By Henry Mortimer, Editor-at-Large
What’s the definition of serendipity? For Nicholas Fletcher, it means “finding something good without looking for it.”
About two years ago, while working as an executive recruiter, Fletcher unexpectedly found himself on the opposite side of the bargaining table.
“I picked up the phone to call a gentleman by the name of Joseph Wells, to recruit him for a position that I was working on, and it ended up being the polar opposite — Joe actually recruited me,” says Fletcher, a graduate of Morehouse College who earned his business degree at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Wells, the director of the Earl G. Graves School of Business and Management at Morgan State University, was looking for someone to help with admissions and recruiting for the masters program, and made a counter-offer.
“He said, ‘If you happen to know someone who is interested and has this type of background let me know,’” Fletcher recalls. “I thought about it and said, ‘Wait a second, I could do that. I’m very passionate about it. As a graduate of a historically black college and university, and as someone who understands the value of an MBA [I knew I could] bring all those insights and perspectives to further grow the profile of the Graves School.’”
And that’s just what he’s done. Among his many accomplishments since coming onboard in October of 2015, Fletcher, who serves as the assistant director and global placement officer of the masters programs at Morgan, has helped the school move into and embrace its new, $72-million state-of-the-art Morgan Business Center. As the official home of Graves School, the Center features computer labs, classrooms, a real-time Capital Markets stock trading center, seminar rooms, and a 300-person auditorium that includes an 80-person lecture hall.
The cornerstone of the facility, says Fletcher, is the Center for Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Development, which was designed to foster collaboration on many levels.
“When you think about a world-class MBA program, you learn an immense amount of theory in the classroom,” says Fletcher. “But what really helps you separate yourself is the relationships you build with classmates, with faculty, with staff.”
And with local industry leaders, Fletcher adds. Recently, representatives from Northrup-Grumman and NSA, among others, have fostered initiatives designed to provide students with hands-on learning to prepare them for a possible future.
“When students get exposed to that [experience], in their undergrad or their master’s program, they’ll be comfortable walking into board rooms,” he says. “They’ve seen it, they know it, and they’re able to focus on the value add and the success in driving what they need to do.”
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