MBA

Profiles

Damien Hooper-Campbell, MBA 2009

Damien Hooper-Campbell's business career started early – at age ten, when he swept floors at a local barber shop to bring in a little extra income for his family. The experience established two interests Damien would pursue: business and community engagement.

At Morehouse, Damien's original plan was to major in political science. But when he discovered economics, he saw that "politics could be seen as a part of economics – and economics was the key to so many things happening in the world." A summer internship with Morgan Stanley confirmed his interest. "It opened my eyes to business and investment banking," Damien says. "I loved being surrounded by smart people, being immersed in the details of deal-making."

Damien joined Morgan Stanley after graduation and prospered there for a couple of years before taking yet another turn. After a five-month sabbatical of soul searching, "I realized what really drives me is people; that's the thread in my life." Even though he would have to accept a fifty percent pay cut, Damien joined the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone in Harlem, writing grants and running financial analyses for community institutions such as the world-famous Boys' Choir of Harlem and the Apollo Theater.

Learning from the best

"I loved what I was doing," Damien says, "but when it came to strategy, marketing, setting up a business, I knew I needed to increase my skill set." Damien chose HBS specifically because it would allow him "to develop new relationships, especially internationally. And on a personal level, it would force me out of my comfort zone."

"This is a school that's entirely based on interacting with people," says Damien. "I know Harvard recruits the best, so I can learn from the best. Here, the professors push us to be real with each other, to speak freely and yet push back in a respectful way. That creative tension is what breeds real learning."

While the school's wide variety of extracurricular activities is stimulating, they also pose a challenge: "You want to join so many things," says Damien, "but you have to remember you have thirteen cases every week. Getting so deeply involved in a number of organizations, such as the African American Student Union, has been a great crash course in adult time management."

Community entrepreneurship

Over the summer, Damien plans to return to Morgan Stanley as a fellow in a new aspect of investment practice, private wealth management. "It's a great way to bring financial experience to a job that's primarily about relationships," says Damien. After completing his MBA, he intends to gain more experience in finance, then look for opportunities in community entrepreneurship. "I'd like to take a single street in a place like Harlem and build multiple businesses." He envisions, for example, a barber shop that would remain open on Sundays – not for business, but for adult education classes. "I want to work with residents to empower them, to give them a sense of ownership in their own communities."