The Forbes 30 Under 30 list reveals the world’s best and brightest young minds. But where did they go to business school?
We took data* from all the Forbes lists—Asia, Europe, the US & Canada—with MBAs featuring in consumer tech, social entrepreneurship, healthcare, finance, energy, and venture capital.
It’s no surprise that MBAs from heavyweights Stanford GSB and Harvard Business School feature strongly.
But there are also representatives from schools like Duke Fuqua and Kellogg School of Management, as well as the National University of Singapore (NUS) and JP Jain Institute of Management.
Read on to find out more about the Forbes 30 Under 30s and where they did their MBAs. We've divided them up by the region they went to school in and the industry they work in now. You can skip to your area of interest by clicking the links below:
Regions:
Asia:
Industry, Manufacturing, & Energy
US & Canada
Category: Consumer Tech
Anna Wan, Harvard Business School
Kicking off our list of Forbes 30 Under 30 2019 is Harvard MBA Anna Wan. Anna’s career has been a conveyor belt of consumer tech company growth, her forte.
She is currently a general manager at $2 billion valued Bird, a company bringing scooters to most cities to the east of the Mississippi River. Think Atlanta, Baltimore, and Washington DC.
Anna was tailormade for Bird, having previously worked as a general manager for Chinese dock less bike sharing company, Ofo. There, she was responsible for launching, growing, and managing seven new markets—such as Seattle, San Diego & Los Angeles, and Greater New York—including what became Ofo’s largest market in the US.
Siqi Mou, Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB)
For a 29-year-old, Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) MBA, Siqi Mou, has achieved a hell of a lot. She is the cofounder and CEO of HelloAva, an AI-driven personal skincare consultant that creates a customized routine of skincare products just for you. Oh, and it’s also raised $1.5 million of capital.
But, Siqi’s impressive resumé doesn’t start and end there. She’s also held roles with Morgan Stanley, the Federal Reserve, and Bloomberg TV Indonesia. Exhausted yet? No? Good, because Siqi is also the current music ambassador for the Carnegie Hall, as a seasoned concert pianist.
A worthy entrant to this year’s Forbes 30 Under 30.
Category: Social Entrepreneurship
Jarrid Tingle (pictured) & Henri Pierre-Jacques, Harvard Business School
Jarrid Tingle and Henri Pierre-Jacques are two names that probably don’t ring a bell with the everyday citizen. But, they’re two Harvard MBAs making waves in the venture capital industry.
Both cofounders and managing partners of Harlem Capital—along with colleagues Brandon Bryant and John Henry (not MBAs)—they are ‘changing the face of entrepreneurship’.
Harlem Capital is a minority-owned, New York based early stage venture capital firm. They are fighting the industry’s minority corner—where only 2% of venture capitalists are black—and have currently raised over $5 million.
Their goal? To invest in 1,000 diverse founders over the next 20 years.
Get To Know The Forbes 30 Under 30 2019
Saumya, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management
The social impact sector has been at the heart of Saumya’s work since 2012. Her first foray was working for a skill development company in India. They’d take students from small villages and put them through vocational courses which led to employment.
Inoculated against the draw of working in finance—something she says she never wanted to do again after working as an analyst for a financial services company in Mumbai—she’s now taking on the impact of climate change one farmer at a time with her own startup.
Her venture is Kheyti, an agritech startup that helps small farmers earn regular and consistent incomes.
After doing the research with her cofounders—visiting 1,000 farmers over six months—they discovered the main struggles for farmers were more extreme heat than the past, and unpredictable rains. In other words, climate change was affecting their ability to sustain their yield.
“We want to make small farmers a lot more climate resilient,” she says. Part of that has been the greenhouse-in-a-box, a price-efficient greenhouse that fits into 2% of each farmers’ land, protecting crops from environmental risks.
Using the greenhouses, farmers can grow seven times more food using 90% less water. With training and market input, farmers earn twice as much as they would from the other 98% of their land, moving towards Kheyti’s goals of earning a minimum of $100 per month.
What’s the value of an MBA?
Saumya explains that the reason she embarked on the MBA at Kellogg School of Management was because she didn’t know how to scale the company to the next level.
She also wanted to build her network and understand how to craft a business plan that would lead to growth.
“I had always underestimated an MBA,” she explains. “All our fundraising, that happened with donors I connected with from the business school network.”
