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Alexander Kouts
Student Leadership Profile: MBAA
President Alexander Kouts, MBA Candidate
2009
 As
the newly elected MBAA president,
Alexander Kouts hopes to leave a lasting
legacy on the Smith School of Business.
As president, Kouts will be responsible
for shaping the day-to-day lives of the
current MBA students here at the Smith
School as well as influencing the
initiatives and policies for future
generations of MBAs. Kouts’ aggressive
agenda combined with his entrepreneurial
spirit were key factors that drove him
to become MBAA president and will be key
reasons he is able to influence change
at the Smith School. Originally from
the Washington, D.C., area, Kouts is
already an alumnus of the Smith School,
where he received his undergraduate
degree in marketing and supply chain
management. Before returning to Smith
for his MBA, Kouts had worked as a
private real estate investor managing a
portfolio of properties in the Maryland,
Virginia, and D.C. areas. After
finishing his MBA, he plans to start his
own business. Why did Kouts pursue the
MBAA presidency? “I ran for the MBAA
presidency because I am a true brand
evangelist for the Smith School. I am
passionate about giving back to the
Smith community and want an active role
in ensuring that our community will
leave a lasting legacy for years to
come,” says Kouts. He feels that the
incoming MBAA administration has both
the talent and desire to shape their
legacy and is looking forward to working
with them on this endeavor. Kouts and
his fellow newly elected MBAA officers
have developed a plan for addressing the
issues that MBA students at Smith face,
as well as for improving the experience
of future MBAs here at Smith. Kouts
says, “With the input of the student
body, the MBAA board has developed areas
of concern that we will address. Inside
of each concern area there will be
action items that we as a community will
execute to build and improve our
experience here at Smith.”
Some of the areas that Kouts plans to
address are streamlining the flow of
information between the faculty, staff,
administration, and student body,
building relationships between students
in the part-time, executive, and
full-time MBA programs, enhancing the
extracurricular programs that the
students are involved in, increasing the
amount of community service Smith
students participate in, and celebrating
Smith’s diversity and international
components. Kouts acknowledges this is
an aggressive agenda, but he believes
his team can work in concert with the
student clubs, administration, and
student body and achieve the goals he
has set out. One of his first
initiatives is to pursue a redesign of
the MBA Networth Web site. Kouts says
“As the backbone of student body
communication and scheduling, this
platform could provide a tremendous
resource to everyone. Many of the
challenges that our class currently
faces stem from inconsistent and
inadequate communication. MBA Networth,
if properly designed and executed, will
be a tremendous resource to our
community.”
Kouts believes that Smith needs to
foster a culture of the highest
standards and pursue excellence in every
endeavor. He is working to position
Smith to do just that.
▓ Adam
Weiner, MBA Candidate 2009, Smith Media
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