Richard Carlson was born in Atlanta, GA, but did most of his growing up in the small, rural, farming town of Stuart, Virginia.  After graduating from high school, Richard joined the Marine Corps Reserves; then went on to study at the University of Pittsburgh.  In 2002, Richard graduated with a double major in Philosophy and Political Science and a minor in Religious Studies.  Like most recent college graduates, the future was quite uncertain, so Richard decided to spend a year with the Literacy AmeriCorps program where he served as an adult education tutor at the Allegheny County Jail.  At the end of his year of service, he decided to return to Atlanta where he landed a job as a Financial Advisor with Morgan Stanley, working out of the Alpharetta office. 

Returning to grad school was always a goal, with an MBA being the most logical choice.  The dilemma was choosing between doing a part-time program somewhere, or giving up two years of salary for the full-time experience.  The more he thought about it, the more appealing the second option appeared.  Richard is now a proud Dawg and can claim his decision to attend The Terry College of Business as one of his greatest ever. 

Richard’s summer internship was with PPG Industries in their Automotive Coatings division based out of Troy, MI.  His project was to travel to major automotive assembly plants throughout Canada, US and Mexico to review the billing process and write a best practices guide to be used by sales teams entering into new markets globally. 

Other than serving as a GBA vice president, Richard is also president of the Terry MBA Finance and Investment Club and serves as an MBA Ambassador.