Featured Alumni Profiles:

LMichael E. Green - Vice President Marketing and Development, Africare

Ray Jacobson - Vice President of Investments, Golden LEAF Foundation

Alison Levine - Founder, Climb High Foundation

DJ Vogt - Office of Legislative Affairs, U.S. Department of the Treasury

Maury Wray Bridges - Consultant, Booz Allen Hamilton

LMichael E. Green (Fuqua MBA '85) is charged with leading Africare’s efforts to build awareness and support for the critical humanitarian assistance the organization is providing throughout the African continent. This is achieved by directing Africare’s Marketing and Development (fundraising) activities in the US. Mr. Green joined the organization in June 2004. Mr. Green comes to Africare with over 20 years of marketing experience, including 10 years working in the international NGO sector.

In 1994, Mr. Green began his nonprofit marketing career when he joined CARE to lead their corporate marketing function. Over his nearly 10 year tenure with the organization, he held a variety of leadership positions (Director, Strategic Planning & Analysis; Director of Marketing; and Acting Vice President, Marketing & Communications). Mr. Green was a member of the 4-person leadership team that directed CARE in raising over $85 million annually from private donors.

Prior to joining CARE, Mr. Green worked for 10 years as a marketing executive in the private sector. This included various marketing and management positions with a number of leading consumer package goods companies including, Coors Brewing Company, The Pepsi-Cola Company, Kraft Foods, Inc. and the company with whom Kraft subsequently merged, General Foods. Prior to attending graduate school, Mr. Green also worked for the Congressional Budget Office and served as a member of the White House staff working in the Office of The Special Representative on Trade.

Mr. Green received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Government and Economics from Georgetown University in 1979 and earned his Masters in Business Administration from The Fuqua School at Duke University in 1985. Mr. Green was born and raised in Berkeley, California. Mr. Green and his wife Debbie are the proud parents of two school age daughters.

Ray Jacobson (Fuqua MBA '01) is the Vice President of Investments for the Golden LEAF Foundation. Ray joined Golden LEAF in June 2004 as the foundation’s first dedicated chief investment officer. Previously, Ray worked for three years at Duke University Management Company (DUMAC), where he assisted in the oversight of the university’s $5 billion investment portfolio, specifically in the areas of equities, fixed income, and hedge funds. Ray has also worked in equity research roles at Bloomberg Financial Markets in Princeton and at Brown Advisory in Baltimore.

The Golden LEAF Foundation is a nonprofit corporation created in 1999 to receive one-half of the funds coming to North Carolina from the master settlement agreement with cigarette manufacturers; the Foundation receives additional inflows each year. Golden LEAF is helping North Carolinians make the transition from a tobacco dependent economy into one with better prospects, especially for the rural and distressed communities in the state. The Foundation’s mission is to positively affect the long-term economic advancement of the state through grants in areas including job training, added-value agriculture, leveraging the state’s strengths in life sciences and tourism, and general economic development-oriented programs.

Ray grew up in New Jersey, but now calls North Carolina home. He lives just outside of Raleigh, NC with his wife and three young children. Ray received his B.A. degree in physics from Rutgers University and an M.S. degree in physics from Clemson University. He earned an MBA degree from The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University in 2001 and has been a CFA charter holder since 2000.

Alison Levine (Fuqua MBA '00) is a climber, explorer, entrepreneur, and keynote speaker. She has served as team captain of the first American Women's Everest Expedition, climbed the highest peak on each continent and skied 100 miles across the Arctic Circle to the geographic North Pole. Her success in extreme environments is noteworthy given the fact that Alison has had two heart surgeries and also suffers from a neurological disease that causes the arteries that feed her fingers and toes to collapse in cold weather, leaving her at extreme risk for frost bite.

The desire to give something back to the poverty-stricken communities she visited during her expeditions led to the founding of the Climb High Foundation, a nonprofit organization that trains women in third world countries to be mountain guides and porters in their local mountains so they can benefit from climbing and trekking-related tourism. Her work in western Uganda was groundbreaking as it was the first time the local women there had ever climbed mountains, as this was forbidden in the past due to cultural beliefs about the subordinate status of women.

Alison’s expeditions have been documented by more than 450 media outlets. She has made numerous appearances on The Today Show, CNN, CNBC, Fox, ABC News, CBS Evening News, and other national programs. Her story has been the subject of articles in Oprah Magazine, National Geographic, Lifetime Magazine, Adventure, Sports Illustrated Woman, Outside and other publications. Alison has earned many honors for her achievements and ability to overcome adversity, including the Courage in Sports Award from the Anaheim Angels. She was named one of San Francisco’s "Top Business Leaders Under 40," and was listed as one of Arizona’s (her native state) "Most Interesting People." She was recently recognized by the International Mentoring Network Organization and the International Rotary Club.

Over the past few years, Alison has conducted numerous speaking tours to raise awareness and money for girls´ scholarships in third-world countries. She also raised funds to build two schools in Nepal and helped to fund the construction of a school for AIDS orphans in Uganda. In 2005, Alison performed in "The Vagina Monologues" at the California Theater in San Jose, with the goal of broadening awareness about the need to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM) and sexual slavery.

