Hometown: Charlotte, NC
Title: Vice President & General Partner
Company: BAML Capital Partners
Jack Purcell
My Story About Me
When you’re exposed to so many different points of view, it tends to stimulate very rich conversations. And that happens just about every time you’re on campus.
Working at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch Capital Partners, a captive private equity firm within Bank of America, Purcell reached an opportune point in his career when taking time off to pursue an MBA full time made sense. However, he decided to stay the course, a decision that paid off in the form of a promotion. Still, even though he was happy in his current position, Purcell continued to wonder if he had missed out on something by not earning an advanced business degree. The Wharton Executive MBA program offered an ideal solution — the full MBA distinction from a top business school in a weekend format. Purcell talks about the benefits of being surrounded by high caliber classmates, the value of the Wharton name on your resume, and how dedication and hard work are required to succeed in the program.
Broad perspectives
Hands down the best part of the program has been the other students. When you think of Wharton, you think about a program that is quantitative or finance heavy. But when you look at the backgrounds of the other students, you see a diverse professional group — it’s well-represented in healthcare, operations, technology, media, law, medicine, etc. As a result, when you discuss a case in class, you end up with countless perspectives, and frankly, many that I haven’t been exposed to in looking at things through a finance lens. When you’re exposed to so many different points of view, it tends to stimulate very rich conversations. And that happens just about every time you’re on campus.
Faculty write the cases you study
On occasion, friends at other business schools will mention a case study they’re reading, and as it turns out, one of my professors will have written it. It’s great to sit in class and have the professor who wrote the case study and lecture notes actually teach it. It’s also great when you have a finance professor who can say he has been the finance minister of a country and can use specific situations from his personal experience as examples. Having faculty with those credentials makes the Wharton EMBA experience a really fulfilling one.
One-on-one time with faculty
In some ways it’s easier for the executive MBA students. When you’re on campus, you get a high degree of interaction with faculty, in the classroom and over meals. Every once in a while you can even convince them to knock back a beer with you after class. And to the extent that you want to take advantage of independent study, professors are always willing to lock elbows with you on a project. That is the best way to foster a deeper relationship with the faculty.
A powerful network and name
In the short term, I think the program benefits me in two ways: First is academically, what you can learn in the classroom and immediately apply to your job. Second, there is also the immediate network benefit. Given that you have 80-100 people in your class who are generally further along in their careers than the full-time students, you can now pick up the phone and contact a classmate for professional reasons — say, working in an industry you are thinking of making an investment in. Longer term, having the MBA distinction on a resume is valuable. It can go a long way, for example, when you are discussing your background with the management team of a company you are looking to buy.
Be prepared for the workload
Recognize what you are getting into. It’s a fantastic learning experience, but make sure you’re prepared for the workload that’s required. Recognize the cost of that. The most obvious are your time and energy — there is no way to get through the program without putting a lot of time and energy into it. The folks who’ve struggled with the program are the ones who went in thinking they did well in undergrad, had a great GMAT score and therefore could breeze through. The minimal level of work that you have to do tends to be a lot of hours every week.
