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In two weeks, the National Black MBA Association® will welcome more than 10,000 professionals at Philadelphia Convention Center September 26-30.

The inaugural NBMBAA® Higher Education Expo will give students the opportunity to explore higher education pathways with representatives from top colleges and universities who will answer questions about admittance, campus life, scholarships and financial aid. The organization provides access to over $20 million in scholarships to major universities across the country

One of the industry experts at the event will be Carla Harris. She has extensive experience in the technology, media, retail, telecommunications, transportation, industrial, and healthcare sectors. Harris is a vice chairman, Wealth Management, managing director and senior client advisor at Morgan Stanley. She is a popular public speaker who gives career guidance to corporate audiences based on her books, “Expect to Win And Strategize to Win.” Harris joined Morgan Stanley in 1987 after completing a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard University and an M.B. A. from Harvard Business School.

The National Black MBA® Association, which was conceived in 1970 to help Blacks coming into the corporate sector, largely for the first time, gave African Americans a platform to share experiences and insights to help make the journey easier.

meta-chartCurrently, the member base is 71% Black, 11% Asian, 10% Caucasian, and 2 % Hispanic/Latino. More than half of the 30,000 members have 15+ years. The organizations plan to have 50,000 members in 2020 when the National Black MBA will mark its 50th anniversary.

Diverse Voices on Management Science

Cynthia Cody, who earned her M.B.A. in finance from Atlanta University, is a 30-year  finance professional in retail.

“For many years it was just a good old boys club,” she recalls and women were viewed as first-line management.

Cody notes that marketers are now continually trying to understand how to reach and meet the needs of diverse customers through localization initiatives – segments of the market such as African-American consumers and Mexican-American consumers in local communities.

Pat Elizondo, who did her M.B.A. at the University of Notre Dame, advises students “to lock down” their science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) fundamentals to better analyze and respond to rapidly-changing business environments.

Elizondo led $2.5 billion revenue sales & marketing, government & transportation unit. It provided data analytic primarily for the public sector. In Los Angeles, Xerox studied driving patterns like, how many times people circled a block before parking, and implemented a solution.

Writing in The Consortium – For Graduate Studies in Management, Will Nash, a Dell product marketing manager, M.B.A. recruiter, and a Consortium alumnus from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Ross School of Business, class of 2012, said he’s noticed that more M.B.A. students are interested in pursuing a career in tech.

“After executing the largest tech integration ever, Dell continues to need top MBA talent across the business. Dell looks for collaborative candidates who are data-driven and operate well in ambiguity,” Nash writes.

Dr. Randall Pinkett, a member of the National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA), holds five academic degrees including a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Rutgers University, a Master of Science in computer science from the University of Oxford; and a Master of Science in electrical engineering, M.B.A., and Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“When I got to MIT, they told me that it would still take me to do my Master’s, but that I could also do an M.B.A., simultaneously, and not lose any time,” Pinkett explained. “So, I did the dual master’s, and in two years I got two degrees, and then proceeded into the Ph.D. program which I finished in three years. That’s how I ended up with five, but all I ever wanted was the Ph.D.,” he told Mega Diversities.

According to recent employment statistics, management consulting remains one of the largest sectors for M.B.A. graduates, followed by financial services and technology, media & telecommunications.

Other sectors include e-commerce / Internet, Information Technology / Telecommunications, Media / Entertainment / Advertising, Corporate Sectors, Retail / Consumer & Luxury Goods and Manufacturing / Conglomerates.

Top HBCU business schools:

Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
Bowie State University
Hampton University
Morgan State University
Jackson State University
Norfolk State University
Howard University
North Carolina A & T State University
Virginia State University
Tennessee State University
Prairie View A & M University
Southern University and A & M College
Alabama A & M University

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