![\"Military](\"https:\/\/magazine.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/legacy\/2010\/11\/military-discipline.jpg\")
Ray Sumner, MBA\u201910, woke up in a bed with white sheets. He recognized his mother, who was holding his right hand. She had traveled from their family farm on Staten Island to keep vigil at his bedside in Bethesda Naval Hospital.<\/p>\nRay Sumner, MBA\u201910, woke up in a bed with white sheets. He recognized his mother, who was holding his right hand. She had traveled from their family farm on Staten Island to keep vigil at his bedside in Bethesda Naval Hospital.<\/p>\n
Sumner did not know she would be there. Until someone told him, he did not even know where \u201cthere\u201d was. The last thing he remembered was being with his unit, the 25th Marine Division, on the debris-strewn streets of Haditha, Iraq. It was the 11th week of his second tour in the country, and his battalion was engaged in house-to-house operations in the heart of the Sunni Triangle\u2014one reason the 25th sustained the highest casualty rate of any outfit during the war.<\/p>\n
Sumner remembers clearly how an insurgent ran out of a house and fired off a few quick rounds as the Marines were clearing a block. One bullet struck Sumner in the right hip, severing an artery. He was in a coma for 10 days. And then, suddenly, he found himself in Bethesda, Md.<\/p>\n
The Marines never leave one of their own behind. For Sumner, who spent 18 years as an officer, the reverse is also true. Despite the injuries and rehabilitation, he would sign up again tomorrow if the Marines called him. Sumner still misses it. In some sense that is a big part of what attracted him to the Owen School.<\/p>\n
How is Owen like a military enterprise? The question may seem odd to someone who has never worn the uniform. But to veterans who earned MBAs at Vanderbilt after earning their stripes, the connections seem obvious. For four of them\u2014among the surprisingly large number who gravitate to this relatively small business school\u2014seeing those connections made all the difference in their choice to enroll and in the directions their careers have taken.<\/p>\n
For Ray Sumner it was the camaraderie\u2014\u201cthe biggest thing I missed about the military,\u201d he says. \u201cI looked at other big-name schools. Vanderbilt is extremely competitive but friendly. The others were hostile-competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sumner particularly remembers his first campus visit in 2008. \u201cI immediately felt like I was part of the Owen family,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s how the Marine Corps is. It\u2019s the smallest branch of the service. Very close-knit. You get to know a lot of the other officers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Life Mission<\/strong> In between his graduation from the U.S. Military Academy and Owen, parts of his service experience were a reminder why the old Chinese saying \u201cmay you live in interesting times\u201d was originally intended as a curse.<\/p>\n In June 2003 Clay arrived at an abandoned water purification plant near Baghdad. The soldiers called it Dogwood, but it might have been more accurately named Hell. There was no running water. No air conditioning. Temperatures routinely surpassed 110 degrees.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019d get to midday and just want to take a nap because you couldn\u2019t get anything done,\u201d remembers Clay, who was a lieutenant in the 54th Engineer Battalion. \u201cNothing could have prepared me for Iraq.\u201d<\/p>\n Clay and his men lived off prepackaged rations, or MREs. Sometimes, when they had to pick up arriving soldiers and supplies, they would navigate the deadliest stretch of highway in Iraq\u2014dubbed \u201cRPG Alley\u201d for the prevalence of rocket-propelled grenades\u2014and grab some hot food at the airport, where, almost surreally, there was a Burger King.<\/p>\n Among Clay\u2019s responsibilities was leading convoys\u2014an innocuous-sounding job that was a very dangerous assignment in Iraq. The supply convoys traveled under constant threat of attack from improvised explosive devices (IEDs). His convoy was hit only once during his first six months, but tension soared every time they ventured onto the roads.<\/p>\n Clay\u2019s second deployment to Iraq made the first tour look civilized. Stationed in Ramadi and Fallujah, scenes of the war\u2019s most intense fighting, Clay was assigned to \u201croute clearance\u201d\u2014an Army euphemism for bomb removal.<\/p>\n Clay soon realized how increasingly sophisticated the insurgents\u2019 techniques had become during the year he was back on base in Germany. \u201cSome IEDs were buried deep enough that our equipment couldn\u2019t detect them,\u201d he says. One, he remembers, was planted in a manhole. It detonated as a vehicle in his battalion passed over it. The manhole cover rocketed through the underside of the vehicle, killing and wounding several soldiers. In all, he lost seven men in 12 months. All told, his engineer battalion removed 1,000 IEDs.