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What do a winning environmental research idea, a prominent gig at an iconic fashion brand, and a trailblazing paper on executive pay have in common? These are three recent examples of how Leavey undergraduate students are at the cutting edge of thinking big, exploring new concepts, and then putting them into practice.

“Santa Clara students are smart and passionate about their work,” said Professor of Management Michael Santoro. “There is a reason employers are so eager to hire them. They care and go the extra mile. Our students stand out.”

A Winning Idea
Maverick Esser, Class of 2024
“Growing up in a smaller town (Gig Harbor, Washington), it was all kinda surreal to fly to North Carolina and participate in the Duke University New Ideas for 2023 competition, which fostered civil discourse from students, faculty, and business professionals from across the country,” recalled senior Maverick Esser. “Then when I won, I remember doing a bit of a victory dance and then calling my brother and parents.”

Esser, who is studying business management and environmental studies, learned about the competition from Santoro, who was his business ethics professor. “I am very thankful for him sharing the opportunity with me as well as helping me edit and revise my submission,” said Esser.

“As soon as I saw the Duke competition, I immediately thought Maverick would be perfect for this competition,” said Santoro. “At the time, he had only been in my class for five weeks, but I was already impressed with his dedication to environmental issues.”

Esser’s submission, titled "Enhancing Communication and Action of Sustainability in the Business Sector," provided suggestions and opportunities for how environmental research could be better communicated to the business sector and how businesses can better understand and implement the research. 

“My hope is to help drive corporations to become more actionable in their sustainable impact,” said Esser on the competition’s website. “The core topics I proposed were increasing community visibility, striving for actionable-sustainability metrics, focusing on value-based approaches, and establishing long-term trust and relations. Data is very important to just about everything we do. I wanted to begin to understand how we can take the enormous amounts of data and research that is at our disposal and use it to align sustainable actions with business operations.”

While Esser has not learned if the ideas he proposed have been enacted, he said he has implemented some of them himself through his academic projects and during his internship as an ESG (environmental and social governance) analyst for the Holland Partner Group.

Esser transferred to SCU from Montana State University-Bozeman where he was interested in environmental design architecture. In addition to his business and environmental classes, he is vice president of the SCU Photography Club, which he founded with his peers last year.

Upon graduating and visiting with family and friends around the country, Esser hopes to start his career helping a company with its sustainable management and development. 

“Leavey has played a big role in preparing me for success after college,” said Esser. “I believe its biggest strengths are the great professors and the ability to connect with them in a more personal way.”

10 Amazing Weeks in New York
Natalie Weed, Class of 2024
During 10 weeks over the summer, marketing senior Natalie Weed interned with luxury beauty brand Tom Ford in its Estée Lauder Corporate Headquarters in New York City where she moved out of her comfort zone and into a new city and a new culture, with the support of new corporate mentors. 

“I learned more than just the professional skills during this internship,” said Weed. “I learned that I'm interested in working in a large city, and will be applying to this and other beauty companies within the NYC area. I felt very lucky to be given this experience as only a junior in college, and I learned a lot about what I want in my workplace, where I want to live, and I got a "trial-run" of my post-grad life.”

During her internship, Weed said she was welcomed as if she were a full-time team member and was included in meetings, roundtable discussions with Tom Ford senior executives, and calls with the organization’s global team. 

“I developed skills of conducting competitive research, drawing consumer insights, and thinking strategically to formulate my own proposals, which I look forward to seeing come to light,” said Weed. “The most important skill I learned was how to communicate, listen, and gain insight from the incredible individuals working in their own respective functions. Each conversation opened my eyes to an entirely different field and improved my own work.”

In addition to being part of an iconic brand, Weed said she gained many mentors as she explored career ideas. “I was surprised by how open everyone at the luxury brand was to meeting with me for coffee chats, even during their busy season, even though their year end was in July. I had about two coffee chats a week, most of them being outside of my particular consumer marketing function,” she said.

Going from her hometown of Kirkland, Washington, to New York was quite a shift for Weed. “From moving across the country alone, navigating new roommates, to maybe the most significant challenge — the subway system — it was a huge adjustment that took a couple weeks of discomfort to adjust,” she said. 

At Leavey, Weed is on campus, she is a member of the Retail Student Association, which has helped her stay involved in the retail company landscape within the bay area. She also serves as co-president of the SCU Belles Women Service Organization, which performs community service within the greater Santa Clara Area. As a president, she manages seven executives and 50 members as well as assists with planning service and social events for the club.

“As I enter my final year at Santa Clara, I will bring my learnings from this experience and make the most of my time left studying,” Weed said. “I can’t deny my excitement for what the future holds.”

Student Author
Eric Blair, Class of 2023
Recent graduate Eric Blair may have two careers ahead of him: one in academia and one in business. While a student at Leavey, Blair’s honors thesis grew into a substantial paper of which Professor Michael Santoro became the second author. The two presented the paper, titled “Superstar CEOs? A Rawlsian Analysis of CEO Compensation Based on Recently Released SEC Data” at the Society for Business Ethics (SBE) conference held in Boston in August. 

“What makes this remarkable is that in my over two decades of attending SBE, I don't recall even a PhD student being a first author on an accepted paper, much less an undergraduate,” said Santoro.

Santoro said when he was providing guidance to Blair on his thesis, it soon became apparent to him that Blair’s work went well beyond what one might expect from an undergraduate, and he had the possibility of contributing original and important ideas about executive compensation for both the academic and business communities.

“While I was Eric’s honors thesis adviser in his senior year, in truth the honor was all mine to work with such a dedicated and brilliant student,” said Santoro. 

Blair’s thesis applied the theories of the philosopher John Rawls to the fairness of CEO compensation. What made his study possible was original data he compiled about executive pay that recently became available at the SEC due to new disclosure laws.

“I've worked with students who excel at data analysis and students who excel at ethics, but Eric is that very rare individual who is excellent in both disciplines,” said Santoro. “Eric is a model for the very best Santa Clara hopes will graduate to contribute to the world.”