MBA² Part II - The Power of Two
Husband-and-Wife Teams Tackle MBA Program Together Then Take Jobs at the Same Company

- by Gene Stowe and Margaret Barry

You might have wondered what happened to the four MBA couples featured in Notre Dame Business magazine (Issue 4, page 14) last year. Three of the four couples wound up with both partners working for the same company-a new kind of challenge with some very distinct advantages. Having your spouse in the next cubicle can be stressful, but it can also be fun, says Lin Lim (MBA '01)

Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan hired both Torbin Fuller and Yuko Kikkawa (both MBA '01) in its finance division-he in product development, she in the purchasing department. Nandy and Trevor Beach (both MBA '01) both work at Hewlett-Packard Company in Silicon Valley. Nandy is a financial analyst in the Business PC division; Trevor works in the Enterprise Financial Planning division. Leonard Loh and Lin Lim (both MBA '01) are happily working together at Eaton Corporation in Willoughby, Ohio.

"Because Lin and I are on different rotation programs, trying to find assignments in close proximity to each other is a challenge," says Loh. "I don't think it has adversely affected our prospects in the company," said Loh. "If anything, [management] seems to feel that they have gotten a two-for-one bargain!"

"It's like being back in the MBA program together," said Lin. "For fun, I like to walk to Leonard's cubicle to pay him a surprise visit!"

Jon Puskas (MBA '00) and Rachel Verdick (MBA '01) have found separate employers in Lake Oswego, Oregon, a Portland suburb. Jon is a new product marketing engineer at Intel; Rachel is the manager for the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer campaign for the American Cancer Society. Rachel is also helping Friends of Ikamva Labantu, a not-for-profit agency in South Africa where she worked as part of Notre Dame's Gigot Center for Entrepreneurial Studies' internship program.

left to right: Leonard & Lin (both MBA '01), Yuko & Torbin (both MBA '01), Trevor & Nandy (both MBA '01), Rachel (MBA '01) & Jon (MBA '00)