When meeting with advisors or investors, the credibility of an MBA also helped Saumya stand out, she adds, and is an invaluable tool when it comes to securing meetings.
Her passion for social impact comes not from being a ground breaker, or world changer, but simply asking the question, ‘Whatever I’m doing day to day, is it helping someone or not?’
Being on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, she says, in the US is one of the top 10 recognitions you can get. It’s good...
Jennifer Xia, Stanford GSB
FreeWill is the brainchild of Stanford MBA Jennifer Xia. She has digitized the process of making charitable bequests as part of your will, and has raised more than $200 million since 2017 in new commitments to nonprofit organizations. The company raises more than $1 million a day for charity.
Jenna Nicholas, Stanford GSB
If you’re looking for someone who’s made a career out of social impact, look no further than Jenna Nicholas, another MBA from Stanford GSB.
Jenna has been a fellow of Toniic Institute, a global network of impact investors who promote a sustainable economy. She has also been an advisor for Ethic, an automated investment advisor that helps responsible investors grow and enhance their investment portfolios.
If that’s not enough to convince you of her commitment to social impact, she’s also the president of Phoenix Global Impact, a consulting firm specializing in impact investing, social enterprise, and strategic philanthropy.
That has all led to Jenna founding her own company, Impact Experience. With Impact, she identifies problems plaguing marginalized communities and partners with philanthropists and investors to help them overcome their challenges.
An example cited is the retraining of former coal miners in Appalachia, US, to find other work. Jenna is also a World Economic Forum Global Speaker.
Category: Healthcare
Alexei Mlodinow, Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management
Technology is ushering in a period of intense change within the healthcare sector. Managing the transition will require medical professionals with the leadership competence of an MBA.
People like Forbes 30 Under 30 2019 recipient, Alexei Mlodinow, fit that bill. Alexei is studying a joint Doctor of Medicine degree from Northwestern University with an MBA from Kellogg School of Management.
He is the founder of Surgical Innovation Associates, a company he set up to develop a new type of surgical mesh that helps surgical wounds close up before being absorbed into the body.
The FDA cleared it last year, and the company has thus far raised more than $2.5 million from angel investors.
Alexei has also been part of Kellogg’s Entrepreneur in Resident program, which gives aspiring entrepreneurs the opportunity to get guidance on making a success of their business.
READ MORE: Compare MBA Degrees In Healthcare Management
Category: Finance
Anish Pathipati, Harvard Business School
Harvard MBAs feature heavily on the Forbes 30 Under 30 2019 list. With students like Anish Pathipati on their books, it’s no surprise.
Anish is the founding director, head of analytics and execution at private-equity firm, North Island. He has previous investment banking experience at JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, is managing a $900 million investment in Virtu Financial, and has a strong cryptocurrency portfolio.
Akash Pradhan, Harvard Business School
Handling investments seems to come naturally for Harvard MBA students. Vice president of investment firm TPG Global, Akash Pradhan, handles technology investments for the company’s $3.7 billion Growth fund and the $2.1 billion Rise fund.
TPG is one of the largest global alternative investment firms in the world, with total assets under management of $84.3 billion as of March 31, 2018.
Katherine Relle – Columbia Business School MBA 
The finance drive continues with Katherine Relle, Columbia Business School MBA.
Katherine became a private banking associate for JP Morgan Asset Management in 2012, and by 2015 was the private equity group’s portfolio manager/vice president.
Katherine has chaired the firm’s 35,000 employee mentoring program, and is part of a division that allocates $26 billion of private equity investments,
Meagan Speight, Harvard Business School
Meagan Speight is one of Harvard’s MBAs who benefitted from the array of fellowships on offer for students.
She received a Toigo fellowship, available for students displaying excellence in the finance industry. Toigo fellows become lifetime members of a 1,300+ strong network of fellows, and have access to 30 years of connections in the finance sector.
Meagan is on this year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 for her work as an investment analyst for Empyrean Capital Partners. A former Lazard banker, she is now a generalist at $3.8 billion hedge fund.
Category: Energy
Arsheen Allam, Duke University Fuqua School of Business
Arsheen Allam’s parents hail from India and Pakistan. Visits there inspired her to look into new methods of filtering water using cutting-edge materials. From that came CNanoz, which looked at developing nanotechnology-based carbon water filters.