<\/p>\n Even before he came home from Iraq, Clay knew he wanted to go to business school. He had become interested in health care\u2014something that, to him, was more than just business. That led him to Owen, where he found the change he sought and the continuity he needed.<\/p>\n Like the Army, he says, Owen is extremely collegial, and there is a sense of purpose even among students with different career aims and areas of focus. For example, with colleagues involved in Project Pyramid, the student-led initiative to alleviate global poverty, Clay had the opportunity to travel to Bangladesh. \u201cEven in Iraq, I\u2019d never been face-to-face with such poverty,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was life-changing.\u201d<\/p>\n In contrast to the Army, Owen\u2019s Health Care MBA program is extremely entrepreneurial, Clay says: \u201cYou can create your own path. After nine years of a very strict environment, Owen was a great place for me to try a smattering of academic and extracurricular activities.\u201d<\/p>\n It is a far cry from Dogwood, but Clay is today, once again, in the desert\u2014Phoenix, to be exact\u2014where summer temperatures can reach a Baghdad-like 114 degrees. As a Regional Operations Director for DaVita, North America\u2019s largest operator of kidney dialysis centers, Clay oversees 11 in-center dialysis clinics and two home programs.<\/p>\n \u201cThe position demands a very different type of management from the Army,\u201d he says. And yet, he adds, \u201cI entered into an environment not unlike the military. We are all focused on one mission.\u201d<\/p>\n That mission is life. Without dialysis or a kidney transplant, every patient with end-stage renal disease will die. With dialysis, they can live, work and stay with their families. \u201cThat\u2019s what gets me excited about this company,\u201d Clay says. \u201cWe are a community first and a company second.\u201d<\/p>\n The name DaVita comes from an Italian phrase that roughly translates as \u201che or she gives life.\u201d Clay likes the sound of it. For someone who has traveled so closely with death, it feels good to be surrounded by givers of life.<\/p>\n Anchors Aweigh<\/strong> Getting to school involved an hour\u2019s trip by boat. The boat\u2019s captain had a policy for rough weather: If even one kid wanted to make the trip, the school boat would run.<\/p>\n \u201cMy parents were very focused on education,\u201d Guy explains. \u201cIt didn\u2019t matter if there was a hurricane out there, it was, \u2018Get up and get on the boat.\u2019 So on days when it was extremely windy, the neighborhood kids would congregate in our yard to see if I was going to go, and when I walked out, they\u2019d all moan, \u2018Aww, man.\u2019 A couple of times they even booed.\u201d<\/p>\n But Guy did not let this singular power go to his head. Even in the relatively small pond of Crisfield High, he looked up to others as role models\u2014especially one older boy whom he remembers as \u201call the things I tried to be.\u201d When that student pursued a spot in one of the service academies, Guy\u2019s interest was piqued.<\/p>\n Guy eventually enrolled at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he was struck immediately by how accomplished so many of his fellow students already were. His first-year roommate, an Iowan, was fluent in Russian and spent his summer as an interpreter overseas. \u201cThere were guys who went on to Rhodes Scholarships or completed their graduate education while at the academy,\u201d says Guy, who was a teammate of future NBA star David Robinson on Navy\u2019s basketball team. \u201cA number of experiences like that made me think, \u2018Wow, if you work hard and take advantage of the opportunities put in front of you, that opens the door to a host of new opportunities.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n He brought that mindset to his first posting as a division officer aboard the USS Comte de Grasse<\/em>, a destroyer named for the French admiral whose blockade of Yorktown helped win the Revolutionary War. The Comte de Grasse<\/em> focused on maritime interdiction: looking for Caribbean drug smugglers, patrolling the Red Sea to intercept materials headed for Iraq, or boarding ships in the Adriatic to stop weapons from reaching combatants during the Balkan wars.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, remembering his lesson from the academy, Guy soaked up all the knowledge he could from rotations involving various systems and areas of the ship\u2019s operations. Every duty was an opportunity. It helped him move up to become an aide to an admiral, a coveted position for a junior officer.<\/p>\n That mentality also helped him choose Vanderbilt when his five-year commitment ended. \u201cI very much considered myself to be raw material,\u201d he says. \u201cI knew nothing about the business world I\u2019d soon be entering. The mod system allows you to take many more classes than a traditional semester system. That was very appealing to me because I felt like I had so much to learn. Every mod, I got permission to take extra classes. I wanted to sample everything out there.