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Career Day Features Michael Carter ‘91
Career Day Keynote Speaker Michael Carter ’91 Urges Students To Identify Their Purpose
Founder and CEO of BizEquity, Michael Carter ’91 provided in-person keynote remarks to juniors and seniors on Career Day on February 11. His remarks took place in the middle of a virtual Career Day program which featured 17 interactive presentations by alumni and friends of the school.
Michael covered three key themes as he traced his career path for students: 1) the purpose of your life/career is to figure out your purpose; 2) relationships matter immensely; and 3) you can achieve anything if you work hard enough.
At the outset, he detailed learnings from his MFS education that he still uses today:
• There is that of God in everyone. • Authenticity matters. • Kindness is strength. • Find your unique talents and strengths and focus on those.
Michael detailed the rise and growth of BizEquity, a leading financial tech software company created to democratize business valuation knowledge for every business in the world. BizEquity has created the largest online business valuation cloud-based software product and service and the most business valuation data on businesses in the market today. BizEquity’s patented Michael Carter ’91 pictured with Alumni Association Clerk Sarah Lynn Geiger ’05 (left) and former faculty member Mary Craig, wife of late former Headmaster Alan Craig, who Michael referenced as one of his three mentors.
Michael Carter ’91
• Founder & CEO, BizEquity • Co-Author of The Mission Corporation • M.S. and B.S. St. Joseph’s University
platform is distributed through leading financial services firms such as TD Bank, UBS, PNC, Northwestern Mutual, Equitable, Goldman Sachs, and over 750 other financial services firms and over 4,000 advisors.
Michael referred to his journey to build BizEquity as one of persistence and self-belief and urged students to learn from his story. “Your career will be zigs and zags and fraught with challenges,” he said. “Can you find your focus and run with it?”
He credited three mentors for his success. This included the late former MFS Headmaster Alan Craig with whom he consulted often as his career progressed. “He would say, ‘It’s all about how you feel on Sunday night,’” said Michael, referring to one’s outlook as they approached the waiting work week.
Miles Frost, late founder of Frost Books, who died in 2015, was another key figure in Michael’s professional life. “Miles showed me that you could live a great life of great meaning helping others achieve their dreams and he helped me immensely,” said Michael.
Finally, Michael cited the late Chairman of the Musser Group and Founder of Safeguard Scientifics Pete Musser. He worked under Musser for 15 years as Managing Director of the Musser Group. “Pete showed me that you can change lives through business,” said Michael. “He urged me to identify people’s strengths and focus on that. Business is personal.”
He concluded his remarks with a fun interactive round of trivia for students which illustrated how various successful entrepreneurs and public figures have faced challenges and obstacles before achieving success.
Michael lives in Haverford with his wife Meredith and their son Harrison and daughter Catherine.
Erin Chen ‘16
Baltimore, MD The View from Medical School Medical student, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine B.S. Johns Hopkins University
Ruth Geyer Jurgensen ’91
New York, NY Finding a Career that Aligns with your Values CEO, Prep for Prep M.A. Brown University B.A. Connecticut College
Temi Obaisi ‘11
Philadelphia, PA Networking and Your Social Media Profile Product Manager, LinkedIn M.P.A. candidate, Columbia Univ. B.S. Rutgers University
Bridget Wiese
Moorestown, NJ Personal Finance Vice President, Senior Store Manager, Republic Bank
Sonia Ananthakrishnan ‘93 Boston, MA MEDICINE Assistant Professor & Director of Student Education, Boston University School of Medicine Endocrinologist, Boston Medical Center M.D., B.A. Northwestern University
Carolyn Chelius ‘12 Philadelphia, PA NUTRITION POLICY Project Policy Analyst at the Nutrition Policy Institute M.S. Tufts University B.A. Wellesley College
Katie Loane ‘12
New York, NY SOCIAL WORK
Clinical Coordinator, Bowery Residents’ Committee
M.S.W., B.S. Rutgers University
Palav Babaria ‘99
San Francisco, CA SOCIAL CHANGE
Chief Quality Officer and Deputy Director of Quality and Population Health Management, California Department of Health Care Services
M.D., M.S. Yale University B.A. Harvard University
Kari Myers Johnson ‘00 Bethesda, MD SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
Director of The Johnson Lab, School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University Ph.D. Vanderbilt University B.A. University of Pennsylvania
Melissa Morrow ‘99
Philadelphia, PA ADVERTISING
Partner & Chief People Officer at Calcium
B.A. Muhlenberg College
Sanjay Bhatt ‘07
New York, NY FINANCE
Partner, Consumer and Internet Sector Head, Stony Point Capital
B.A. Brown University
Jennielle Jobson ‘07 New York, NY MEDICAL EDUCATION Assistant Medical Director, The Scienomics Group, Precision Immunology Institute, Icahn School of Medicine, Mt. Sinai Ph.D. Mt. Sinai Medical College B.S. University of Pennsylvania
Brian Turner ‘98 Cherry Hill, NJ LAW Attorney, Malamut and Associates LLC J.D., B.A. Rutgers University
Robert Pineda ‘86
Fort Washington, PA LAW
Senior Counsel, Regulatory Law Group, Johnson & Johnson
J.D., B.A. Georgetown University
Whitney Pennington Rodgers ‘03
New York, NY PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Current Affairs Curator, TED Conferences
M.J. University of California, Berkeley B.A. Rutgers University
Sheryl Huggins Salomon ’83
New York, NY COMMUNICATIONS
Chief Communications Officer, New York University, McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research
M.A. Columbia University B.A. University of Pennsylvania
Julie Son Valenzuela ‘95
Queens, NY CRITICAL CARE MEDICINE
Trauma Surgeon, Jamaica Hospital Medical Center
M.D. Robert Wood Johnson Medical School B.S. Emory University