David Israel Mendéz 15MBA has been an involved alumnus since the moment he completed his One-Year MBA.
“It’s like I never graduated,” Mendéz jokes. “I’ve always been involved with the school, so I never left campus.”
Somehow, between his role as a director at ScottMadden, a management consulting firm, and serving on the alumni board of his undergraduate alma mater, he has found time to give back to the Goizueta Business School community.
Mendéz can be found among the coaches at the summer Leadership Reaction Course, a role he’s held for 10 years. He jokes that being a coach is an opportunity to “play Army” again, where he served for nine years.
He is also an active mentor at Goizueta, especially for the school’s rapidly growing veteran community. Mendéz has assisted the school’s admissions team by conducting interviews of applicants, and he helps with recruitment for ScottMadden. It’s not uncommon to find his schedule packed with phone calls or coffee chats with current Goizueta students or alumni.
“I always feel like I’m blessed, regardless of where I’m at in life, and it’s always been because somebody extended a hand to me,” says Mendéz. “If I could be that helpful stranger for the next person, then I’m happy to give back.”
For the last three years, he’s also served on Goizueta’s alumni board, where he’s recently stepped into the role of president.
Leading the Way as President
Fellow board members must nominate a candidate for board president, and Mendéz says he was honored to have been nominated—and recognized—by his peers.
Given the short tenure of the role of president, at only one year, Mendéz has no plans to shake things up.
“We want to make sure we have a core group of folks, so as we move forward, we can continue to build on what we have and not try to reinvent the wheel every year.”
The board operates through four committees: student engagement; alumni lifecycle; the nominating committee—always on the lookout for new members; and the mentorship committee, which spearheads Goizueta’s alumni mentor program.
The alumni mentor program is one of the biggest undertakings for the board. This program pairs current students with an alumni mentor for the year. It has gained such popularity in the last few years that they’re always seeking mentors to join, which Mendéz says is a good problem to have.
Coming in spring 2025, the board hopes to host panels and more events for Goizueta’s specialized masters degrees, such as the Master in Management and the Master in Business for Veterans, which had their inaugural cohorts this year.
“I’m an MBA, so I can say that we get a lot of love,” jokes Mendéz. “We want to create a panel of alumni from these newer specialized programs so they can share their stories and journey.”
Mendéz says the hope is that these panels can answer questions, such as what kind of jobs are available for graduates with certain degrees and expertise. These specialized programs often have a large percentage of international students, so panelists offering recommendations for how to experience Atlanta could also benefit students.
The alumni board acts as a bridge between the business school and it’s alumni. In between that is the student body, and they become alumni very quickly.
David Israel Mendéz 15MBA
The goal is to keep students engaged and help them see the benefit of Goizueta’s strong, global alumni network (25,000 and counting) so that they might become active alumni, too.
“Goizueta is not a commuter campus. There’s a community—a fraternity almost—that you’re a part of for life, and that’s the idea that we’re trying to build upon through the alumni board,” explains Mendéz. “We want to support the next generation of students who are up and coming and need a hand or advice.”
We’ve all been there. I always feel like, if we could all influence five people around us, imagine the impact we could have together.
David Israel Mendéz 15MBA
Are you interested in becoming an alumni mentor or contributing to the Goizueta alumni network? Contact the Goizueta Business School alumni office at gbsalumni@emory.edu.
