MBA Student Profile: Leslie Paton, Graziadio School of Business

There really were no typical weeks.  It was typically 2-3 hours of prep for every hour in the classroom, although that would stretch and contract depending on my personal strengths and weaknesses.  A lot of team meetings.  Most students commute.  We held some meetings over Internet chat.  Most library resources are on line, so I didn't spend a lot of time in the library until finals time.  A ton of presentations, and not too terribly many papers, at least until the final term.      

- I participated in ethics advocacy and served for one year on the juridical Ethics Committee.  (I resigned when I was elected President of the class, as I thought it might be a conflict of interest.)
- I was a member of the Graziadio Marketing Associates for one year, assisting with recruitment efforts.
- I served as an International Program Consultant for the international students orientation program, and was also a Communication Skills Workshop Assistant for the incoming class orientation.
- I developed instruments to improve workgroup dynamics (team evaluation feedback and plagiarism teaching exhibits).
- I was briefly a member of the Graduate Women in Business, and I served on the Residential MBA Programs Faculty Hiring Committee interviewing candidates for a tenure-track position in economics. 
- After graduation I wrote a letter of recommendation for another professor who was up for tenure consideration.       

There were a lot of them! I am particularly proud of the strategy recommendations we completed as part of the nonprofit consulting assistance program (the name has I think changed) for a small family foundation in the area.  I recently used much of the same work to inform some recommendations for a large, well-funded international conservation organization, so the work was strong and valid.

Secondly, with a teammate, I wrote an international mini case study that will be published shortly.  In our strategy group, we presented a company case study that the rofessor was interested in turning into a publishable case.

Finally, I wrote a book review for strategy that added new insights into the opinions of a foundational tome of management opinion.   

It was all beyond expectations.  I got what I expected and so much more.  While I didn't love every professor nor every class, the overall return on investment was a good 60% over highest expectations.       

Before I came to Pepperdine, I was known as someone with "sharp elbows", who had trouble getting along in a matrix environment and for whom people skills were definitely not strength.  I am now seen as an expert in soft skills, and colleagues come to me for advice on negotiating with difficult personalities and coping with change.  My last personnel review was the highest my boss, the divisional CFO, had ever given in her career.  In it, I am described as "an extraordinarily good communicator" who "displays strength, control, and poise while easily relating to all levels of management".  I would never be relating this well to those around me without my Pepperdine experience.      

I am a Business Analyst at Dole Food Company, Packaged Foods Division, in Los Angeles.