2024 Best & Brightest Business Major: Jonathan Ross
Jonathan Ross
Emory University
Goizueta Business School
“My resume interests include horology, patisserie, chess, and powerlifting—and that about sums me up.”
Fun fact: I was undefeated at Connect-4 through five years of elementary school
Hometown: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
High School: North Allegheny High School
Major: Business Administration; Double Major: Economics
Favorite business course: Marketing Consulting Practicum
Extracurricular activities, community work and leadership roles during college:
Activities:
- Emory Impact Investing Group: Chief Research Officer, Chief Executive Officer; Goizueta Consulting Group: Co-President; Goizueta Career Management Center: Lead Coach; Marketing Consulting Practicum: Client Relations TA; Turner MIINT Case Competition: Team Member; Emory Consult Your Community: Engagement Manager, Senior Advisor; TEDxEmory: Speakers Team Member
Honors and awards:
- Business and Society Institute Fellow; Emory University 100 Senior Honorary; 1st Place USC Marshall International Case Competition, 1st Place, Georgetown McDonough Business Case Competition; Phi Eta Sigma Honors Society Member
Where have you interned during your college career?
- Cluster, Remote: Strategy Marketing Intern (May 2021-Sept. 2022)
- Federated Hermes, Pittsburgh: Responsible Investment Intern (May 2022-August 2023)
- McKinsey, Pittsburgh: Summer Business Analyst (May 2023-August 2023)
Where will you be working after graduation?
I am very happy to be returning to McKinsey & Co. in the Pittsburgh office as a Business Analyst.
Who is your favorite business professor?
Professor Peter Roberts has had an incredible impact on my college career. Throughout my classes, research, and work with Professor Roberts, he has consistently emphasized the importance of utilizing business as a lever for social impact and worked to provide myself and his other students with ample opportunities to do so. We’ve now worked together across a wide variety of topics ranging from the supply chain of coffee in Honduras to small businesses in Detroit, and I look forward to continuing this work in my last semester.
What is the biggest lesson you gained from studying business?
Goizueta has provided me with an undeniably strong foundation of business fundamentals. With that said, studying business has taught me far more than Porter’s 5 Forces and discounting cash flows. It has taught me how to solve problems, and, moreover, that understanding people is a necessity to understand problems.
What advice would you give to a student looking to major in a business-related field?
Explore everything that you can. There are so many amazing, unique opportunities at college, and exploring those opportunities is the best way to determine where intersections between business and your other passions lie and can be explored.
What has surprised you most about majoring in business?
When I first came to Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, I expected business itself to be the end goal—as if my title in the future would be simply “man of business”. What I came to realize quickly, though, is that business is not the end but rather the means to accomplish other things that students are passionate about. For me, business has been a necessary tool to create impact outside of the classroom in the Atlanta community.
Looking back over your experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently in business school and why?
One of my biggest regrets of my college experience was failing to take advantage of the faculty – their experience and their mentorship – until the latter part of my college career. Working closer with faculty has taught me so much in the past two years and provided incredible experiences that I couldn’t have gotten otherwise.
Which academic, extracurricular or personal achievement are you most proud of?
During the senior fall, I spearheaded a project to provide open access to one of Goizueta’s most selective clubs, Emory Impact Investing Group, for all interested students. As a part of this initiative, I organized the creation and operations of 8 education sessions and 6 real-world projects designed to provide education on topics of investing, consulting, and entrepreneurship through the lens of social impact. With over 200 student sign ups and more than 120 active members, we were able to increase awareness for social enterprise in business and inclusivity in extracurriculars at the business school.
Which classmate do you most admire?
Of my many amazing classmates, the classmate that I’ve admired most is Camila Gedanken. Camila is someone who has supported me relentlessly in my growth as a student and person, and I would not have achieved what I have without her. As a student with others always at the forefront of her mind, she worked tireless to make the Emory and Atlanta communities a better place and inspired many others to do the same in the process.
Who would you most want to thank for your success?
While my success is the product of dozens—if not hundreds—of friends and family that have supported me over the years, the people I would like to thank most are my parents. Whether dedicating hours to drive me to soccer practices, suffering through proofreading my Dostoeyevski essays, or stocking the fridge with my favorite kombucha after long work days, they have always supported me with their whole hearts. They’re at the core of what I’ve become and who I’ll become in the future.
What are the top two items on your professional bucket list?
After engaging in the social and nonprofit practice at McKinsey, I hope to stay engaged with nonprofits and community organizations around Pittsburgh and Atlanta through board membership.
I would love to come back to Emory years later as a leader at McKinsey and engage with future students from the extracurriculars and programs I’m passionate about.
Interested in pursuing a business degree? Learn more about the unique programs Goizueta has to offer.