\u201d<\/p>\n In other ways, too, the Owen experience built on what Guy liked most about the Navy. He liked the way that much of the work at Owen was team-oriented, just as it was aboard a ship. He also liked the way that Owen\u2019s \u201capproach is focused on how we get people to go out and be contributors right away. It\u2019s not a stamp. Everything is structured so that it wraps itself around the individual rather than being a one-size-fits-all factory.\u201d It was the right way to do things, Guy believes, and that, too, created continuity. \u201cAt the Naval Academy,\u201d he explains, \u201cthere\u2019s a huge focus on doing things the right way, honoring the legacy of the past.\u201d<\/p>\n The mindset from the academy and from Owen carried over into Modern Holdings, the New York investment firm he founded. As President and CEO, Guy believes the right way to run a business is to work as a team and to think long term. \u201cWe\u2019re not a traditional private equity firm,\u201d he explains. \u201cWe invest our own money, and that makes for a different decision-making process. We don\u2019t look to flip companies. To me, the value is how we can help grow the business over time.\u201d<\/p>\n More than anything, Guy\u2019s approach has its roots on Smith Island. Modern Holdings typically buys closely held family enterprises. Because he grew up around such a business, he holds a special appreciation for them. Fishermen, he reflects, are not merely people who ply a trade. \u201cThey\u2019re entrepreneurs,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019re huge risk takers who are up against a formidable competitor\u2014Mother Nature.\u201d<\/p>\n Leaping at an Opportunity<\/strong> So, after White enrolled at the U.S. Air Force Academy, it was not surprising that she volunteered for jump school. \u201cThe first time I jumped,\u201d she recalls, \u201cwas a frightening experience. You don\u2019t know up or down. You\u2019re just falling and counting and remembering when you are supposed to pull this cord. By the third time, it\u2019s a little more automatic. On my fourth jump, the chute got twisted, but by then I knew what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n White earned her jump wings but never had to leap from a plane again. After graduating from the academy, she oversaw airfield operations\u2014a duty that also required certification as an air traffic controller\u2014at bases from Florida to California.<\/p>\n When her five-year commitment ended, \u201cI decided to try something new,\u201d she says. \u201cI felt like I\u2019d been in the military my whole life.\u201d Eventually she put her operations expertise to work as a project manager for a California company that designs and builds large-scale water features, including the landmark fountains at the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n There, she realized she needed to learn more. \u201cMuch of what I knew centered on the military and people management,\u201d White says. To reach higher levels in the business world, she needed to broaden her skills. That realization led her to Vanderbilt.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone on staff seemed concerned about the fit of the students,\u201d she says. \u201cIt made me feel that if I was selected to join Owen, it had something to do with who I was and how I could contribute and learn from the other students.\u201d<\/p>\n That first mod, White recalls, was like her first jump. Learning to be a student again after eight years was challenging. \u201cIt\u2019s not like a work assignment,\u201d she says. \u201cYou can\u2019t just shut it out when you get home like you can after a day at the office.\u201d<\/p>\n But after the first month, as with the first few parachute drops, something clicked. \u201cI found I had made great friends and was sharing a unique experience,\u201d she says. \u201cI fell into the day-to-day (and evening) routine and never looked back.\u201d<\/p>\n After a summer internship in the corporate world, White realized she missed some of the structure military life provided. She won a two-year Presidential Fellowship with Voice of America (VOA), the U.S. government\u2019s official radio and television broadcasting service, in Washington, D.C. The new job offers her the best of both worlds. Within the security of her position, she has opportunities to complete rotations in other areas besides her specialty, operations, as training that may prepare her ultimately to take over a division of VOA. It is like being able to jump from a plane, with none of the uncertainty.<\/p>\n Of course, White\u2019s new position is not without stress, but her Air Force experience taught her a valuable lesson in dealing with it. \u201cIn air traffic control your life is about stress,\u201d she says. \u201cNowadays when somebody comes into your office and says this is a life-or-death situation, I can say, \u2018No, it\u2019s not. Let\u2019s talk about it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Brothers in Arms<\/strong> Somehow jumping fills a longtime need. The love of flying, with or without a vehicle, is what led Sumner to the Marines in the first place. While he was still in ROTC at St. John\u2019s University, the Corps guaranteed him a seat in flight school if he passed a test. He passed and went on to train on T-34 jets and pilot helicopters.