Steve Pinkham

Steve Pinkham was a US Army captain for more than five years and deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. He received two Bronze Star Medals for meritorious service in both theaters. In addition, he participated in the Army’s Best Sapper Competition. His team came in eighth out of 29 teams.

Why he selected WashU’s MBA program

Pinkham already had applied to four or five schools when he started researching WashU’s MBA program. The program offered scholarships to military veterans, so he talked to Olin Business School’s Admissions staff.

“Our back and forth was seamless,” he says. “Olin has a simple admissions process. There’s no pomp and circumstance, no elitism. Like everything else in the program, what you see is what you get. The people are refreshing and down to earth.”

Pinkham was the Goldman Sachs-Dehnert Scholar for his MBA class. The scholarship is awarded to military veterans. He also received the Charles F. Knight Scholar Award, which honors the top 10 graduates from each MBA class (based on the percentage of high-pass grades they receive for their credit hours).

How the program changed his leadership style

“The program allowed me to strengthen and to further develop my indirect authority. In business, negotiation and motivation are critical skills. Authentic leaders don’t rule by authority and position alone. They know how to work effectively with people they don’t see eye to eye with.”

On his preprogram internship and the program’s Boot Camp

Pinkham interned with medical technologies corporation Stryker before he began the MBA program. He created market assessments for 13 territories, identified priorities for sales representatives, and reduced courier costs by 33 percent.

The internship taught him the language of business and “the dialogue of high-level management meetings.” He also made important business connections “that were a lot more than glad-handing.”

Boot Camp started “on a Sunday evening at Dean Mahendra Gupta’s house,” Pinkham says. The welcome was followed by two days of classes, an overview from the Weston Career Center, and discussions on practical matters, such as health insurance and activities for students with spouses and families.

How he describes the business-school environment

“WashU is a really wonderful place for veterans. But that’s hard to quantify on a computer screen. Veterans need to visit the campus and check out the community.”