The University of St. Gallen Business School MBA Class of 2026 brings together a globally minded, impact-driven group of professionals who are all pivoting at meaningful inflection points in their careers. Meet some of the new students in this edition of Real Humans: MBA Students.
Durga Swetha Chivukula comes to St. Gallen from the cutting edge of battery manufacturing at Tesla, where she realized she was hitting a ceiling without an MBA and wanted to better understand European markets as she transitioned from the U.S. Her background in hard-core manufacturing across multiple countries gives the class a rare, hands-on perspective on operations and sustainability. Dr. Liesel Goveas adds deep scientific credibility as a neuroscientist and post-doctoral research fellow, now seeking to bridge pre-clinical research with program or product management in pharma. She’s using the MBA to gain the leadership, finance, and strategy skills needed to translate innovation into real-world impact.
From Boston’s biotech hub, Nicholas Maragos arrives with four years at Vertex Pharmaceuticals and a front-row view of drug launches and patient access in the U.S. system. At St. Gallen, he’s building the strategic and financial toolkit to move toward investment roles in life sciences while contributing contrast to discussions around healthcare models and commercialization across markets. Klara Regnauer brings a different kind of duality: family business roots and strategy experience at Porsche Consulting. She’s leveraging the MBA to sharpen her leadership capabilities, deepen her DACH network, and continue working at the intersection of strategy, transformation, and entrepreneurial environments.
Rounding out this diverse group, Yosr Hassayoun draws on her experience as a pharmacist in Switzerland, where daily patient interactions sparked a desire to influence decisions higher up the healthcare value chain. She embodies the program’s blend of analytical rigor and human-centered leadership, aiming to move into strategy consulting or venture capital in healthcare and biotech. Together, these St. Gallen MBAs highlight what makes the program distinctive: a small, international cohort; close ties to European industry; strong roots in pharma, consulting, and finance; and a culture that emphasizes reflection, psychological safety, and genuine community. For candidates considering an MBA in Europe, their stories offer a vivid look at how St. Gallen helps professionals from very different starting points step confidently into their next chapter. Read on for their stories.
