Fouad Al-Kholani

Fouad Al-Kholani has one complaint about Questrom’s Online MBA program—he wishes he’d enrolled sooner.

“I wish I’d had the chance to join such a program a long time ago,” he says. “I would have achieved a lot of accomplishments much better and faster.” 

Fouad has more than 25 years’ experience working in the oil service industry, where he started at the bottom and worked his way up to the senior management level. Two years ago, he decided it was time to pursue his dream of establishing his own company, capitalizing on the experience, knowledge, and connections he’d build over the years. Upstream Solutions, an oil field equipment and services firm based in Kuwait, is the result.

While launching his new venture, Fouad took several useful online executive education courses, but it soon became clear that he needed to learn more. “The knowledge I gained from the courses helped me as an entrepreneur,” he says, “but I realized that despite the long experience I had, there was a lot to learn if I wanted to be successful. So, joining an MBA program was a strategic necessity.”

As Upstream’s managing partner, Fouad runs the daily operations, so he needed the flexibility of an online MBA program. His other must-have was that the program be situated in a highly reputable university. BU’s OMBA checked all the boxes.

“I’ve attended a lot of online studies, and the way the OMBA program is built—the material, platforms, and structure—is by far the most sophisticated,” he says. “The program is very dynamic, modern, and futuristic. And surprisingly so related to day-to-day business activities.” Also, Fouad points out, “the global network and shared knowledge among OMBA students is outstanding.”

Fouad had one career goal in mind when he chose to pursue an MBA—to gain the knowledge and skill needed to build a thriving company. His OMBA experience is setting him up to achieve just that. “I feel the OMBA is designed to help me run and improve my business,” he says. “Since enrollment, I’ve been applying everything I’m learning to my job daily, which has already helped me to improve my performance significantly. The program started paying off from day one, and it’s worth every penny—a very successful investment.”