The Duke Fuqua MBA then founded GOLeafe, a company that is developing a potentially green alternative to lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries. The goal is to develop clean energy and water desalination applications.
Apoorv Bhargava, Stanford GSB
Apoorv’s career is a one-man climate fighting show. He’s previously been an associate at BCG, where he created a utility client’s 2030 vision around energy distribution, storage, and electric vehicles, as well as modernizing their grid.
He was also part of the investment team at Capricorn Investment Group, where his focus was on clean energy, cleantech, energy storage, IoT, EVs, solar, and energy efficiency.
Tim Latimer, Stanford GSB
The third MBA on this year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 2019 list for energy is Tim Latimer, another Stanford MBA.
Tim is one of the cofounders of Fervo Energy, a company developing geothermal power plants using cost-effective techniques from areas like horizontal drilling, and new tech based on research emanating from Stanford.
Category: Venture Capital
Laura Chau, Stanford GSB
Stanford GSB MBA, Laura Chau, says on her LinkedIn to ‘ask me about Marie Kondo, blackjack, or classical music.’
Keen interests, but that’s not why she’s on this year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 list. Laura has impressed as the principal at VC firm, Canaan Partners, where she works on consumer-tech deals. She joined the firm from Deloitte in 2014, where she has worked with some of the world’s largest firms on growth strategy and mergers & acquisitions.
At Stanford, she tapped into her roots—both her parents are Vietnamese refugees—and was the president of the Asia-Pacific Student Entrepreneurship Society.
Jeffrey Low – Harvard MBA
Third generation San Franciscan and ‘avid’ squash player, Jeffrey Low, is also an MBA holder from Harvard Business School.
He features on this year’s list for his work with VC firm Andreessen Horowitz’s bio fund, where he is a partner. Jeffrey invests at the intersection of biology, computer science, and engineering.
An MD by training, Jeffrey also recently launched the a16z Preview Program for early stage bio companies. His passion is helping entrepreneurs to use technology to transform healthcare and biology.
He is also a former employee at Google Capital (now CapitalG), where he worked on healthcare investments.
Frances Schwiep – Harvard MBA
Flying high from the Harvard MBA class of 2016 is Frances Schwiep, principal at early stage VC fund, Two Sigma Ventures, where she has been in charge of developing the fund’s seed program.
Frances began her career as a data scientist and manager at wearable computing company, mc10, before developing her investment career at Highland Capital and then Comcast Ventures.
Anthony Tucker – Harvard MBA
The final MBA entry into this year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 US & Canada list is Anthony Tucker, from, you guessed it, Harvard Business School.
Anthony is principal at Troy Capital Partners, where over the past three years he has helped expand the firm to operate three distinct funds.
That includes a recent $200 million investment vehicle, as well as Harvard MBA-led investments in SpaceX, Uber, and Bird.
His list of achievements extends to being the founder of Pitch Black, a Harvard-based hackathon that partners with NBA star Dwyane Wade, the City of Chicago, and the Ford Foundation. They work on solving social issues in Chicago's inner-city communities.
For two years between 2010-and-2012, Anthony was also a resident entrepreneur at Hinman CEOs, the nation’s first living-learning entrepreneurship program. Students live together, learn about entrepreneurship, and can launch new ventures.
A Year On, How The Forbes Network Enhances Your Career
Clare Murray, Columbia Business School
Forbes 30 Under 30 2018, Asia, Finance & VC
168 million people, mostly women and children, across 33 countries in Africa and Asia. That’s the amount of people who’ve been helped by investments made by LeapFrog Investments, where Forbes 30 Under 30 2018 listee Clare Murray is associate director.
Clare wasn’t always destined for finance—she studied an art history major at Duke University. After graduating, though, she joined the analyst program at Goldman Sachs. Five years later she entered the Executive MBA at Columbia Business School, during which time she’d left Goldman Sachs and joined financial services firm, BlackRock.
The Executive program made sense, she says, as she enjoyed the work she was doing, and it would allow her to continue to work while studying.
Clare’s upbringing was influenced by her parents—who both work for nonprofits—so it’s no surprise that she ended up at LeapFrog Investments, a firm that specializes in social impact investing.
Clare builds investment products for institutional investors that have both social and financial returns. It’s the path, she says, to unlocking trillions of dollars in capital markets to fund businesses helping poor communities around the world.
