{"id":54733,"date":"2022-05-04T08:58:34","date_gmt":"2022-05-04T15:58:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/2022\/05\/interview-with-al-drewes-columbia-executives-in-residence-program-director\/"},"modified":"2022-05-04T08:58:34","modified_gmt":"2022-05-04T15:58:34","slug":"interview-with-al-drewes-columbia-executives-in-residence-program-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/interview-with-al-drewes-columbia-executives-in-residence-program-director\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Al Drewes, Columbia Executives in Residence Program Director"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the top reasons for an MBA<\/a> is to explore career paths in an open environment. Through Columbia Business School\u2019s Executives in Residence program, Columbia MBA students have the opportunity\u00a0to do just this, building lasting relationships with business leaders.<\/p>\n

The program is made up of 25 senior\u00a0executives\u00a0from the C-Suite of Fortune 100 companies, as well as senior partners, chairmen, and CEOs. The\u00a0Executives\u00a0in\u00a0Residence\u00a0program is the oldest and largest of its kind, providing access to powerful mentors and advisors.<\/p>\n

Below, read Personal MBA Coach\u2019s exclusive interview with Al Drewes, Columbia Executives in Residence Program Director (or watch here<\/a>)!<\/p>\n

Scott Edinburgh:<\/strong> Hello everyone, my name is Scott Edinburgh. I went to MIT for undergrad, Wharton, I\u2019ve been a personal MBA coach for the last 15 years. We help folks around the world get into top programs, through tutoring, admissions consultancy, essay editing and interview prep.<\/p>\n

Columbia is one of our favorite programs and I am super excited to have Al Drewes here with me today, to talk about the Columbia Executives in Residence program. So Al, I\u2019ll let you introduce yourself and do a brief overview of the program and we\u2019ll do some questions.<\/p>\n

Al Drewes<\/strong>: Thank you, it is a pleasure to be here today. So, I graduated from Columbia in 1982, went to work for Pepsico at the time and stayed with Pepsico and a related company for 28 years, becoming the CFO of the Pepsi Bottling Group \u2013 which was a fortune 160 company \u2013 and then I went on to do private equity for a few years. Now I\u2019m helping run this program which is very exciting, and I am happy to talk to you about it today.<\/p>\n

Scott Edinburgh<\/strong>: So let\u2019s talk a little bit about how the program works; How many executives are there, how people get matched up with executives, maybe we can start there.<\/p>\n

Al Drewes<\/strong>: Yeah sure, so there are 25 of us, we volunteer our time, and the primary thing we do is we coach and mentor students. We had 1500 meetings with students last year, these are usually about career questions, but sometimes about work life balance and entrepreneurial ideas and so forth.<\/p>\n

There are 25 of us, we\u2019re almost all either C-Suite executives from major corporations, or people from similar positions from consulting firms or banks and so forth. We have 2 former senior partners from McKinsey and BCG, we have a fellow who is on the executive committee of Evercore, 5 former CEOs and chairmen of companies like Macy\u2019s, Wyeth Labs, Quest Diagnostics, and we have a couple CFO\u2019s like myself. These are very high caliber people who volunteer their time to coach and mentor students on whatever topics are relevant or of interest, needed by the students.<\/p>\n

Scott Edinburgh:<\/strong> That\u2019s great, super exciting, I had some of those but not quite at the same level of expertise. So, do you have any examples \u2013 I am sure you have many examples \u2013 but, maybe you can give an example of something that someone learned from these meetings.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Al Drewes: <\/strong>Sometimes it\u2019s as simple as having a half an hour conversation with a student and helping them clarify their thinking. I would say more times than not that\u2019s what happens; a good example is a woman came to see me in her first term a few years ago, and she\u2019d been working in private health management for a major bank, and she wanted to become an investment banker. She was concerned that somebody from a private wealth management background didn\u2019t have the credentials to get an investment banking job in one of the top tier firms.<\/p>\n

I talked to her for about 10 minutes, and I almost thought it was kind of funny to tell you the truth that she was having this angst about this, because she was the most fantastic candidate for an investment banking job. I just looked her in the eye and said to her \u201cstop worrying about it, you are as good, great a candidate as anybody in this class\u201d and she kind of listened to me for a minute, and all of a sudden a weight was lifted off her shoulders.<\/p>\n

If you fast forward, she is graduating right now, she has gotten a great investment banking job with a very, very top tier firm, that anybody would die for. In the course of that conversation, she had a little bit of crisis of confidence and that little nudge was basically enough. I also said to her go meet with Eduardo Mestre and Barbara Byrne who are two executives in our program, who are both very senior investment bankers and talk to them about it and so there are many stories like that. There are also stories where it\u2019s a longer term kind of relationship as well.<\/p>\n

Scott Edinburgh<\/strong>: That\u2019s great, that is one of the reasons I got into this, I had a client who was working in media out in L.A. for 8.5 years and really wanted to work in investment banking, and we didn\u2019t want to write in the essays because we thought it was a bit risky. But went into investment banking, and got there, and it took some nudging. As you think about this program vs. others, what are some things that might separate Columbia\u2019s Executives in Residence from other similar programs?<\/p>\n

Al Drewes<\/strong>: We actually had two second year students do a deep dive competitive bench marking of the program comparing it to other school. Nobody really has a similar program, nobody really has the seniority of the folks, the breadth, and the access that students have to us. Many of the other schools focus on entrepreneurship, we focus on anything you really want to talk to us about.<\/p>\n

