Todd Mortensen

It has surprised me the bandwidth and the capacity that you have to have as a person to thrive at Wharton because of the things that are asked of you.

On having a unique background

Prior to coming to Wharton, I spent two years at Merrill Lynch, working in private wealth management—not very unique. However, prior to that, I played quarterback in the NFL for the Detroit Lions and the New England Patriots, in addition to NFL Europe and the Canadian Football League. When other students discover my background the universal reaction is, “Wow, I didn’t expect that at Wharton.” People who know me in academic setting before they know about my previous life have an image of me as a student and a professional, so to find out that I did something completely different in a different world and environment surprises a lot of people.

Diversity, bandwidth, capacity

The diversity of the student body is actually one of the things that drew me to Wharton—I was so impressed with the range of backgrounds—both domestic and international—and experiences of the students. Seeing things like the International Culture Show and the Follies and a lot of the talent and hobbies and interests that people had outside of school and their professional lives, that was very impressive. All of us have done something rather extraordinary with our lives up to this point. It has surprised me the bandwidth and the capacity that you have to have as a person to thrive at Wharton because of the things that are asked of you.

The amount of knowledge, skills, and practical expertise that I can now give to an organization or business is ten-fold what it was before I started the MBA program.

Sense of personal worth

I feel like Wharton has changed my self-perception—that my personal worth and the amount that I can contribute to an organization or business has skyrocketed after my first year here. The amount of knowledge, skills, and practical expertise that I can now give to an organization or business is ten-fold what it was before I started the MBA program. I’m not just a specialist in one area. I have a great depth of understanding of many different industries and can understand how decisions in each of those industries will affect other ones and affect the companies as a whole. This first year of business school had really prepared me to go out into the business world and make a contribution.

Dean’s advisory board—an internal think tank

One of the activities I’m heavily involved with is the Dean’s Graduate Student Advisory Council, an internal think tank that advises the dean and senior administrators on long-term strategic initiatives for the Wharton. This year, we looked at a number of different projects, from improving Wharton’s global footprint to improving the student experience. The one that I worked on specifically is how to improve Wharton’s ability to teach leadership. We looked at all the different offerings of leadership training, whether it was in the classroom or through venture treks or being a leadership fellow or club president, and we’ve come up with a vision of how to coordinate all of those activities and communicate to the rest of the world how Wharton teaches leadership. 

After playing 3 years as a quarterback in the NFL, I started my business career at Merrill Lynch with strong leadership skills, but only a basic understanding of fundamental business principles. I quickly realized that in order to accelerate my career progression, I needed to get a solid foundation in the core disciplines of modern business theory. For me, coming to Wharton has put me light years ahead of where I was just one year ago. During my first year I’ve studied both the quantitative and managerial aspects of business, taking courses in accounting, finance, operations, statistics, leadership, organizational behavior, marketing, public policy, ethics, and communications. By the end of the year I could look at a particular business and analyze it from multiple angles, integrating what I had learned in each subject. Now I feel like I have the tools to go as far as my career ambitions may take me. Coming to Wharton has made me a more well-rounded businessman, and prepared me to be a leader in each of the organizations I work in throughout the future.

Interests: Latin Music, Composing, Travel

At Wharton

Extracurricular Activities/Clubs: Dean's Graduate Student Advisory Committee

Internships/Career Treks: Morgan Stanley, Summer 2009, Investment Management Treks w/ Fidelity, Wellington, MFS. Private Equity Treks w/ Oaktree, Highland, Platinum

Favorite Class(es): Finance w/ Professors Allen & Siegel, Competitive Strategy & Global Strategy

In Philadelphia

Current Residence: Havertown, PA

Favorite Philadelphia Activities/Places: Attending pro-sports games, Art Museum, the Zoo, and the Italian Market

Favorite Philadelphia Restaurants: Butcher & Singer, Alma de Cuba