Over 136 million of the individuals reached are emerging consumers, living on less than $10 a day. They are often accessing financial tools or healthcare for the first time, because of the work Clare is doing. 123,000 jobs and livelihoods are supported in Asia and Africa.
The organization has also just raised its third fund, an emerging markets fund which broke the impact investing record at $700 million. It’s targeting 70 million emerging low-income consumers.
Clare explains that although she had a strong work experience background before joining LeapFrog, the Columbia EMBA gave her a valued network of personal and professional connections she wouldn’t have without business school.
Retrospectively, Clare says that the same benefits came from being listed on Forbes 30 Under 30 last year.
“I have really valued the Forbes network,” she says. “I would encourage the recipients to attend events hosted by Forbes, as well as reach out and start conversations with other recipients.
“I have connected with some of my fellow Forbes recipients, who have started amazing companies, with the impacting investing firm I work for, to explore possible ways to partner.”
The Forbes network, she tells this year’s recipients, is there to be harnessed. She recently temporarily relocated to London for a work project, and reached out to Forbes to make them aware of her move.
“I was invited to a Forbes 30 Under 30 event for their European cohort,” she says. “It was a great opportunity to expand my Forbes network.”
Europe
Category: Technology
Francisco Hein – St John’s University MBA
Three-time startup wizard Francisco Hein is an MBA holder from St John’s University, New York.
He is the founder of Secret Media Network, a global platform that lets people experience the best of the city they’re in. 12 cities strong, it has an average monthly global audience reach of over 40 million.
His second venture was @interiordesign_addict, launched in 2017 as a nonprofit, automated, and data-driven interior design magazine.
The third string to his bow was Fever, a data-led entertainment and experience firm, which also owns the Secret Media Network. Francisco is cofounder and CMO. To date, the company has raised $39 million.
Category: Social Entrepreneurship
Arijana Koskarova, International University of Monaco (ISM)
Family duo Bojan and Arijana Koskarova are cofounders of Creative Hub, a professional training hub in Macedonia that aims to give aspiring professionals real-world skills in marketing, web design, and HR, among others.
Arijana is the MBA holder, having graduated from the International University of Monaco.
Creative Hub has three departments—computer training, language, and startups—and is targeting five new branches in Kosovo, Albania, and three more in Macedonia.
Category: Manufacturing & Industry
Ivan Mrvos, Algebra University College
Business and technology are the name of the game for Ivan Mrvos at business school. He’s an Executive MBA, e-leadership student at Algebra University College, a program that focuses specifically on digital transformation and technological advances.
Among the schools whose professors he’s learned from on the course is Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, US.
Ivan is a Forbes 30 Under 30 2019 recipient, presumably, for his work as the founder of Include, a company that develops and manufactures smart street furniture connected to the Internet of Things (IoT).
Since inception, the company has sold over 900 of its smart benches to cities around the world.
Asia
Category: Finance & VC
Joolin Chuah, Nanyang Business School, NTU
Joolin Chuah is the sole MBA representative from Nanyang Business School at NTU, Singapore, on this year’s list.
She is an associate at Insignia Ventures Partners, and was a key player in 10 investments for the firm in 2018. She has a strong presence as a go-to advisor for a lot of entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia, and is committed to growing the most influential companies in the region.
Get To Know The Forbes 30 Under 30 2019
Fridtjof Berge, Harvard Business School
Fridtjof Berge has taken one important lesson from his Harvard MBA into his work as an entrepreneur: dream big.
“A change in mindset—dare to dream big, set ambitious goals, and work towards a great vision—was the biggest takeaway from my MBA at Harvard,” he says.
“Given that Antler and our entrepreneurs dream big, set ambitious goals, and work towards a great vision, the MBA definitely had a profound impact on where I am today.”
Antler is the company Fridtjof cofounded. He’s also the COO. The company, he says, is an enabler. Their mission is to enable every bright mind, regardless of background or geography, to create technology companies that have a global impact.
They are a startup generator and an early stage venture capital firm with a global presence on five continents.
“Every year we build and invest in hundreds of technology companies across the world, in industries and areas such as AI, fintech, medtech, and proptech.”
