We welcome a handful of students from the NYU Stern MBA Class of 2028 to share their admissions and professional journeys in this edition of Real Humans: MBA Students. While their experiences and post-MBA ambitions vary, the new Sternies share an appreciation for the school’s collaborative culture, emphasis on IQ + EQ, and New York City location.
To start, Lydia Whitbeck comes to Stern after seven years in sustainability, including work developing the University of Michigan’s carbon neutrality strategy and four years in corporate sustainability consulting. At Stern, she hopes to bridge her sustainability expertise with a future in climate finance and climate technology. Then, Tehran Stokes brings a varied career spanning entrepreneurship, real estate, and wealth management. His interest in business began with purchasing, operating, and eventually selling his family’s Chicago restaurant, an experience that sparked his curiosity about economics, finance, ownership, and value creation. He later built a career at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, ultimately working as a relationship manager on an ultra-high-net-worth wealth management team. We also meet Meeta Singhal from the aerospace industry, where she has worked as a lead analyst in strategic finance and supply chain at Intuitive Machines. Stern’s strength in finance and its New York City location made the school especially appealing as she prepares to pursue investment banking and develop expertise in valuation, M&A, and capital markets.
Pietro Cavallo, originally from Cuneo, Italy, brings five years of venture capital and private equity experience across Europe to Stern. His long-term ambition is to build his own investment company, and he saw an MBA as an opportunity to broaden his experience, expand his network beyond Europe, and develop as an investor at a moment when AI is transforming the intersection of finance and technology. Finally, Sophia Derlon returns to NYU after earning her undergraduate degree there and spending three years in brand marketing at IBM. Her experience working across creative, media, and product marketing teams left her wanting to understand the broader strategic, financial, and operational decisions that shape a business, making an MBA the natural next step. With roots in Venezuela, Syria, Canada, and the United States, Sophia hopes to contribute a global perspective alongside the creative lens she developed working in advertising for a technology company.
Read on to learn more about their journeys to Stern, what they hope to accomplish during their NYU Stern MBA, and the advice they have for prospective applicants following in their footsteps.
