How earning a Rutgers Executive MBA motivated an engineer to expand her career ambitions
A residency program in Japan and exposure to a cohort of leaders inspired leadership potential and entrepreneurial plans
NEWARK, N.J., June 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Talk to Marina Kalpouzos about her business career and the word "impact" is bound to come up in the conversation.
It's clear that Kalpouzos, a new graduate of the Rutgers EMBA Program, didn't just want to succeed; she wanted to make a lasting impression.
That's certainly why she originally chose to pursue a Rutgers master's in chemical engineering, with a concentration in pharmaceutical engineering. Her idea then was to get a job in the pharmaceutical industry as an engineer, but three years into a role that entailed, among other things, creating a cleanroom for drug manufacture at the multinational pharma company Novartis, she realized that "there's only so much of an impact you can have as an individual contributor."
During the last year she pivoted, moving into a position as a capital projects engineer at the company. In that role, she's responsible for planning and overseeing capital projects, like building or upgrading facilities and expanding production capacity.
Kalpouzos said she decided to pursue a Rutgers EMBA as part of her goal "to transition toward more of a leadership position and a higher-impact role." She completed the program in May.
The Rutgers Executive MBA Program is tailored for working professionals like Kalpouzos, who are taking on more and different responsibilities as they prepare for leadership roles in their company or industry. The robust program, which is consistently ranked among the best in the world by The Financial Times and CEO Magazine, is ideal for "career accelerators."
Students benefit from faculty who marry cutting-edge theory to real-world applications, a curriculum that is updated constantly to be relevant and applicable, and talented classmates whose rich experiences and diverse perspectives enhance the classroom experience.
As Kalpouzos progressed through the EMBA program, forces converged that would change her vision of the future. "Meeting so many talented people who are also working hard in their careers and their own businesses opened my eyes to the possibility that I could start a business of my own," she said. Already open to the idea of pivoting, the program seemed to be encouraging her to alter course yet again.
Her eyes weren't just opened through exposure to her cohort. Kalpouzos participated in a 10-day summer residency program in Japan that included seminars with Japanese business and government leaders, visits at factories and research-and-development centers and labs, and even some Japanese culture. The International Experience, a 3-credit course in the EMBA program, Kalpouzos said, "helped me see the world through a different lens."
"It was beautiful to see that we're all in the same world, but we sometimes take very different approaches," she said. "It helped me appreciate the differences."
Back at home, she was already applying this and other Rutgers Business School experiences toward her first entrepreneurial venture. Last year she and her husband decided to open a coffee shop, Roast'd Coffee, in downtown Montclair. Although the shop is, strictly speaking, her husband's business, Kalpouzos is clearly making an impact there as well.
"I'm still working in industry in my nine-to-five," she said – not to mention working toward her EMBA – "but off hours, I'm supporting the back-end operations of the coffee shop."
Meanwhile, the simmering idea of founding a business of her own heated up when she took a marketing class in which one of the assignments was to come up with a business idea. Kalpouzos's thoughts naturally turned toward one of her own experiences—specifically, the time two years earlier when the hot water heater broke down just as she was moving into a new house. Now, she wondered if there might be a way to help others avoid this and other sudden crises that inevitably come with home ownership.
"So, what that looks like," she explained, "is to have a home care partner in making sure that all of your household systems that you rely on are working appropriately—essentially, moving away from reacting to failures to preventing them." She's currently developing the idea for real-world application.
Nevertheless, she doesn't plan to abandon her corporate goals in the process. "In five years," she said, "I see myself having both my corporate career advancing toward that executive level role, as well as having my business off the ground and set up in a way that I can support both—meaning that I have a team running the business and I'm there on only an as-needed basis."
There's every chance she can pull it off.
Professor Farrokh Langdana, director of the Rutgers EMBA program, catalogs Kalpouzos's qualifications as "a rock-solid engineering undergraduate platform, amazing leadership skills and business acumen, awesome presentation skills and personality, and a spirit of entrepreneurship."
With all of those, not to mention an Executive MBA, she's sure to continue making an impact wherever she sets her sights.
Media interested in learning more about the Rutgers Executive MBA Program may contact Susan Todd of Rutgers Business School's communications team: [email protected].
SOURCE Rutgers Business School
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