Prior to founding the Climb High Foundation, Alison spent 11 years in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries in both the US and in Asia. Upon completing her MBA at Duke University (FSB '00) she went to work for Goldman Sachs in the Investment Management Division. She left Wall Street in 2003 to serve as Deputy Finance Director for Arnold Schwarzenegger's successful campaign for Governor. Alison is currently the co-chair of the West Coast chapter of 85 Broads, a member of the Association of Women MBAs and was a founding member of World Wildlife Fund's Young Partners in Conservation. You can read more about Alison in this article in National Geographic Adventure.

When DJ Vogt (Fuqua MBA '01)arrived at Fuqua in 1999, he knew he would have access to a wealth of opportunities to redirect his career path. Taking action on his interest in pursuing a career in the public sector, DJ began to plan a strategy to enter the government at the Fed-eral level.

Today, DJ works at the Office of Legislative Affairs at the Department of the Treasury (DOT). His division is responsible for international affairs, where legislation on multi-lateral development banking is handled. The funding given by the United States gov-ernment to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, for example, are sub-ject to a protracted negotiation process every year. DJ explains, “We shepherd pieces of legislation through Congress. We take the President’s budget and our goal is to get the amount of funding that the President proposes. It is usually a challenge.”

Working in the public sector was initially a shock. DJ found that the rules of the game in government are very different than those in investment banking or management con-sulting, his former fields of work. Moreover, while working with limited resources has entailed a unique set of challenges, this situation has also given DJ an opportunity to be creative. Because performance is not evaluated in terms of a return on investment, crea-tivity and shrewdness in the application of resources become very valuable skills.

One of the aspects of his work that DJ finds most rewarding is contributing to the “greater good.” Legislation and policy affect millions of people—and not just within the U.S. Since the World Bank responds to the development needs of communities across the globe, the organization’s budget—and therefore the work done by the DOT—has worldwide consequences.

Another rewarding aspect of working in the DOT is the constant interaction with indi-viduals at top levels of government. Regarding the work environment at the Treasury, DJ found that many of his colleagues had strong technical backgrounds, mostly in Eco-nomics. However, Vogt emphasizes that his non-technical background has not been a disadvantage. This is mainly because what makes him unique is his ability to see the “bigger picture,” as well as his general management perspective.

Although MBAs are a minority at his office, DJ considers that business graduates bring very valuable skills to government work. MBAs are accustomed to measuring things and focusing on results, two issues which are crucial to efficient resource allocation in the public sector.

Reflecting on his time at Fuqua, DJ believes that the quantitative courses he took during business school endowed him with skills he now constantly uses while negotiating, which is a large part of his job. “Not having to focus your MBA on an area of concen-tration is an advantage in certain professional areas,” DJ explains, “and government is one of them.” In conclusion, he notes that general skills are essential in government work. DJ Vogt is living proof that an MBA can add value to any organization where results, effective management, and vision are important.

maury When Maury Wray Bridges (Fuqua MBA '04) came to Fuqua in 2002, she knew that the program would give her the necessary tools to pursue a career in international development. What she didn’t know was the particular path that she would take to meet her goal.

Prior to Fuqua, Maury worked on the production side of the movie business. Managing movie shoots, budgets and people, gave her the experience to manage complex problems in short periods of time. However, Maury realized she wanted to broaden the scope of her career and pursue a job in the social sector. This led her to a new venture that consisted of working for a wilderness education company that aims to teach children leadership skills. She worked on the marketing strategy of the program and dealt with the inevitable problems and joys of managing 800 kids out in the wilderness.

Ultimately, Maury decided to pursue a career in international development and landed at Fuqua to prepare herself for this role. While at Fuqua, Maury took advantage of the global academic travel experience (GATE) to South Africa as well as an exchange program to the country. As Maury would later confirm, the experience of living in a developing economy was a fundamental piece for building her future career in international development.

At first, however, Maury found herself in a difficult position of not finding an attractive job in international development. The reason: lack of experience. “You want to believe that an MBA from a top school is enough.” However, as she confirmed, sometimes one has to dig deeper for alternative paths.

In this context, the MBA Enterprise Corps became a great option for Maury. The MBAEC chooses business graduates from leading business schools who are willing to serve as volunteers for 15 months. MBAEC volunteers support development efforts by providing assistance to local enterprises, institutions and industries.

The time spent in Bulgaria gave Maury grassroots experience with large non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) and familiarity with USAID grants. “It was a great personal experience… and professionally it could be spun in many ways.” Maury knows from her experience that MBA’s to have a lot of positive things to bring to the social sector. “MBA’s have the ability to think analytically, see the big picture, and come up with strategic solutions. They can bring disparate elements together and make things happen.”

Today Maury works at Booz Allen Hamilton – where she was hired directly after Bulgaria - in their public sector practice. Currently she’s working on a project funded by USAID that aims at developing the private sector in Serbia. As a consultant in the Booz Allen Hamilton public sector practice, Maury says that she is thrilled to work with an outstanding professional services firm and at the same time pursue her interests in economic development.

Read Maury's CASEconnection article about social enterprises in Bulgaria.