The EMBA’s real ROI

More than two decades after earning his Notre Dame Executive MBA, Brian Mills (EMBA ’04) came back to campus as the keynote speaker at Ascend: The Notre Dame Executive MBA Alumni Summit held this fall at the Mendoza College of Business. In a one-on-one conversation with Mills, the director of Enterprise AI at Google Cloud shared what the experience meant to him, why Notre Dame belongs in the AI conversation and what he considers the real return on his degree.

What did it mean to you to be invited back to Notre Dame to deliver the keynote at the inaugural Ascend Summit?

"It is always great to be back on campus because the experience for me was incredible. So often we get caught up in our day-to-day routines. It is nice to step back and learn from others in a collegial setting."

Ascend organizers chose AI as the keynote topic and an EMBA alum to deliver it. Why do you think that matters?

"AI is a broad topic, and based on my experience, it can generate a wide range of emotions depending on the conversation. Whether it is employment concerns, societal futures or how leaders will use the technology for good, Notre Dame should be the place where we can ask better questions for better solutions."

What do you believe is the real value of your Notre Dame Executive MBA?

"The value of the MBA is inquantifiable from the simple standpoint that it’s not the finance, it’s not the accounting, it’s the people I still have connections with. If you want the ROI of the Notre Dame MBA, it’s connections. It is truly a family."

What does Mendoza's mission Grow the Good in Business mean to you?

"Business has a moral obligation, in my opinion, to not only generate profits ethically, but to use those profits for shareholders as well as for their communities. At Google, we have Google.org, which takes the technology Google has and helps lift communities up around the globe. That is growing the good. To do that, you have to be a profitable organization. To me, they’re intertwined."

Why does an event like Ascend matter for accomplished leaders who have already earned their degree?

"This is part of the lifelong learning promise of Notre Dame. The cycle time of technology and business issues has been compressed since I graduated, and I don’t see that slowing. You need a village to bounce ideas off of and learn from."

Read about the Ascend Summit.