Dr. Karl Brown

Dr. Karl Brown, MBA ‘16

Redefining Leadership

From his start as a Neuroscience Therapeutics Intern at Pfizer to his role as Chief of Internal Medicine at Nellis Air Force Base, Karl Brown came to the Ross Executive MBA Program with fascinating experiences and education. He entered the program with four degrees — a BS in microbiology and BA in chemistry from Arizona State University, a MPH in epidemiology from U-M, and a MD from Wayne State University — but there was something he hadn’t quite mastered: leadership.

In the military, I was given assignments I felt I wasn’t prepared to handle. I needed leadership training.

Karl remembered his time at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health fondly, and decided to apply to Ross. He ended up loving the business school just as much.

“My colleagues were geniuses, and ultra-talented. I thought, ‘Wow, I’m outclassed here.’ But you want to be with people like that because they make you better.”

The highlight of the program was a leadership course with Scott DeRue, Edward J. Frey Dean of Business and the Stephen M. Ross Professor of Business. “That class changed everything I did. He taught us that leadership is not authority, it’s influence. I’ve learned that leaders have three things. First, they’re subject matter experts, and brilliant at what they do. Second, they love people, making them better, and inspiring them. And finally, they create value everywhere they go.”

He also took valuable leadership cues from his ExecMAP project with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “One of the best parts of ExecMAP was watching Andrea Lee, our sponsor liaison, manage the project. I had never seen anyone manage a high-level project like that before. She was really good, and while I was doing my assignments I was also taking notes on how Andrea project managed. I still apply a lot of those principals.”

The new leadership tools have served him well in his new position. “During the EMBA program, I got out of medicine and transitioned into medical insurance. In under a year I was promoted to corporate medical director — it was a big deal. It is a great fit. I love my job, and I love the people.”

Karl derived value from all of the courses, from macroeconomics and business law to negotiations. “I am currently using techniques from our negotiations course. When working with extremely large healthcare budgets with tight margins, we make sure to set the terms first, set the scale of discussion. It’s been really beneficial.

“Leadership wasn’t intuitive to me. I came to Michigan because I wanted to be a leader. If I can do it, anyone can do it.”