Chantal McMahon Phd 22EMBA

At least once a week, Chantal McMahon 22EMBA mentors women getting PhDs in technical fields, who wonder whether their skills will translate to business. She answers a resounding “yes,” and her Goizueta Executive MBA is a big reason why.

McMahon entered Goizueta with a doctorate in biomedical engineering with a concentration on neuroengineering. She worked in Atlanta at Medtronic, a healthcare technology firm with 90,000 employees across 150 countries, as senior data science and artificial intelligence product development manager. She became engrossed with learning how and why companies like hers made decisions and marshaled resources, especially when expanding internationally.

The EMBA program trained her to evaluate business down to its data. She learned to take data to create strategy so that an innovative business can accelerate.

“After taking organization and management with Rob Kazanjian, corporate finance with Shehzad Mian, and mergers and acquisitions with Kevin Crowley, I was hooked,” said McMahon, 35 and mother of a toddler.

“I realized that finance strategy was where I wanted to take my career, to use data to test our assumptions and come up with business models and decision-making frameworks for business. How can we best use AI, data, and digital systems to effectively and consistently create business models?”

When McMahon graduates, her EMBA is launching her to a new career in strategy finance with Intuitive Surgical, maker of the Da Vinci robot, which reported more than $5 billion in earnings in 2021.

She credits the EMBA environment, including the support from her 50 classmates, with deepening her core values of tenacity, gratitude, and openness to contribute to the greater good.

“I had the itch, but when I scratched it at the EMBA program, that only made it stronger,” McMahon said. “This is the best thing I could have done now for my career.” 

This May, hundreds of Goizueta graduates will walk through our doors ready for the workforce. Learn more about the celebration and register for Goizueta’s Commencement activities. Continue to check out the stories of our amazing students all month long.

Are you an executive ready to take your career to the next level like McMahon? Read more about Goizueta’s Executive MBA program.