Another example I had a student come to me three years ago, who wanted to start a beverage company, and since I worked at Pepsico, he was interested in my advice in a product idea that he had, he graduated, he runs a business and I still talk to him once a month he tells me he\u2019s struggling with this, how do I price that, and tell him to think about it this way.<\/p>\n

There is a breath of activities, any student can sign up to see one of us, you can sign up multiple times, there are people who have seen 10 executives, and there are people who have seen me 4 or 5 times over the course of a year and a half, or they may just come one time, it is really up to the students. This is very different from what other schools have and again it could be career counseling, entrepreneurial idea, career advice, work life balance, it could be what courses should I take, I am doing a case study how should I think about the case study. Mostly it\u2019s about careers but it could be any of those things.<\/p>\n

Scott Edinburgh<\/strong>: We talked a little bit about this earlier on but how long do the relationships tend to last and any advice that you have for folks who are trying to make the most of this kind of program.<\/p>\n

Al Drewes: <\/strong>I\u2019d say to students is, in the first term, come see us right away. Some students don\u2019t do that, the reason I say this is because the critical path item is going to be your summer internship. And you\u2019re also going to be kind of inundated once you get into the classes, and job interviewing, it can be pretty overwhelming for folks in the first term.<\/p>\n

So, to get some early on advice in a summer internship in my view is a really good thing, because the summer internship can set you up for great things for your full-time employment. So I try to encourage students to come see us as early as possible. I think there is no one way to do this, some students come, I\u2019ll see them one time, and then I won\u2019t see them again.<\/p>\n

Other students will come, they\u2019ll go from somebody else, to me, they\u2019ll go through the program, and then maybe they\u2019ll come back. Then, there are more than a few instances where people have multiyear relationships with people. And we\u2019re also available to alums, too. Sometimes we get alumni who are looking to career pivot, they\u2019ve hit a wall, they\u2019re trying to figure out what to do. They\u2019ll come and see us as well.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Scott Edinburgh: <\/strong>That\u2019s great. That alumni availability is really, really important.\u00a0 Is there anything else we would be surprised to know about the program?<\/p>\n

Al Drewes<\/strong>: One thing is, we all volunteer, we do this because we enjoy doing it, we enjoy meeting with students \u2013 it\u2019s actually really fun. Students should know that if they choose to come to Columbia and they want to come see us, we want to see them. We like it. We are not getting paid, we just do it because we like meeting with students.<\/p>\n

In the situation like I described, with this women, who wound up with the investment banking job, it\u2019s kind of nice to say \u201cI helped that woman get what she wanted\u201d and there are a lot of those stories, and that\u2019s just a very nice thing. So we love it. I want students to come to Columbia, come to the new campus and come see us and we will be very happy about that.<\/p>\n

Scott Edinburgh: <\/strong>Any other piece of advice or closing words that you have today? We can talk about the situation we have here, the economy, anything like that?<\/p>\n

Al Drewes<\/strong>: <\/strong>Students will ask in sessions, in Columbia, \u201cIf I had to do my MBA over what would I do differently?\u201d One thing I say is that the MBA experience is an academic experience, and it\u2019s an experiential experience. Maybe not a proper use of the English language, but it\u2019s an \u201cexperiential\u201d experience.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t sell the experiential part short during your time there. If you have access to a program like this, or if you\u2019re in New York, and you have access to all the business and the commercial activity that\u2019s going on in New York, make sure to take advantage of that, as that will be really profound in shaping your career and things that you will take with you for the rest of your life.<\/p>\n

Scott Edinburgh: <\/strong>That reminds me, one regret I have is on one of those organized trips, I didn\u2019t do them because I thought they were too expensive at the time and I was sitting thinking \u201cI probably should have done them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Al Drewes: <\/strong>It\u2019s exactly what I am talking about, or you\u2019re too busy because some speaker is coming to campus and you don\u2019t go, and then you regret it because you didn\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n

Scott Edinburgh: <\/strong>Super helpful! Thanks for all the great work that you do, I know many of our clients and many Columbia MBA students love it, so really appreciate that. If you want to learn more about the program jump on our website.<\/p>\n

Applying to the Columbia University MBA program? Check out Personal MBA Coach\u2019s CBS site page<\/a> to find out what sets the full-time MBA program apart, the latest class profile information, essay advice and more.<\/p>\n

The Columbia University MBA program is among the programs that Personal MBA Coach Round 1 clients are getting a head start on this spring. Find out more about what to expect from the 2022-2023 MBA essays here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

About Personal MBA Coach:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Founded by a Wharton MBA and MIT Sloan graduate who sits on the Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants Board of Directors,\u00a0Personal MBA Coach<\/a>\u00a0has been guiding clients for 15 years and is consistently ranked #1 or #2 by leading sources including Poets & Quants.<\/p>\n

We help clients with all aspects of the MBA application process including early planning, GMAT\/GRE\/EA tutoring, application strategy, school selection, essay editing, and mock interviews. Our team includes former M7 admissions directors and former M7 admissions interviewers.<\/p>\n

The post Interview with Al Drewes, Columbia Executives in Residence Program Director<\/a> appeared first on Personal MBA Coach<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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