Sustainability at MIT Sloan

Zairo Cheibub, SF ’07

Zairo Cheibub, on MIT Sloan introducing him to sustainability as a key driver of business competitiveness.

Zairo Cheibub came to MIT Sloan after being a political science professor and directing a research institute in Brazil. Zairo joined MIT Sloan’s Fellows Program looking for formal management training, but what he didn’t expect was that he would leave MIT Sloan with sustainability expertise that would allow him to have a very different kind of impact than that which he had had before.

Now the Director of Operations and Sustainability at Merida Meridian, a sustainable textile design company, Zairo is a member of the company’s leadership team, helping to keep corporate operations and sustainable practices firmly intertwined. But when he entered MIT Sloan, Zairo “thought sustainability was corporate social responsibility. MIT Sloan expanded my whole understanding of what sustainability means.” Read more >>

Mark Doughty, MBA ’99

Mark Doughty, on answering his customers’ calls for sustainable buildings.

Mark Doughty came to MIT Sloan looking for a way to stitch together what he called “a scattered career.” Mark began college at West Point, was injured and discharged, and completed his undergraduate degree at UMASS. He then pursued professional cycling in Europe before returning to the states to rehab a house with his MIT-educated father in Maine; according to Mark, “I had fragmented experiences with no depth in any one area.” What he discovered at MIT Sloan was that his broad experiences gave him perspective on recurring patterns across industries.

Now the President of Thoughtforms Corporation, a high-end custom home and institutional builder, Mark attributes much of his career success and satisfaction to what he learned while at MIT Sloan: “Sloan has played such a HUGE role in my life path.” Read more >>

Omar Mitchell, MBA ’12

Omar Mitchell, MBA 2012 on bringing sustainable business practices to the National Hockey League.

Omar Mitchell came to MIT Sloan looking to take the next step after several years in architecture. He used his fall semester to investigate roles across sectors like management consulting, technology, and clean energy by visiting companies like Facebook and Apple, talking with MIT Sloan alumni and attending student–run treks. In the spring semester the Clean Energy Trek, which mixes clean energy class work and first–hand experience in Spain and Denmark seeing renewable and wind energy in action, focused Omar on sustainability. “On the trek I realized this was where my current passions and interests connected with my architecture background. That formed how I approached my internship search.” Omar applied for and received one of MIT Sloan’s Sustainability Internships, enabling him to spend the summer between his first and second year at the National Hockey League, helping them investigate sustainable business practices. Now the Director of Sustainability for the NHL, Omar credits his MIT Sloan experience and the Sustainability Internship with getting him the job of his dreams. Read more >>

Lily Russell, MBA ’11

Lily Russell, on carving out a niche in sustainable supply chains at Deloitte Consulting and how her MIT Sloan MBA got her there.

Lily Russell came to MIT Sloan looking for ways to improve global supply chains with sustainable business practices. Though she came with a laser-clear focus on how to integrate her passion into her career, Lily believes that it was her MIT Sloan experience that gave her the tools to make this vision a reality.

Now in a management consulting position at Deloitte Consulting, Lily is thrilled by the balance she has struck between supply chain and sustainability. While helping some of the World’s largest companies and organizations improve their bottom-line, she is also improving supplier engagement practices, enhancing supply chain flows and discovering ways to save energy costs across hundreds of distribution centers. Lily says her MIT Sloan experience is integral to her success at Deloitte Consulting, “The coursework and connections I made with faculty are invaluable, but I am confident it is my experience on a variety of Action Learning projects that has caught our partner’s and client’s eye” Read more >>

Brian Toll, MBA ’01

Brian Toll, uses his MIT Sloan education to become an honest broker of home energy efficiency.

Brian Toll came to MIT Sloan for its expertise in technology and entrepreneurship. After graduating with his MBA, he went to New York where he worked on Wall Street in the telecom sector and then moved to Sprint Nextel as Director of Marketing. Brian credits his experience at Sprint Nextel and his MIT Sloan education with giving him the skills to start ecobeco, a company that helps families save energy, money and the environment. ecobeco is now Maryland’s largest energy auditing company.

“My MIT Sloan education has given me multi-disciplinary training in all the areas of running a small business. When I identified an underserved market in residential energy efficiency, an area I felt passionate about, I decided to take the plunge into entrepreneurship, and ecobeco has more than exceeded my expectations in its first 3 years.” Read more >>