera is dying’ is extensive throughout the music community,” she told Poets & Quants. “After having witnessed the positive impact that the performing arts can have on people, I feel a personal obligation to try to guide the operatic industry towards a better financial future.” Anjin earned her bachelor’s in art history and a master’s in operatic vocal performance.
The Columbia University graduate majored in political science and has worked for the office of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Edelman Public Relations, and JP Morgan Chase. While at Chase Jennings spearheaded a skills-based volunteerism initiative called the Detroit Service Corps, the goal of which is to seed economic development in the Motor City. The program has since expanded to cities across the world and is part of Chase’s Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives.
“My dream job would be to direct CSR strategy for a Fortune 500 company, so that I can help facilitate connections between the private and public sector and determine how each can work effectively to improve our world for future generations,” she said.
The Cuban-born Stanford graduate also happens to be multilingual and a classically trained percussionist. She describes the biggest accomplishment of her career as when, as the first-ever Fulbright fellow at the Federal University of Alagoas in Brazil, she created an innovative curriculum that dramatically improved the retention and achievement of students.
Thais fell in love with Michigan Ross during her interview: “Ross is a community of highly passionate and supportive people who are committed to your individual success.” Her dream job “would allow me to create innovative beauty and personal care solutions for men and women of multicultural backgrounds in the United States and around the world.”
The Cornell graduate left Microsoft to help grow a no-name food delivery company called Peach into an $11,000,000 VC-backed business. “We hustled for results around the clock, and our hard work paid off big time,” she shared with Poets and Quants. “I grew my customer territory from 100 to over 10,000 users and drove growth metrics that helped Peach raise a Series A round of $8 million dollars.” Her goal is to work with the tech industry, whether in a management, consulting, or an entrepreneurial role.
“Since day one, I’ve felt an unparalleled magnetic attraction towards the Ross community,” she said. “Ross is unique in its outstanding intention to bring students together, so even before being accepted to Ross I felt like part of the community. It’s incredible that each and every Ross alumni (and Michigan alumni) that I have met shares an intense passion for the school.”
Subscribe to FTMBA Email Alerts