A Passion For Business

By Jess Clarke

Kyrone Nebolisa grew up helping with his father’s medical-supplies company. Assisting in marketing, analytics, customer needs, sales, and other tasks influenced a big decision later in his life: to pursue an MBA.

Nebolisa, who will finish the Jenkins MBA program in May, is in the biosciences management curriculum. That background will help him as he progresses in his biotechnology and pharmaceutical career. 

“I’ve always had a passion for business. I’ve wanted to lead people and organizations. I thought having an MBA degree would be a good boost for me to pursue my passion,” he says. “

Aside from relevant courses and real-world projects, the close community of MBA faculty and students and networking opportunities are among the program’s highlights for Nebolisa, who earned a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from NC State in 2010.

At Poole, he gives back. As an ambassador for the Jenkins Professional Evening MBA program, he is a resource for prospective students who want to learn about the program.  

The Professional Evening MBA alternative, which offers him the option of taking evening and online classes and working at his own pace, is one reason he chose Jenkins’ MBA. 

The flexibility is important because Nebolisa, a part-time student, works remotely full time as a senior manager of external manufacturing for 2seventybio, a Boston-based company that develops cancer therapies.

He oversees quality assurance, making sure products meet company standards and Food and Drug Administration requirements. His responsibilities include reviewing medication batch records for quality control and supervising releases of drug lots, or sets, for oncology patients. The company’s focus now is medications for people with myeloma, a blood cancer. 

Nebolisa’s main goal in his position is “to continue to give patients more time with their families by providing ample product on the market, so they can live longer lives,” he says.     

At 2seventybio, he uses what he’s learned in the MBA program about time-based management and data analytics. He plans eventually to move to a business or strategy role in biotech to tap his Jenkins degree more.

“I want to move up the corporate ladder, progress in my current role, see where it goes and maybe advance to be a C-suite executive,” says Nebolisa, who works from his New Hill, N.C., home.  

He previously worked in quality oversight for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies Pfizer, Biogen and Novo Nordisk. His experiences as an undergraduate taking classes at NC State’s Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center led him to the biotech field.

In Nebolisa’s current position, “What’s most rewarding is that what I do on a day-to-day basis eventually helps patients live longer,” he says. “I help the community by the work I do each day.”

This post was originally published in Jenkins MBA News.