Robert Budding:  

I ended up in New England after high school because my aunt and uncle invited me to spend a summer with them in Connecticut sailing. I had a wonderful time, so I decided, at the last minute, to stay and attend college at the University of Connecticut. I worked hard(I was a good student in high school, and a much better student in college) and I completed the chemistry curriculum in 3 years. Then I headed to Dartmouth to work on a Ph.D. in physical chemistry. I liked the intellectual challenge of the work, but working in a lab seemed too solitary for me. So I took a leave of absence and worked as a bench chemist in Pfizer's central research group. That's when I decided to go to business school at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. I've worked in several industries and in various roles since then. My first job after business school was in Mergers and Acquisitions for a New England bank. Then I got involved in risk management and building Monte Carlo models of mortgage backed securities. I then changed industries and did strategy work for a medical diagnostics firm, followed by a stint consulting and building Oracle Essbase models for Staples and for Fidelity Investment. Fidelity liked my work, so they hired me after I spent a year with a dot com. I worked for Fidelity for 7 years, but I decided to go back into consulting be...Expand for more