The Favorite Professors Of Executive MBAs

Rodrigo Verdi

“Rodrigo Verdi is a favorite because he taught Financial Accounting in a clear and straightforward manner, enabling me to learn a great deal about a subject for which I previously knew very little. He was adept at teaching to a diverse class that included those with significant expertise and those of us who were novices. He was sincere in wanting to help us learn and that was evident in his preparation, responsiveness to questions and regular interactions with our class. He enjoys teaching and it’s fun to be around professors like him.”

Amy Huchthausen, MIT (Sloan)

“I would have to say my favorite has been Adam Mersereau from our Analytical Tools class. I was absolutely dreading this class and he made it enjoyable. Adam also made it much easier to understand through his simple and effective teaching style. A 20-year absence from the classroom and right out of the gate we are doing regression models! This was intimidating, but Adam made it fun and I ended up doing pretty well in the class.”

Michael Zak Barber, University of North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler)

“Professor Chuck Bamford was hands down my favorite professor. He is incredibly enthusiastic and passionate about teaching strategy and consulting, which was evident by all of the work he put in to ensure we all successfully learned his material. His “no-nonsense” approach is refreshing in the classroom and, with Chuck, it was “what you see is what you get.” Not to mention, I learned so much from him doing our international consulting project in Argentina. Even though most of us aren’t in actual consulting roles, we all took something away from his courses that we can all apply to our work, both professionally and personally.”

Jennifer Malherek, Notre Dame (Mendoza)

“Professor Arthur Kroeber really opened our eyes to the impact of China on the global economy in the aptly titled “China’s Global Rise and its Economic Implications” elective during our second year. It was great to learn from an economic practitioner with many years of on-the-ground experience.”

Nate Kimball, New York University (Stern)

Xiao-Jun Zhang

“James Taylor: My analytics professor set a very high standard for every other professor that came after him to teach my class. His enthusiasm, dedication, passion for his subject, and acceptance of every critique or curiosity that came his way was a delight to watch. I feel fortunate and blessed to have been in his class.”

Shafeena Yusuff Ali, University of Oxford (Saïd)

“Hands down, Professor Xiao-Jun Zhang because he made Financial Accounting a fun, exciting class and ensured that by the time we completed his class we knew what questions to ask in a boardroom regarding our company financials.”

Laura Teclemariam, U.C.-Berkeley (Haas)

“There are so many amazing professors at Darden, that’s hard to choose! I would have to say Paul Simko, who taught us accounting. He was so patient with a class of 50 that was struggling with being in school again. He has a gift for making difficult ideas seem easy.”

Charlotte Robertson, University of Virginia (Darden)

Andres Terech

“Professor Andres Terech was my favorite. He taught the section for my global immersion and travelled with the cohort to Peru. He truly strives to empower students to think deeply about the issues at hand. I feel that this approach enabled me to become more assertive, ask questions to seek knowledge and shape my thoughts.”

Marisa Vasquez-Machuca, UCLA (Anderson)

“Our ESADE professors are all very knowledgeable in their respective areas of expertise. For this reason, all things being equal in terms of knowledge and expertise, my favorite was Isabel Aguilera Navarro, who taught a course titled “Leading the Future: Strategic Innovation and Transformation.” Not only because she is one of the few female faculty we have had, but because she did two things for me: 1) I felt inspired and motivated by her energy, her practical insights about leading the future, and her can-do attitude—as female executives, we can do it, too! And do it well! 2) I felt reflected in her story—managing work, children, family, husband, house, etc., and staying sane. I felt empowered, not alone, and encouraged to be a role model for others.”

Aurora Martínez Ramos, ESADE

“For me this was Dr. Filip Caeldries. He was teaching two courses during the complete program, Strategy and Strategy in Geo Competitive Perspective (with focus on China). Filip had the ability to make a ‘fuzzy’ topic like strategy into understandable concepts and approaches you directly could apply to your own working environment. He would bring this also in an ‘entertaining’ way with very strong and live examples out of the different businesses which would speak to the group and made it painfully clear how bad companies are on the topic strategy. Filip is a very enthusiastic and passionate, and would use the white board to draw pictures and schemes to support his lectures. Unfortunately, they usually ended up in a bit messy non-readable drawing, but perfectly boiled down the topic to its essentials.”

Saskia de Bruin–van Dijk, Purdue University (Krannert)

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