Angela Minas

BA, Managerial Studies, 1986; MBA, 1987

As senior vice president with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), Angela Minas spends about half her time in the United Kingdom and the other half in the United States.

SAIC is a Fortune 500 company that provides science, engineering, and management consulting and professional information technology services to government and commerce. “My role,” says Minas, “is to build our global consulting business in the commercial arena, which is a new area for us.”

Minas adds that her focus is on building relationships with companies in the oil and gas, utility, telecommunication, and pharmaceutical industries, as well as with the United Kingdom public sector. “We’re looking at industries where science and engineering are the key elements,” she says.

It’s a busy and exciting time for Minas. “On a typical day, if there is such a thing,” she says, “I might field 50 different requests, meet with clients, get involved in business development or practice management activities, hire new staff, interface with senior management, or tell our story to analysts.”

Prior to joining SAIC, Minas worked for 10 years at Arthur Andersen, originally helping to set up its oil and gas consulting practice. Earlier in her career, while she was still in school, Minas worked with Jones School adjunct professor David Ross to provide analysis on oil companies and merger and acquisition support for large investment banks. Ross’s venture evolved into the Sterling Consulting Group, and Minas spent several years with the firm, handling strategic and management consulting work for major oil companies.

Minas often draws on what she learned at the Jones School. Early on, she found herself leveraging the accounting and financial skills she had acquired. As the years passed, Minas went back to the lessons she learned about management and organizational development. “Some consider these the softer skills,” she says. “But once you get into management, you really draw on them.”

Although she hadn’t initially considered an MBA, Minas made the decision to pursue the degree after taking business and accounting classes as an undergrad. It’s a decision that continues to pay dividends for her. She credits the Jones School with sharpening those “soft” skills and instilling their value. “At the end of the day, they probably differentiate those who are able to get into management and those who are superintelligent technical people,” she says.

So much of what Minas does now—the team building and related activities—are things she learned during her MBA experience. “Before that, most of what I did was individual work,” she says. “Teamwork, which is what our business is about, is very different.”