Gary Mishkin
Chief Operating Officer
Alcavis HDC
MBA for Executives
Class of 2011
On Choosing an Executive MBA Program
There were a couple of different concepts that I had to evaluate when looking for an MBA Program. One of them is where I am in my career now. I didn’t want to stop and go through a full time program. I looked at a number of different programs… Of course I was interested in a program that had a very strong reputation…
On Choosing Darden’s Executive MBA
I chose the Darden MBA for Executive Program because of the reputation that Darden has as a business school. I knew I was going to get the skills that I was looking for. I liked the Darden program (format). Once a month is certainly manageable with my travel schedule, with my family, but at the same time it gives you time to meet with the other individuals in your class — which is one of the strongest learning opportunities that any executive MBA program provides.
On a Diverse Executive MBA Class
One of the things that I really enjoy about the program are my colleagues, the other individuals in the class. We’re such a diverse group: I’m originally an engineer, we have physicians, we have architects. We have a lot of people that have worked in large companies, we have a lot of people in start-ups… The way the program is taught is to get the input from the class as much as you’re getting it from the professor…and that is invaluable.
On Enterprise Perspective and International Perspective
The program teaches us an enterprise perspective. We’re looking at a company from every aspect…
(At my company we) do a lot international work: we’re now owned by an Italian company, one of our biggest distributors is located in Mexico, next week I’m going up to Canada to visit our distributors up there, and the president of our company was just in Brazil trying to get that market established… I feel that there’s some input I’m getting from the program — even if the first two months — that’s allowing me to approach those international markets with a different flavor.