A year of stories. A season of growth. And now — a handoff. In this bittersweet season finale, host Aaliyah Brown and outgoing co-host Philip sit down to do what The Fuqua Show does best: reflect honestly, celebrate boldly, and look forward with intention. Together, they revisit the themes that defined this past year — resilience, community, clarity, courage, and the art of humanizing the professional — stories and conversations that reminded us, again and again, why this show exi...
May 29
41 min
What if the ladder you've been climbing is leaning against the wrong wall? Most of us were handed a blueprint for success. Climb the ranks, check the boxes, keep moving. But what happens when you're excelling on paper and still feel completely hollow inside? According to Gallup, 79% of professionals are operating on autopilot, present in body but absent in purpose. For high-achieving professionals in leadership, that disconnection rarely looks like falling apart. It looks like crushing ...
May 12
49 min
On this episode of The Fuqua Show, we sit down with Gil Vazquez (Class of '26) for a masterclass in resilience, gratitude, and the audacity to bet on yourself. Gil’s story isn't your typical polished resume; it is a raw look at what happens when the institutions you rely on say "no," and you refuse to accept it. From his early years moving from Puerto Rico to the U.S. with his professional horse-jockey father, to losing and fighting to regain a Division 1 track scholarship, Gil has alwa...
May 8
1 hr 3 min
In this episode, we explore what it means to truly use business as a force for good. We sit down with Jessica Yinka Thomas, a proud Fuqua alumna (MBA '04), the Director of the Business Sustainability Collaborative at NC State University's Poole College of Management, and a founding force behind the B Academics movement. Jessica shares her fascinating life of "redirects." She takes us through her early years growing up across Miami, Nigeria, and Senegal, and explains how her background i...
May 5
54 min
What does it look like to move through an MBA with both strategic clarity and genuine heart? In this episode, host Aaliyah Brown sits down with Elisabeth Scott: second-year MBA, future Kearney consultant, and a leader who has never treated ambition and authenticity as opposites. Elisabeth's path spans global supply chains in the power tool and sports industries, a GATE trip to South Africa, a tea ceremony in Kyoto, and the helm of Fuqua's InnovateHER conference. Along the way, she's col...
May 1
41 min
In this episode, host Sam Shain sits down with Jon Valdez to discuss his transformative journey of self-discovery, identity, and leadership. Jon shares his story beginning with his early childhood in Miami's Little Havana with his Cuban immigrant family, to an abrupt move to rural South Carolina. He opens up about the bullying he faced, the pressure to hide his authentic self, and the challenge of navigating his intersecting identities as a Latino and a queer youth in a conservative environme...
Apr 27
50 min
In this episode of The Fuqua Show, Marketing Chair and first-time host Jade Tsai interviews Shafiq Motiwala (MQM ’25), who grew up in Karachi, Pakistan and traces how his parents, sister, and a formative economics teacher shaped his passions for economics and teaching. He recounts playing cricket, learning to DJ in undergrad at LUMS, and pursuing diverse ventures after graduation including leading a construction project in Northern Pakistan, teaching economics at his former school, launching ...
Apr 24
1 hr
In this episode of The Fuqua Show, host Aaliyah Brown sits down with Nikin Shah, the Founder and General Partner at Front Porch Venture Partners, to explore the intersection of operational excellence and strategic investment. Based in the heart of Durham, Nikin offers the rare and valuable perspective of a seasoned operator turned venture capitalist, drawing from his transformative tenure as Co-CEO of Polyzen. He details how he navigated the complexities of leading a family-founded medical de...
Apr 21
38 min
Professor Scott Dyreng returns as the first repeat guest on The Fuqua Show; this time not to talk about where he came from, but where Fuqua is going. Now serving as Senior Associate Dean for Innovation, Scott takes us inside the launch of Fuqua’s first AI-powered classroom, an experiment designed not to replace human interaction but to strengthen it. We unpack how AI is being used to analyze class participation, reshape team dynamics, and deliver more objective, actionable feedback to st...
Apr 17
1 hr 5 min
In this episode of The Fuqua Show, we sit down with second-year MBA Eliot Digby-Jones, British Army veteran and medical services officer, whose career has taken him from Ukraine to Somalia and the early days of COVID response in the UK. Eliot shares how early exposure to medicine, adventure, and service shaped his path from studying biomedical sciences in London to leading high-stakes training missions abroad. Along the way, he reflects on navigating ambiguity in crisis environments, bu...
Apr 10
1 hr 15 min
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