Meet the Class of 2026: John Ahn 26EvMBA
This year, we are celebrating the incredible achievements of Goizueta Business School‘s Class of 2026. As commencement approaches, we’re highlighting outstanding graduates from each program who have made their mark during their time at Goizueta. Meet John Ahn, a graduating Evening MBA student whose journey is shaped by global perspective, reflective leadership, and a deep commitment to building people-centered organizations. In this Q&A, he reflects on how Goizueta sharpened his ability to lead with empathy and rigor while staying grounded in community, as he continues his work as Vice President at Strategex and looks toward a future of impact-driven leadership across business and education.
Hometown: Seoul, South Korea / Montgomery, Alabama
Current Job Title: Vice President
Current Company: Strategex
Previous Education: University of Notre Dame
What initially drew you to Goizueta Business School?
Goizueta offers a world-class business education in one of the most exciting and ever-changing cities in the United States. However, this description only begins to capture Goizueta. After all, one can access world-class business education in a number of different cities that are equally as eager to attribute the same adjectives to themselves.
Goizueta is wholly unique in offering a world-class education in Atlanta, so that you can be a world-class leader and invest in the future of Atlanta. Every member of the Goizueta community democratically curates a culture of generous collaboration with our wonderful city. In fact, Emory does not exist solely to benefit from the city in which it exists – every aspect of Emory symbiotically grows as our city grows. The Goizueta faculty intentionally structure the curriculum to instill our duty to participate in our community’s growth. IMPACT, for example, will challenge every Goizueta student to coalesce their learnings, professional backgrounds, and perspectives to deliver measurable value to quintessential Atlantan institutions. Many business schools will teach you how to be an exceptional management consultant, investment banker, or corporate leader. No other school teaches you how to be an exceptional Atlantan as Goizueta does.
I felt this spirit of Emory the first time I visited the campus for a debate tournament as a high school student from Montgomery, Alabama. I feel this spirit still stirring every time I go onto our campus, fourteen years later.
What has been your most memorable experience during your time at Goizueta?
Our cohort visited Florence and Rome for our Global Experiential Module. On our last day in Rome, a vicious snowstorm hit Atlanta. My friends, our partners, and I made the best of our circumstances – after all, there are much worse places to be stranded (perhaps like in the middle of Atlanta traffic during this very storm).
I realize this every time that I travel abroad – there is so much life to be experienced beyond America. Life moves at a different pace. In Italy, I particularly felt that people drank their wine more slowly. So we slowed down, too. Checking on our soon-to-be-cancelled flights less frequently throughout the night.
We had some of the best pasta in the world and reflected on our time together on the trip and the program at large. Merely sixteen months prior, we had all started our time at Goizueta as strangers. At that table outside Roscioli, we sat as close friends – all connected by our shared Goizueta experience.
I still think about that dinner often. How the second hand of my watch felt a bit slower for a night. That bowl of pasta still serves as a memento to slow down every now and then. Savor this glass before thinking about the next one.
How has your Goizueta education prepared you for your next career step?
I have been with Strategex since December 2020, and I hope to stay at Strategex for as long as they will have me. Strategex is predominantly known as an 80/20 consultancy – my group, Private Equity Solutions (“PES”), partners with lower-middle-market and middle-market private equity investors for transaction diligence and post-close value creation. Being a smaller business unit, the PES practice offers ample opportunities to serve different functions.
Goizueta has prepared me to become a more balanced leader and client advisor. Goizueta’s leadership-focused curriculum equipped me with actionable frameworks for driving and motivating change within our team. The Business School’s pedagogical style emphasizes the importance of applying theoretical business models to tangible business scenarios that we have experienced before. Every professor brings their extensive professional and academic expertise to the table in each session. No lesson or lecture ends with the “what?”, but rather focuses on the “why?” and the “how?”.
Additionally, expanding my knowledge of mergers and acquisitions from various angles prepared me to better empathize with the needs of my clients. Goizueta’s finance faculty offers a wide range of practical expertise from analyzing public equity to assessing the tax implications of various deal structures (…which I, as afraid as I am to admit, love). Goizueta centers its teachings and faculty talent around the real business challenges of the 2020s – everyone can walk away from each lecture a more balanced professional, regardless of their background.