<\/p>\n Sumner left the Marines after 13 years but rejoined in 2003, after a General Officer phoned one morning and told him, \u201cYour country needs you.\u201d In between he operated a fledgling import business in handmade goods from some of the exotic locales he had visited with the Corps, like Yemen. The business barely broke even. But, as an entrepreneur, Sumner had found a civilian avocation that could satisfy his need for flowing adrenaline.<\/p>\n Now he is returning for another jolt\u2014this time as a beer maker with an MBA. He learned the brewer\u2019s art from his younger brother. After taking a new product development class, he realized he might have a new product of his own. He began testing its viability at Owen get-togethers. \u201cAt one party,\u201d he recalls, \u201cI brought 26 different types of beer. People were saying, \u2018Where can I buy this stuff?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n With help from Owen\u2019s entrepreneurship program, Sumner test-marketed his quaffs in the wider community. This summer he was busily researching properties around Nashville and as far afield as Austin, Texas, and Portland, Ore. To Sumner, it feels like an exhilarating jump, and his MBA colleagues are his bungee. They are continually providing support and advice, offering to serve on the board of his company for free, helping him assess logo designs, and serving as sounding boards for ideas.<\/p>\n That is the thing, Sumner says, about Owen. \u201cWhen I got out of the Marine Corps, I thought I\u2019d never have this again. The camaraderie at Vanderbilt is unique. That\u2019s why I\u2019ll always appreciate it. There were a lot of students who perhaps were smarter than me and whom Owen could have accepted into the program, but they chose me to be part of the family. When somebody gives you a chance like that, you don\u2019t forget it. And that\u2019s the Marine Corps way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ray Sumner, MBA\u201910, woke up in a bed with white sheets. He recognized his mother, who was holding his right hand. 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\nKyle Clay, MBA\u201909, by contrast, was not looking for something small. Ever since he was a football star and three-sport athlete in Lima, Ohio, Clay sought opportunities to be involved with something larger than himself. That is one reason why he accepted a scholarship to play football at West Point, and why he was drawn to the health care field after his military commitment ended.<\/p>\n![\"Kyle](\"https:\/\/magazine.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/legacy\/2010\/11\/kyle-clay.jpg\" "\\"Kyle")
\nYou can create your own path at Owen. After nine years of a very strict environment, it was a great place for me to try a smattering of academic and extracurricular activities.<\/h2>\n
\u2014Kyle Clay<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\nAs a boy, Henry Guy, MBA\u201998, had the power to determine whether kids in his community would have to attend school. Guy grew up on Smith Island, off Maryland\u2019s Eastern Shore. He was the son of a son of a son of a fisherman who caught blue crabs and oysters in the Chesapeake Bay.<\/p>\n![\"Henry](\"https:\/\/magazine.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/legacy\/2010\/11\/henry-guy.jpg\" "\\"Henry")
\nFor Lindsey White, MBA\u201910, jumping out of airplanes turned out to be especially relevant preparation for Owen. A self\u00ad-described \u201cArmy brat\u201d who split her childhood between Germany, Oklahoma, North Carolina and Tennessee, she grew up literally wanting to follow in the footsteps of her father, a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne. As a young girl, she would practice by sliding her feet into his big boots and hurtling off the living room sofa.<\/p>\n![\"Lindsey](\"https:\/\/magazine.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/legacy\/2010\/11\/lindsey-white.jpg\" "\\"Lindsey")
\nJumping remains part of Ray Sumner\u2019s life. He loves the adrenaline rush that comes from hurling himself off a cliff, his survival depending on a strand of bungee cord. He has jumped from three of the world\u2019s highest bungee-accessible sites: Bloukrans, South Africa; Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe; and Interlaken, Switzerland.<\/p>\n![\"Ray](\"https:\/\/magazine.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/legacy\/2010\/11\/ray-sumner.jpg\" "\\"Ray")
\nWhen I got out of the Marine Corps, I thought I\u2019d never have this again. The camaraderie at Vanderbilt is unique. That\u2019s why I\u2019ll always appreciate it.<\/h2>\n
\u2014Ray Sumner<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n