A l u m n i M a g a z i n e - Duke University's Fuqua School of Business

School N ews
By Kerry Finnegan
Michael Marsh
MBA Class of 2002
First-year Duke MBA (daytime)
student, Michael
Marsh claims he inherited
his love of numbers from his
mother. In turn, his mother
is convinced that he also
inherited his speed as a professional
track and field athlete
from her as well.
A native of Los Angeles,
Mike took a somewhat
unconventional route to business school. As an undergraduate,
he attended the University of California at Los Angeles
on a full athletic scholarship. By his junior year, he felt his
athletic abilities had reached a certain level and began
dreaming of going to the Olympics. After graduation, he
was faced with the difficult decision of either joining the
ranks of the corporate world or taking a risk and becoming a
professional athlete. He made the right decision.
As a professional track and field athlete for 10 years, Mike
achieved his dream at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona and
took home a Gold Medal in the 4 x 100 meter relay and an
individual Gold Medal in the 200 meters. Four years later, he
added a Silver Medal to his collection in Atlanta. Mike is
currently the world record holder in both the 4 x 100 meter
and the 4 x 200 meter relays.
After working the majority of his post-graduate years as a
professional athlete, Mike decided it was time to make the
transition into the business world. Prior to coming to Fuqua,
he earned a master’s of education degree in educational psychology
at the University of Houston in 1998 and worked a
two-year stint at Nesbitt Burns Securities in Houston as
high-yield analyst.
Duke’s reputation, the small class sizes and the team culture,
were the deciding factors that brought Mike to Fuqua.
“The curriculum at Fuqua provides a foundation of thought
that will allow me to make future business decisions. Also,
the relationships I’m developing here will be an invaluable
source of knowledge in the future. I can’t be an expert at
everything, but the people here at Fuqua will help me to
become an expert at being resourceful,” he said.
As for plans after graduation, he wants to put his talent
with numbers to work by focusing on either research or
portfolio management.
14I
F u q u a / W i n t e r 2 0 0 1
student
Mitch Edgeworth
Cross Continent
Class of 2002
With the demands of a full-time
job at Duke University Health
System and the recent arrival of
his daughter, Ashton Kate, firstyear
student Mitch Edgeworth’s
lifestyle neatly fits the criteria
for Fuqua’s newly-launched
Cross Continent program.
A native of Mississippi,
Mitch attended Lipscomb
University in Nashville, which has gained notoriety for its dual
degree program. After fulfilling a three-year engineering science
curriculum at Lipscomb, he then transferred to the Georgia
Institute of Technology, one of Lipscomb’s partner schools, to
complete his coursework in industrial engineering. Upon completing
the IE requirements at Georgia Tech, he was awarded a
bachelor’s degree from each institution.
Mitch’s post-graduate career began as a service parts engineer
at Saturn Corporation, where he developed and drafted
business cases for product changes. Realizing his career interests
stretched outside of the typical stringent engineering path, he
decided to branch out and target the health care sector. He initially
posed the question, how can I break into this kind of
industry with only a technical background? His question was
quickly answered when he accepted a post as a management
engineer at Duke University Health System in 1998. With a
recent promotion to the rank of senior management engineer,
Mitch’s core responsibilities include decision support team
leader and manager of engineering projects that support a variety
of services, organizations and clinics.
He decided an MBA from Duke would help prepare him to
move forward into operations management. “I decided on The
Duke MBA – Cross Continent program because of its flexibility.
With the distance-based learning format, I can plug in my laptop
anywhere, either at home or when traveling and I’m connected
and ready to go. This curriculum fits my stage in my
career and it fits my life.”
As part of the travel requirement in the Cross Continent
program, Mitch caught up with fellow residents at the Frankfurt
campus in January. “One of the things our class is focusing on
right now is not only what curriculum we learn, but what we
can learn from each other as classmates. We really want to be a
resource to one another, not only during the program but
throughout our careers once we graduate.”
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