What advice would you give to incoming students in your program?
Pursuing an Evening MBA is a considerable undertaking that will force you to adapt and grow in unexpected ways. You will not be the only person being tested, however. Your support system – whether it consists of your significant other, family, friends, colleagues, or pets – will show up and make sacrifices so that you can achieve your fullest potential.
Postponed dinner dates. Working through the holidays. Doing chores around the house while you are at school so that you can come back to a clean home.
My support system showed up for me and never left. If you are an incoming student at Goizueta, you likely do not need to hear that you should seize challenging opportunities or excel academically. Chances are good that these instincts are already in your bones.
My unwavering advice is to never forget the ways that your support system shows up for you. Appreciate your loved ones sincerely. Love them through your words and your actions. Acknowledge their sacrifices. Make opportunities to be there for them.
Commit to becoming a better partner, parent, child, friend, and colleague once your MBA journey is over.
What’s one piece of advice you received at Goizueta that you’ll carry with you throughout your career?
A friend in my IMPACT group once advised me not to be so hard on myself.
The fall term of 2024 was particularly difficult – I had to balance several fast-paced engagements at work while also processing my grief of losing our family dog, Dean, to leukemia. I resorted to my familiar coping habit of throwing everything at work, which included the term-long IMPACT project for the Children’s Museum of Atlanta.
If you have been through the IMPACT experience, you surely know that the timelines are tight and the deliverables are rigorous. After several weeks of trying to sprint a marathon, I started showing my cracks. My friend then wisely reminded me to not be so hard on myself.
I still remind myself of that advice during stressful times. During your Goizueta MBA journey and beyond, you will encounter moments that tempt you to scrutinize your worth and place in a changing world. Regardless of the challenge ahead, you can always make one conscious decision – don’t be so hard on yourself.
How do you plan to stay connected with the Goizueta community after graduation?
I plan to stay connected not just as an alumnus, but as an active contributor. Some of the best class sessions at Goizueta included guest speakers who were Goizueta and Emory alumni. Similarly, I will make myself available to incoming and current students to share my experience and Goizueta’s impact on my professional trajectory. I also hope to stay connected with the Goizueta faculty to give back where I can through means like advisory roles, business case collaborations, and guest lectures. Lastly, the Goizueta community will be at the top of my list for future hiring opportunities and business ventures.
Goizueta fosters an extremely active, generous, and collaborative alumni network. I believe the duty to participatein further expanding and improving this network lies with every member of the Goizueta family.
What are your long-term career goals, and how do you see yourself making an impact in your chosen field?
After a long and fulfilling career at Strategex, I aspire to become a professor at a mission-driven educational institution like Goizueta. I believe our world is nearing a critical inflection point that threatens some of the most fundamental characteristics of humanity. Artificial intelligence risks dulling the luster of the human mind – our capacity to dream, to create, to challenge, to question, and to debate. Political and economic schisms create binary schools of belief that grow farther apart each year. We strive for progress for the sake of growth withoutquestioning whether such progress is compatible with our shared responsibility to uplift our fellow woman and man.
Many gaps exist in modern business models that accelerate these threats. Short-term pursuits for margins favor half-baked AI products over investing in human capital. Ethical shortcomings in leadership allow unconscionable practices for political and economic gains. Corporate structures must prioritize shareholder returns, even if doing so may jeopardize entire communities. Addressing these challenges requires a higher paradigm – one grounded in ethics, empathy, and a commitment to humanity beyond the bottom line.
I want to teach the next generation of business leaders that sustainable value creation and ethical leadership are not competing priorities. In fact, they must coexist. I want future leaders to not only question “Can we do this?” but “Should we do this? For whom? Who must bear the cost?” Drawing on my professional career as a consultant, I would bring tangible business cases into the classroom that demand ethical reasoning and human-centered solutions beyond the financials.
If I can inspire even one cohort to build their careers around these critical questions, I cannot think of a more meaningful impact to make as an educator and a member of the business community.
