Poets&Quants™ Names Best & Brightest MBAs For 2022

    OAKLAND, CA, May 04, 2022 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Poets&Quants, the leading news source for graduate business education, has released its 8th annual "Best & Brightest MBAs" feature, which honors 100 of the most accomplished full-time MBAs from the Class of 2022.

"This class was relentless," says Jeff Schmitt, Poets&Quants' senior writer, who launched the series in 2015. "Many of the Best & Brightest are looking to create more options for their classmates. They focused heavily on producing new ways for their classmates to connect with employers, alumni, thought leaders, and each other. This class had to shoulder a heavy burden too. For the past two years, COVID has moved many things online. The Best & Brightest were often the ones who led the charge to return life to normal. That's going to be their legacy."

This year's class includes students like Sam Buck, a University of Michigan MBA who co-founded the first student-run climate tech investment fund. At South Methodist University, Annabel Reeves helped to design and launch the school's first business accelerator program. Daniel Bu achieved a similar feat at the University of Oxford. Here, he co-founded start@ox, which connected the entrepreneurial ecosystem across the university. At the same time, Wharton's Andrea Madu partnered with several leading MBA programs to produce a DEI conference that attracted 600 students from the likes of Harvard, Northwestern, and Dartmouth.

The Best & Brightest were also a highly decorated group. Nikita Acharya has made the Forbes 30 Under 30 in Asia, while Georgetown's Richard Williamson earned a Joint Services Commendation Medal for his work supporting Syrian Civil War refugees. The Best & Brightest also includes a variety of students — many with backgrounds that don't fit the perception of a traditional business background. Before HEC Paris, Samuel Deason earned a Ph.D. in music and taught at Northwestern. Vanderbilt's Jacob Schrimpf started as an actor and arts teacher before landing a spot at the Boston Consulting Group.

To compile this year's Best & Brightest MBAs, Poets&Quants reached out to 75 top graduate business schools to nominate their best candidates for the honor. Responses were judged by P&Q editorial according to three criteria: extracurricular activities, academic and professional achievements, and overall insightfulness. Ultimately, P&Q received 232 nominations from 73 programs, including nearly every MBA program ranked among the world's best. The 2022 list includes representatives from the most prestigious programs, including Stanford, Wharton, MIT, INSEAD, Northwestern, and the University of Chicago. By gender, Best & Brightest women outnumber men by a 56-to-44 margin, with 37 students hailing from outside the United States. This year, McKinsey hired the largest number of Best & Brightest MBAs with six, followed by Deloitte with five.

The "Best & Brightest MBAs" is the second of a four-part series recognizing the world's top business students. In April, Poets&Quants For Undergrads unveiled its Best & Brightest Business Majors for 2022. This summer, Poets&Quants will recognize its "Best & Brightest Executive MBAs" and "Best & Brightest Online MBAs." In the fall, P&Q will continue its series on the top incoming full-time MBA students at over 40 top business schools.

To read about the "100 Best & Brightest MBAs: Class of 2022", CLICK HERE.

About Poets&Quants:

Poets&Quants is the leading resource for complete coverage of graduate business education. We feature multiple tools and authoritative content, including: consolidated B-school rankings, news and in-depth features, videos, podcasts, two searchable directories and events, empowering our community with information needed to make decisions along their journey from pre- to post-MBA.

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