Before starting Wharton’s MBA for Executives Program in Philadelphia in 1995, Aris Chicles was on a general management track in industrial marketing at Owens Corning. However, during the program, he became very interested in corporate strategy and M&A and was able to transition into that area within his company. Subsequently, he worked in a similar role at American Standard Companies before joining ITT in 2006 as senior vice president of strategy and corporate development.

Frank Jimenez had a different path to both Wharton and ITT. Starting out as an attorney in Miami, he later worked for Governor Jeb Bush of Florida before moving to Washington, D.C. where he worked as chief of staff to the secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. By the time he started Wharton’s EMBA program in 2003, he was one of seven deputy general counsels for the U.S. Department of Defense. Later, he became general counsel of the U.S. Department of the Navy, serving through the first 100 days of President Obama’s administration. In 2009, he transitioned into the corporate sector, joining ITT as vice president and general counsel.

Attorney Andrew Jackson was working as a senior counsel at Hewlett-Packard in Palo Alto, CA when he first started looking into executive MBA programs.  With a goal of stepping into a senior management position in the future, he felt that earning an MBA would be the best way to develop the necessary business skills for that type of role.

Jackson was particularly interested in Wharton’s EMBA Program and even considered flying every other weekend to Philadelphia, as Wharton | San Francisco had not yet launched.  Fortunately, the timing worked out and by the time he was ready to apply, Wharton | San Francisco was open and he was accepted into the West Coast program with sponsorship from HP.

In addition to the location, another consideration for Jackson was what the school’s environment would be like for him as an openly gay student. “I really wasn’t sure what to expect, but I hoped it wouldn’t be an issue since I would be with a more mature group of classmates,” he says.

Once he arrived, Jackson was pleased to find a “welcoming” environment. “I brought my partner to all of the events to which partners were invited and it was never an issue.  We did have a funny moment at a welcoming reception before school began where I introduced my partner to a fellow student and he asked what business we were in, but that was just confusion rather than intolerance.  I never felt any hostility and it certainly didn’t affect my ability to form meaningful relationships with my classmates.”

In fact, Jackson says that getting to know his classmates was one of the best parts of the program. “We were assigned study groups, but I would have picked each of those people out myself if I had been given a choice,” he says. “We really leaned on each other a lot in the program and still keep in touch.  And I met many folks in the program who have become significant professional contacts.  The relationships I made at Wharton have exceeded my expectations in every way.”

After he graduated in 2003, Jackson spent several years working his way up to more senior positions in HP’s legal department, focusing on an aggressive IT consolidation program that shaved 20% off of infrastructure costs and moved the company from more than 80 data centers down to five.  His work at HP brought him to the attention of a contact working in the U.S. Department of the Interior, which under the new administration had assessed its challenges and was looking for someone with Jackson’s background and consolidation skills.

“I was offered the job of deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of the Interior and as much as I liked working at HP, it was a position I couldn’t turn down,” says Jackson, who was officially appointed to the new role in July of 2009. Some of the bigger pieces of what I do now include working on strategy for a $1 billion IT portfolio and overseeing the restructuring of the National Business Center, which is a shared services provider for the department and federal agencies.  That group processes 300,000 paychecks every two weeks among many other things,” he says.

Jackson says that while the knowledge he gained in Wharton’s exec MBA Program was very valuable to him at HP, it is “100% applicable” every day at the U.S. Department of the Interior. He explains, “Everything I do is about making a business case for the changes I’m trying to drive through the department.  I’m not coming in with a political agenda so much as an effectiveness agenda.  I think about what I learned in my strategy and leadership classes all the time even though it’s been almost 10 years.”

He adds, “I absolutely love what I’m doing now.  It’s been incredibly rewarding, but I know that without my Wharton education I wouldn’t be here today.  The ROI for me on the degree is incalculable in a very positive way.”

While the majority of students in Wharton’s MBA for Executives Program have around 10 years of work experience, some students arrive with two to three times that, bringing a particularly unique perspective to the classroom.  To learn more about what it’s like to be an older student in our EMBA program, we asked East Coast second-year student Kevin Covert, who is 51 and vice president and deputy general counsel at Honeywell International, Inc. in New Jersey, to share some of his experiences.  Here’s what he had to say:

“I’m the oldest person in my class by seven years and already have a J.D. and an LL.M., so this will be my fourth degree.  I’m also very senior at my company with constant interaction with the CEO and the most senior officers on a variety of issues that have huge implications for the company.  Before I started the program, I would have thought that someone more junior in their career would have had an easier time because they wouldn’t have the same level of responsibility and executive visibility, but that has proven to be somewhat true and somewhat not true.

For attorney Thomas Kaufman, there were many benefits from attending Wharton’s MBA for Executives Program, but on his list he includes something a bit unusual – cheese steaks. He explains that when he began the Wharton program in 1999, his middle child was a sophomore in Wharton’s undergraduate program so his weekend trips to Philadelphia gave them opportunities to hang out and enjoy that local specialty.

Among the other benefits, he lists a “mature” class and a strong program in finance. A partner at Hunton & Williams in Washington, D.C. practicing in the area of finance, Kaufman says that the program not only boosted his credibility with clients, but also helped him understand his clients’ businesses better. “Sometimes clients hold lawyers askance and think we don’t understand their businesses, but if you are a lawyer who went to Wharton, clients believe you understand the numbers,” he says. “That was a huge benefit because I can now talk to them as a business person.”

Kaufman recalls that when he began the Executive MBA program, his fellow partners were very supportive, but questioned if he’d have the energy for such a rigorous program. Not only did he keep up his billable hours, but he also maintained a part-time teaching position at Georgetown Law School. “Of course there were times -- like the last month of exams -- when I didn’t get a lot of sleep,” he laughs.

But it was worth it because the curriculum was “immediately useful” in his practice and complemented his JD degree. “In fact, when people found out I was in the Wharton program, they would send me their corporate spreadsheets and business plans and ask for comments, which was very cool. I’ve been through a lot of academic programs and this was without a doubt the most rewarding educational experience I’ve had,” he says, noting that his favorite course was Mathematical Modeling of Securities.

Highlights of the program included a project on Cisco Systems related to post merger integration and a study with Booz Allen. “We got to talk to key people at Cisco at a time when they were acquiring a company a month and they really took time to talk to us. The other project allowed us to spend an hour with the CEO of Booz Allen, which was an outstanding opportunity.”

An unexpected bonus, says Kaufman, was how much he learned from his fellow students. He explains, “As a teacher, I always thought you get the most knowledge from the instructor, but because you have so many team projects in the EMBA program, you learn as much from your fellow students. The classes were excellent, but when you work with your fellow students you learn even more.”

His commute on the train from Washington, D.C. allowed him time to get to know those fellow classmates even better.  “There were 21 of us commuting in my class and we studied on the way up for class and on the way back we partied to celebrate the end of the week,” recalls Kaufman.

“For attorneys interested in the world of corporate finance or understanding business, I couldn’t recommend the Wharton EMBA program more. I got more practical applications out of that program than anything I’ve done in my career,” he says.