Background
- Hometown: Brookfield, Wisconsin
- Undergraduate Degree: B.A. Communication Arts – Rhetorical Studies, Certificate in Digital Studies – UW-Madison
- Pre-MBA Job: Director, Customer Delivery & Engagement at Venzee Technologies
- Favorite MBA Class: Cryptocurrencies, Blockchain, and Digital Assets with Brad Chandler
- MBA Internship: Private Wealth Management Intern at Baird in Milwaukee, WI
- MBA Graduation Date: May 10th, 2025
Following undergrad at UW, I worked at Epic Systems in Verona, WI as an Implementation Project Manager for their Emergency Department, Interoperability, and Nurse Triage modules. I worked with installing hospital systems’ IT and operational staff to configure their instance of Epic and coordinate training of their staff prior to launching Epic software at their hospitals. During the middle of my Epic tenure, I became more involved with Training at Epic and had 2 projects as a Principal Trainer, which later led to me owning all Emergency Department Training-related implementation processes at Epic. Towards the end of my time at Epic I worked in a consulting role for the Training Manager and CMIO of my last project regarding best practices for coordinating physician training for installing Epic organizations.
In October of 2020, I left Epic to work at a small E-commerce-based tech startup called Venzee Technologies as an Implementation Manager. I served as a point person for client accounts and coordinated our Customer Delivery & Engagement (client-facing operations) team to fulfill brand clients’ retail data syndication requests to selling channels like Amazon Seller, The Home Depot, & Lowe’s. I was later promoted to Senior Implementation Manager and then to Director of the Customer Delivery & Engagement Team. As a pre-revenue company amidst a risk-off small cap market environment in 2022, Venzee was forced to pivot strategy and focus on being acquired.
Before leaving to return to UW for my MBA, I assisted Venzee’s CEO, COO, and Vice President of Development in pitching the company for acquisition to private equity, venture capital, and strategic buyers. After a lengthy acquisition process, Venzee was ultimately acquired by a Canadian company called Digital Commerce Payments, Inc. in May 2024.
MBA Experience
Leadership
During my first year in the MBA program, I’ve held various leadership roles. I’m currently President of the Graduate Business Association which is the student government serving all Wisconsin School of Business (WSB) MBA and master’s students. In this role, I facilitate a weekly meeting with the other 14 board members to plan and coordinate how we’ll deliver many of the extracurricular student-led events surrounding the program.
Additionally, I have a project assistantship as a Mentor with the Posse Foundation. In this role, I support the academic and social success of 9 UW undergraduate scholars from the Los Angeles area who are the recipients of the merit-based 4-year full-tuition Posse Foundation Leadership Scholarship. In our weekly meetings, I facilitate group discussion using Posse’s national curriculum supplemented with my own advice to support their development into becoming the diverse young leaders of tomorrow. Also, I meet weekly with each individual scholar and serve as their front-line support to promote their personal success & well-being at UW. I also participate in a variety of Posse trainings and retreats throughout the academic year to help foster a sense of community and promote the 3 goals of the foundation’s mission of expanding the pool of outstanding your leaders from all background, helping those students engage in an interactive campus environment, and ensuring that they persist on to graduate and become leaders in the work force.
Lastly, I’m a fellow and liaison for the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management (CGSM). In this role, I support the incoming class of UW MBA Consortium fellows as they prepare for CGSM’s Orientation Program the summer prior to starting their MBA as well as in their job search during the year. Additionally, I serve as an ambassador for WSB’s Consortium community for prospective Consortium students as well in the CGSM national liaison meetings. Also, I help coordinate events for our Consortium community to foster an environment that is inclusive to people of all backgrounds and in doing so forward CGSM’s mission of increasing representation of people of color in MBA-caliber roles.
Each of these roles have taught me so much about my leadership style, developed my proactivity and empathy, and made me extremely grateful to be part of an incredible UW community.
A Year in Review
Overall, the first year was incredibly busy, but also incredibly fun and rewarding. The things that prepared me the most were connecting with current students and alumni prior to starting who gave me great advice about how to make the most out of the experience. Additionally, completing the Wall Street Prep courses for accounting, finance, and excel were particularly helpful in preparing me to return to school for a finance MBA.
