MBA Student Profile: Leslie Paton, Graziadio School of Business

Leslie Paton shares her experiences of her MBA program at the Graziadio School. 
 

1. Why did you choose the Graziadio School?

- Best of both worlds in terms of small class size yet large alumni population with whom to network;

- smart demanding faculty members who could challenge me in class; - collaborative versus competitive ethos/emphasis on teamwork;
- focus on ethics. (What I didn't know I needed until I got to GSBM:  the fact that networking is a teachable and learnable skill / ability to build a network from scratch irrespective of focus, purpose, connections, or resources.)     

2. What were you doing before your MBA?

Underchallenged and underemployed. I had been working on Wall Street until August 2001; after 9/11 I volunteered for the WTC relief effort and later completed a short-term project for the American Red Cross in Greater New York.       

3. A typical week at the Graziadio School?

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.      

4. What are the professional and extracurricular activities that you participated in and outside the classroom?

- 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.       

5. What are some of the projects you completed at the Graziadio School?

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.   

6. Is there anything that you consider to be a "beyond expectation" experience, while you were at the Graziadio School?

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.       

7. How has your Pepperdine MBA helped your career?

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.      

8. Your current company and title.

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