Business Unusual

Enron, WorldCom, insider trading—corporate corruption dominated headlines in the early 2000s, and Goizueta Business School students like David Hanson 05EMBA and John Laughter 05B wanted to take a stand. “Business schools were seen by some as the big, evil, capitalistic entity on campus,” says Hanson, senior vice president and chief operating officer at Virginia Commonwealth University. “We wanted to do something that would extend beyond that impression, to give back to society as a whole.”

Through the EMBA Scholarship, Hanson and others have helped attract and reward a better brand of business leader. Scholarship recipients come from nontraditional backgrounds and often balance studies with a day job in the nonprofit sector.

Joshua Jones 13EMBA serves as public policy director for a dental and eye care provider in Alabama that serves children in lower-income communities. Jones previously spent fifteen years overseas leading medical and dental relief teams in Latin America and Asia, which he funded by starting and selling several software and technology companies. Now the EMBA is helping him hone his skills as a business strategist.

“My wife and I are raising three young girls, and as an employee at a nonprofit organization paying most of my own tuition, the scholarship has been a huge help,” says Jones, who attends Emory on the weekends.