Famatta Mensah

MBA 2019
  • Hometown: Cincinnati, Ohio
  • Pre-MBA: Senior Financial Analyst at Procter & Gamble

Famatta Mensah

Post Graduation Goals:

Consulting with a long-term focus on sports management

Highlight of my Week:

Hosting an incredible lineup at the Black Business Students Association Conference and Gala

-

Favorite Class:

Sports Business Management - co-taught by George Foster, Sam Hinkie (former GM of Philadelphia 76ers) and Dave Kaval (current President of the Oakland A’s)

Saturday
08:00am
Woke up and biked to the GSB still glowing from the Black Business Students Association (BBSA) Gala last night. Beyond being a great time, we also honored two distinguished GSB alumnae - Rukaiyah Adams, the CIO of Meyer Memorial Trust and Kristina Omari, the VP of Corporate Development at Lyft!
09:30am
The BBSA Conference was started in 1982, but this year’s conference was the biggest yet with over 400 attendees. Here I am with my classmate Julian kicking off the conference.
10:30am
The opening keynote was with Troy Carter, the CEO of Atom Factory and former manager of entertainment titans like John Legend and Lady Gaga. He is also a prolific investor with stakes in Spotify, Dropbox and Uber. I had the chance to meet him backstage after the keynote with some of my classmates.
12:00pm
For the lunch session, we featured Dr. Jennifer Eberhart, a social psychologist at Stanford and MacArthur “Genius” Grant recipient, who was interviewed by Daryn Dodson (GSB ‘07). I managed to grab another photo with the speakers after the interview!
01:00pm
There was a book-signing for Dr. Eberhart’s new book, Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do, and all conference attendees got a free copy.
01:30pm
We had our choice of breakout sessions and I went to Closing the Wealth Gap: Today and Beyond, which featured speakers from Andreessen Horowitz, Sage Financial Solutions and JPMorgan talking about solutions to the racial wealth gap.
03:00pm
Our final keynote speaker of the day was Charles D. King, the Founder and CEO of MACRO, a media company representing the perspectives of people of color. His films have earned nine Oscar nominations and he was the first African-American partner at William Morris Endeavor. Charles was interviewed by MBA1 Tamar Nisbett!
04:00pm
After the final keynote, we had a cocktail hour and I got a chance to meet some of the alumni and industry leaders in attendance, as well as catch up with some of my classmates.
06:00pm
The organizing team got together on stage to highlight how many folks came together to put on this conference. Can’t wait to come back to the BBSA Conference as an alum!
06:30pm
I grabbed dinner and drinks with friends and fellow conference organizers to celebrate the conclusion of the conference and gala!
Tuesday
08:00am
Had breakfast with faculty member Allison Kluger, who teaches a number of communications and reputation management courses at the GSB. Allison fielded our questions about a wide range of topics and shared tips from her course on how to professionally pivot (co-taught with former professional baseball player, Alex Rodriguez).
10:00am
I had Conversations in Management this morning taught by legendary GSB professor Irv Grousbeck. The class is capped at 32 students and every session has a role-play followed by postmortem analysis. Today we simulated a difficult conversation between an investor and a prospective portfolio company.
12:00pm
Went to the gym and then grabbed a quick lunch at Jimmy V’s Sports Grill a few minutes walk from the GSB campus.
02:00pm
This quarter I am working on a “390” (independent study) under the guidance of a faculty member. I found a spot outside of Arbuckle and did a few hours of work on my project, which has to do with a business challenge that the San Antonio Spurs are facing.
04:00pm
I bumped into my friend Dani, on my way to some meetings at the Coupa Cafe and stopped to take a quick photo. Dani, along with another one of our classmates, Deirdre, lived in a retirement home this summer where they taught improv, exercise classes and did user research for their company.
04:15pm
Spent time catching up with Chad -- talked about his startup, sports, the BBSA and class among other things!
05:00pm
While the Coupa is a great place for coffee they also have amazing happy hour specials, so had a glass of wine (or two) with Hayley and Divyanka and reflected on our GSB experience which is sadly coming to an end soon!
06:15pm
Watched the Warriors Playoff game versus the Rockets with some classmates in the MBA lounge. It was a tight game but we managed to win by 5!
07:00pm
Today we have a Liquidity Preference Function or LPF. LPF’s are usually sponsored by a student group and are a great way for the entire community to come together. This LPF was sponsored by the Asian Business Student Association and had plenty of Dim Sum and Soju so I grabbed a quick dinner and chatted with a few friends.
09:30pm
Every Tuesday the GSB comes together for cheap drinks and great conversation at a bar off campus in a tradition called FOAM. This week was Band FOAM—where student bands performed for us at Club Fox in Redwood City. This quarter there were a record 13 bands performing!
Thursday
08:00am
Had a slow morning (did reading for class), so including a photo from our recent Diversity in Leadership admissions event that I helped out with. Had a great turnout and got a chance to chat with the keynote speaker, Everett Harper, a distinguished graduate from the GSB class of ‘99, who founded and leads a company that helped overhaul the infrastructure powering Healthcare.gov.
10:00am
Had Individual Taxes and Financial Planning with Lisa Di Simone and it is honestly one of my favorite classes this quarter. While one may think the subject matter has the potential to be dry (today we talked about Debt and Marriage), Lisa has an incredible sense of humor and teaching style and makes every class fun and informative.
12:00pm
The weather was beautiful (as it is most days) so decided to grab lunch outside of Arbuckle with some friends.
01:00pm
Bumped into a group of friends in Arbuckle meeting with a mentor and GSB alumna to discuss potential careers tackling climate change, and stopped to take a photo. I love the diversity of interests and career paths coming out of the GSB!
01:15pm
Had a photo shoot with Nancy, so decided to take this meta photo. Nancy is an incredibly gifted photographer and was honored to be in her latest video!
01:30pm
Met up with Samantha to talk about her web series on entrepreneurship and personal finance, and the upcoming launch of her Kickstarter campaign. Always inspired by Sam’s ambition and work ethic!
02:00pm
Did some reading for class and had a classmate take a new headshot for me (which you can find at the top of this page…)
03:00pm
This quarter I am in Adina Sterling and Fern Mandelbaum’s Equity by Design class. They have done a great job of incorporating a wide range of perspectives through the guest speakers they bring to class. This week we had the phenomenal Haben Girma, who is a disability rights activist and the first deafblind person to graduate from Harvard Law, share actions we can take to build a more accessible world.
06:00pm
In Equity by Design we have final project due in a few weeks—one group is making a video to thank GSB faculty who have led the charge on incorporating diverse voices into their classrooms. I stopped by to thank Leah Weiss, one of my favorite professors, who taught me in Leading with Mindfulness and Compassion last quarter.
06:30pm
Met a friend in downtown Palo Alto for dinner and post-dinner ice cream at Salt and Straw!
09:00pm
Thursday nights in the fall and spring we hang out at a bar in downtown Palo Alto. I had a fun time chatting and dancing with classmates.