You’re on a flight to New York for interviews. Tray table down, finance project open, a cup of airline coffee you’re mostly holding for moral support. You’re wearing your Vanderbilt T-shirt because it was clean, not because it was strategic.
Somewhere around cruising altitude, the man in the next seat glances over. First at the shirt, then at the laptop. Then he asks what you’re working on.
By the time the wheels touch down, he’s offered to connect you with an interview at Goldman Sachs.
Nobody puts “wear the shirt” on their interview-prep checklist, but that’s exactly how it went for Alyssa Watson, MS Finance ’11.
This October, alumni from class years ending in 1 and 6 will come back to Nashville for Reunion 2026. Ahead of the weekend, we asked three of them to reflect on how Vanderbilt Business has shown up for them since their time at the school. Often, it’s been in the places they’d least expect.
The Network That Kept Showing Up
Watson came to the MS Finance program knowing she wanted to work in real estate investment and development, which isn’t the usual path out of a finance degree. In her final semester, she joined the MBA real estate capstone and used that experience, along with her network, to land her first role at Savills in New York. Her eventual boss there turned out to be a Vanderbilt alum.
“The degree didn’t open just one door,” she says. “It gave me the technical foundation to pursue the path I wanted, but it also plugged me into a network that kept creating opportunities in ways I never could have planned.”
And that conversation on the plane wasn’t a one-off. Years later, she was walking through the Auckland airport in an Owen T-shirt when a Vanderbilt alum stopped her. They’re still in touch today, supporting each other’s businesses. And when she hit a crossroads in her career, an alum she’d just met gave her a behind-the-scenes tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art during renovation, where he introduced her to the museum’s CFO. After she moved to Kansas City, Vanderbilt connections also helped her build a community there, including a conversation with the mayor about life as a transplant.
“I honestly can’t remember a time when I reached out to someone for coffee or guidance and they weren’t willing to help in some way,” she says.
Toys Aren’t Just for Kids Anymore
Jeremy Padawer, MBA ’01, grew up in Tennessee, where going to Vanderbilt for business school was, in his words, “hugely aspirational.” Once he arrived, the door opened fast. “Owen was my entry into Mattel,” he says. “Mattel was recruiting out of Owen, and that’s where I started my career.” Today, he’s president of Jazwares, the toy company behind Squishmallows.
His mission hasn’t changed. As a lifelong collector, he set out to make toys and collectibles more accessible to adults. When he started, he says, adult collectors were the fifth-largest consumer category in toys. Today, they’re No. 1. “Toy Story‘s whole premise is that adults leave their toys behind,” he says. “But we don’t anymore.”
“Without Owen, I don’t think I would have had the access to Mattel,” he says. “And without Mattel, I don’t think I would have had the know-how to compete in the toy industry.”
Diversification, Diversification, Diversification
In the Executive MBA program that same year, Kelly Gerhart, EMBA ’01, was taking notes in professor Luke Froeb’s classroom. “He said the three most important rules of investing are diversification, diversification, diversification,” she says. “I still say that in my personal finance discussions.”
When Gerhart enrolled, she was already a marketing manager at FedEx and had no interest in pausing her career. The Executive MBA meant she didn’t have to. She’d been an English and communications major as an undergraduate, which made her first finance class with Bill Christie intimidating. “It was difficult, but he made it very practical,” she says.
The payoff came years later. After Gerhart had risen to run FedEx’s sports marketing portfolio, she stepped back to focus on her young family. Shortly after that, a friend and classmate from Vanderbilt Business called to ask if she’d do some part-time marketing consulting for her business. That led to more consulting, including a project with ALSAC, the fundraising organization behind St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. For that work, she went back to the approach she’d learned in a large strategy project at the end of her second year. “I think I still have templates from marketing programs at Owen that I used in strategic consulting,” she says.
It’s more than just templates that Owen gave her, though. “It taught me a lot about taking risks and making bold choices,” she says. “You’re equipped to make those decisions. You’re equipped to make those career changes, because you have this foundational training across all the disciplines of business.”
Business school can teach finance, marketing, and negotiation in separate classrooms. What it can’t put on the syllabus is the moment those lessons pay off. For Padawer, it was a Mattel recruiter. For Gerhart, it was a classmate’s phone call years after graduation. For Watson, it was a stranger who noticed a shirt. None of it was planned, and all of it traces back to the same building on 21st Avenue.
Advice for the Next Generation
So what’s the one thing they would say to current Vanderbilt Business students?
Padawer, who’ll be back in Nashville this October for the reunion, aims his advice to the perfectionists in the room. “There is no decision that you can make that you can’t change,” he says. “People forget that they can change their mind and they can change their direction. They’re not trapped for life.”
For Gerhart, it comes down to the people. “Build the relationships with your professors and with your classmates,” she says. “That’s something you can carry many, many years down the road. I’m still networking and talking to many classmates and friends.”
Watson agrees, but her version is in the form of a to-do list. “Never skip Closing Bell. Go to the parties. Join the clubs. Go to the tailgates. Ask the alum to coffee,” she says. “You’ve already proven you’re smart. You’ll get the job. So, make the most of the people around you while you’re there and soon, you’ll be the alum who pays it forward for the next generation of Owen students.”
Their paths look nothing alike, but Vanderbilt Business showed up for all three the same way. Sometimes, it’s a classmate who calls right when you need it. Sometimes, it’s a professor’s three-word rule that sticks for 25 years. And sometimes, it’s the shirt you grabbed simply because it was clean.
So, pack that shirt for October. You never know who’ll be sitting next to you.
Reunion 2026 takes place October 15 to 18 in Nashville to celebrate alumni from class years ending in 1 and 6.