Decrease font Decrease font
Decrease font Decrease font
Enlarge font Enlarge font
Enlarge font Enlarge font

Larina Riley '08
United States
When her long-time employer sold her business unit, Riley - still pursuing her Thunderbird/IUKD dual degree at the time - decided to put her emerging MBA skills to the test.


Larina Riley '08

Larina Riley '08 knows how to turn lemons into lemonade.

When long-time employer General Electric Co. sold her business unit in 2007 – with the contingency that employees must seek jobs outside of GE for a period of time – Riley, still pursuing her Thunderbird/IUKD dual degree, decided to put her emerging MBA skills to the test.

"Since the Thunderbird program had taught me many things about how Washington impacts global business, I decided to pursue a position in the Washington, D.C., area to learn more for the 18 months before I graduated," explains Riley.

That leap of faith landed her in a consulting role with BearingPoint Inc. in D.C., where the energetic Riley was quickly promoted to manager, responsible for a team of seven consultants who worked on process re-engineering at a federal agency.

At GE, which she joined in 2000, Riley had been a program leader in the IT organization where she led operational activities and projects for several large financial systems.

"As a management consultant in my D.C.role, I was been able to focus my efforts outside of IT, working on initiatives and projects for the Office of Financial Management at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration."

Not one to waste time, Riley used her hour-long subway ride from Arlington, Va., to her work location every morning and evening to study. "I needed a distance-learning program, because I have relocated several times in my career, and didn't want to be tied to staying in a location while I was attending school," explains the 29-year-old.

Originally enrolled solely in the Indiana University Kelley Direct (IUKD) distance-learning program, Riley quickly transitioned into the dual program with Thunderbird when she learned of the newly formed partnership. "At that time, I had been attending IUKD for six months, and as soon as I saw the new dual degree offering, I researched Thunderbird and immediately determined that it was exactly what I wanted to do."

Previous experience working on global teams at GE, coupled with a strong desire to expand her knowledge and skill set in international management, made the joint program a perfect fit for Riley.

From the get-go, Riley says she found the program content immediately applicable. "I took accounting in my first semester, and I applied the concept of cost-based accounting to a system design that I was completing at work."

Riley, who graduated from the dual-degree program in December 2008, plans to take her MBA and Master of Global Management degrees and put them to work for a large multinational company where she can focus on strategic global initiatives related to marketing, customer satisfaction, brand image and product positioning.