Working with companies across a variety of sectors is a strength of Fridtjof’s. He came into the MBA at Harvard after a management consulting career with McKinsey & Company, where he worked with clients in retail, consumer goods, and financial services.
Finding out he had made the Forbes list was “very exciting”, Fridtjof says.
“I’m very humbled to be on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list with so many talented people with a great passion for what they’re doing.
“I am also looking forward to attending the various events and conferences that Forbes organizes with the Forbes network, which offers great opportunities to hopefully inspire and motivate more people to pursue bold dreams and become entrepreneurs who can make a positive impact on the world.”
David Gan, China Europe International Business School (CEIBS)
Ex-investment banker, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist, David Gan, is trying his hand as a blockchain enthusiast.
David is an MBA graduate from the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), now the managing director of Huobi Labs.
Huobi Labs is an incubator for early stage blockchain projects. David’s work there carries over from his time as a senior director at Huobi Capital, from which a portion of its total $1 billion in assets now gets invested in the blockchain and digital currency space.
The CEIBS MBA, which promises ‘China-depth, global-breadth’, is allowing David to flourish in Asia’s tech and cryptocurrency boom.
Category: Industry, Manufacturing, & Energy
Simarpreet Singh – JP Jain Institute of Management MBA
Hartek Solar is a company with a mission to provide clean and affordable energy across India. The brain behind it? Simarpreet Singh, an MBA holder from JP Jain Institute of Management.
His company is one of India’s top 10 solar installers and is set to create a better and sustainable world for future generations—Simarpreet’s goal. Hartek Solar sets up solar panels on roof tops across India, and has tasked itself with converting every roof to a solar roof.
Simarpreet is also the founder of Hartek India, which manufactures high quality medium voltage electrical panels.
Chunfeng Wan, National University of Singapore (NUS)
Chunfeng Wan is featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30 2019 list in a category that awards those who have developed innovations or disruptive technology to advance people’s well-being in areas from energy to agriculture.
He is current MBA student at the National University of Singapore (NUS), as well as being a PhD research fellow at the NUS Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering school.
Chunfeng’s work revolves around a technique that uses osmotic pressure to generate energy. He has been awarded a $1 million grant to conduct the work at NUS.
Category: Big Money
Hussain Elius, North South University
Cofounder of Bangladesh’s fastest growing technology startup, Pathao, Hussain Elius is flying the MBA flag for the country’s first non-government university, North South University.
Pathao is aiming to find solutions to Bangladesh’s biggest infrastructure problems. After becoming the nation’s biggest e-commerce delivery company, they moved into ride-hailing, as well as food delivery.
The company serves five million riders across five cities in Bangladesh.
Haryanto Tanjo, UCLA Anderson School of Management
When UCLA Anderson MBA, Haryanto Tanjo, cofounded mobile point-of-sale company, Moka, he surely didn’t expect the company to catapult towards raising $1.9 million in capital.
But that’s what happened, as Moka moves into an accelerated growth stage, bringing mobile payments to the 60 million SMEs in Indonesia, the majority of which still run using pen and paper.
In an article for e27—Asia’s largest tech media platform—Haryanto, who’s also the company CEO, said, ‘We plan to use the new funds to fuel expansion in new cities to make POS and cashless payments accessible to all business owners.’
Agung Bezharie Hadinegoro, Bandung Institute of Technology
Another cofounder-CEO, Agung Bezharie Hadinegoro, an MBA from the Bandung Institute of Technology, launched Warung Pintar, a micro retail technology company aiming to digitize the grassroots population to improve their communities.
Together with cofounders Harya Putra, and Sofian Hadiwijaya, Agung believes micro businesses like theirs will be the main drivers of Indonesia’s economy for the foreseeable future.
Warung Pintar have this far brought over 1,200 kiosks to the country, operated by 500 micro-entrepreneurs.
Category: Social Entrepreneurship
Arnold Chan, Harvard Business School
Concluding the list is Arnold Chan, a Harvard MBA who wants to help children in Hong Kong to have equal opportunity to quality education.
He is the founder and CEO of Teach for Hong Kong. Arnold has recruited 74 graduates as teaching fellows to teach in Hong Kong’s underprivileged schools. The startup has served over 10,000 students, and has raised over $3 million in capital to support future development.
*Data was sourced from Forbes 30 Under 30 2019 and additional information (including images) directly or from the LinkedIn profiles of recipients.
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