The most memorable parts of the program so far have been participating in the Polar Plunge and helping our incredible Community Service Chair Aylin Golazsewski as she coordinated our WSB team in raising over $9,000 for the Special Olympics. Also memorable were our class trips to Mexico City, MX and Minneapolis, MN where we got the opportunity to learn directly from leaders at top firms. A final memorable event was coordinating the 2024 GBA Spring Ball at Monona Terrace, which was our biggest GBA event of the year.
Favorite Class
I really enjoyed Finance 765 – Cryptocurrencies, Blockchain, and Digital Assets which was taught by Brad Chandler. Since crypto is such a rapidly changing space there was no textbook and the course was very current events-driven. On Tuesdays, Brad would have students read about and present on the biggest stories regarding blockchain and cryptocurrency in class and then he’d deliver a lecture on a foundational topic in crypto currency. Then on Thursdays we’d hear from a different industry expert speaker for the first half of class and then have a student-driven debate for the second half of class in which we discussed whether crypto offered a legitimate future pathway for a variety of different use cases based on the topic for the week. Additionally, Brad offered a unique and exciting opportunity to be published in the Top Student Perspectives on Blockchain & Cryptocurrency Journal for our final project. I’m very proud that my co-author Reza Mohammadi and I produced one of the five projects selected for this year’s publication. Overall, it was a fantastic class that helped take my understanding of blockchain & cryptocurrency from a beginner to an intermediate level and it’s obvious that Brad has taken an incredibly intentional approach to designing and delivering a great course on this innovative space.
Career Goals
This summer I’m interning at Baird in their Milwaukee, WI headquarters as a Private Wealth Management Intern. In this role I’m learning so much about the private client wealth management industry through analyzing the metrics of my team’s book of business, performing equity research for our portfolios, and learning best practices from all the experienced and generous people at Baird.
In the short term I’m planning to obtain FINRA’s Series 7 & 66 licenses, the CFP designation, and the IRS’s Enrolled Agent certification. Over the long term my goal is to grow our book of business and to provide as much value to as many families as I can. The biggest driving force in my life is being a positive influence on the lives of others and I love that financial advising provides a very impactful way of doing this.
Hobbies
A lot of my time is spent at Grainger for the MBA, in the Red Gym for Posse, or at some kind of extracurricular event associated with one of those two programs. However, beyond work and school, I enjoy working out at my home gym, Capital Fitness, as well as practicing yoga at Dragonfly Hot Yoga just off of State Street. Additionally, I’m a big fan of sports, mainly football and basketball, as well as travel. Over the summer, I went to Copenhagen, Denmark, Washington, D.C., and Southern California.
Advice for Incoming Students
1. Keep the end in mind – There are so many cool opportunities through the UW MBA that it’s easy to become immersed in a diverse array of unique events and projects. However, it’s essential to keep your primary reason for going back to school top of mind throughout a whirlwind of exciting experiences that you’ll have over the first year. Participate as much as you can in all the events, but make sure you’re always on track to achieve your job/internship outcomes for the summer between the two years of the MBA and following graduation.
2. Be Proactive – There’s no such thing as too early. Take your breaks as you need, but there’s always something that you can be doing to advance your goals here. Whether it’s getting ahead on schoolwork, networking for your job search, or filling out applications there is always something to be doing. Once things get busy it’s difficult to balance priorities. Get started now on whatever your goals are, and your future self will be grateful once school gets busy.
3. Lean into the community – The University of Wisconsin-Madison is one of the most vibrant campus communities you’ll find anywhere in the world. There is always something going on and you’ll have opportunities available to you in these two years that are only available to you in these two years. Definitely try to make the most of it by being as involved as you can.
4. Enjoy the experience & HAVE FUN!!! – It’s very easy to get bogged down in the stress of school, work, and finding a job, but remember to relax and enjoy the process. The memories that you make here with your classmates are the foundation of lifelong friendships and a cornerstone of your network.
Connect with Nick on LinkedIn to follow his career journey!