Meet Ian Forsyth!
Hey Everyone! My name is Ian Forsyth. I am a Saint Louis native and part of the PMBA 53 Cohort.
I graduated in 2013 from the University of Virginia with a BA in Music and MS in Commerce. I spent the first 10 years of my career in the financial data management field, first at S&P Global, then at Dimensional Fund Advisors in Austin, Texas. At Dimensional, I managed a team that oversaw the data our company used to invest $130 billion in fixed income strategies. I first started to get the itch to go back to school around 2019. Three years later, I had an ideal opportunity to pursue an MBA in the Fall of 2022 when my wife and I decided to move our young family back to Saint Louis. I chose to attend Wash U’s PMBA program to translate the skills I gained in the first act of my career to a new opportunity in an entirely different industry, as well as gain exposure to several areas of study that I was interesting in.
I am currently the Director of Operations for a chain of gas stations in the Midwest named MotoMart Convenience Stores. In my role, I am responsible for many of the processes used by our employees to run our stores. I also get to work on solving compliance and HR-related challenges, as well as navigating our company’s digital transformation initiatives. Working towards my MBA while working full time has been an incredibly rewarding path for me. Not only have I had the opportunity to directly apply concepts from the classroom to shape multiple projects, but I’ve also built skills in HR analytics, family business practices, and risk management that directly apply to my role at Moto. I’m especially grateful to have participated in Olin’s Ownership Insights course, as well as programming for the Koch Center for Family Enterprise, which have given me invaluable tools I can apply to the family business I am a part of.
When I’m not at work or in class, I am a dad to my two boys, Reid and Charlie. I enjoy exploring new restaurants with my wife Kelsey, playing piano, drinking coffee, and hacking around a golf course from time to time!