Thomas Miller speaks to Watson students about his career, lessons he has learned

Monday, April 4, 2016

On March 25, Thomas Miller was welcomed to Oklahoma State University by Watson Graduate School of Management students as he spoke in their Professional Development course. Miller talked with students about his career and the lessons he learned along the way.

Miller attended Yale University as an undergraduate student and received a bachelor’s degree in history. He earned a master’s in economic history from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Miller is currently the diplomatic and international business lead at Bloomberg Government.

In the beginning of his presentation, Miller discussed his time at Yale and his accomplishments as an undergraduate which included the creation of the Yale Graduate Professional, a student newspaper. Miller also took advantage of a study abroad opportunity in London.

“That was my first time out of the United States except for the one day I spent in Mexico,” said Miller. “I spent a year and a half in London.”

After graduating, Miller and his brother backpacked through Europe for three months.

“We met a lot of other backpackers who spoke at least three languages,” said Miller. “I felt that my high school Spanish wouldn’t be sufficient throughout this journey, so while in Paris I decided to learn French.”

Although Miller did not plan to stay in Europe for more than eight months, he received a job offer at Hudson Research Europe after tutoring the owner’s son the prior summer. After working in France for six years, and learning the language, he returned to the U.S.

With international experience, Miller was able to establish himself within the international business industry by working for corporations such as International Research Association (INRA). Here he conducted and wrote about research studies for newspapers and magazines including The Wall Street Journal.

As a result of recognizing the need for international influence within the young adult community, Miller and his friend started a non-profit organization, Business for Diplomatic Action.

“We put together programs such as an exchange program, Arab & American Business Fellowship, for students to come to the United States to meet and fellowship with American students,” said Miller. “The program was later adopted by the state, and they revamped the program.”

He informed students that organizational culture can be implemented and sustained by providing a safe work environment and keeping up awareness for continuous improvement.

Second-year MBA student John Nickel found Miller’s presentation to be motivational.

“Mr. Miller encouraged our students to find ways of bringing about change and innovation by drawing on our individual experiences and skillsets,” said Nickel. “We have already started down a path, and if we stop to reflect upon our accomplishments, our next step can very well fall into place.”

Course professor Ajay Sukhdial was pleased to have Miller speak with his students because of his knowledge and experience with international business.

“My purpose for inviting Mr. Miller was to provide my students insights into how careers in today’s globalized business environment evolve,” said Sukhdial. “Mr. Miller has had a storied career in which he has served as managing director with the Roper Organization, one of the world’s leading market and public opinion research firms, where he managed all of the company’s global marketing, branding, consumer trend and public opinion/public affairs insight services.”

“His work with Roper covered more than 50 countries, and he has traveled to almost all of them. Thus, I believe that his advice to my students about career management will be very valuable for them.”

For more information on OSU’s Watson Graduate School of Management, visit http://watson.okstate.edu/ or call 405-744-9000.