EMBA alumni use skills gained to reorient their careers, lives

An Olin executive MBA can be the first step toward restructuring an executive career—and more.

“It really rewired the way I discuss things with my family, the way I discuss things with my partners at work, the way I discuss things with the key leaders of my business units,” said Curt Peitzman, EMBA 22.

As part of the Olin EMBA’s 40th-anniversary celebration, Olin Business magazine asked a number of alumni how their executive MBA experience changed their professional and personal outlook.

For Peitzman, executive vice president of L. Keeley Construction, said his EMBA education prompted him to look at his life as an equation. He found that by creating new ‘inputs’ in his life, he could affect the outcome of that equation, helping to improve the quality of his personal and professional life by exploring new possibilities and strengthening connections.

The EMBA program has given me a new outlook on life in how I create those inputs.  

Curt Peitzman

Omokhaye Higo, EMBA 2021, took on the challenge of an EMBA after 30 years as an anesthesiologist and critical care physician for the Washington University School of Medicine. He said that the EMBA experience gave him valuable insights into the business of medicine, while sharpening his leadership skills.

“The EMBA program really crystallized for me what it means to be a good leader,” said Higo, the vice-chair of innovation, anesthesiology and critical care for WUSM.

I started to look at it like this: You're the leader, You're in control. You may want to make all the decisions, but you should just shut up and listen. Let the people lead. Your job is to help them get where they want to go.  

Omokhaye Higo

After completing his EMBA in 1999, Shaker Sadasivam parlayed the skills and insights he gained at Olin into starting his own company, Auragent Bioscience, in 2018. The company is developing ground-breaking techniques to detect important protein biomarkers in the human body.

Having the educational qualifications gave me a good grounding about business itself.  

Shaker Sadasivam

“I understood the technology aspects of it, the product development aspects of it, and I had a general idea about the business piece, but it gave me a much better foundation on which to build.”

For more about Olin’s EMBA 40 celebration, along with a look at how the school uses student expertise to connect with and support the St. Louis community, check out this year’s issue of Olin Business.