Sam Chin, GB'15

December 19, 2014
MBA student and Richmond-based food importer look abroad

Last year Daniel Phipps, ’00, senior vice president at Red River Foods, Inc., a leading food products and ingredients importer based in Richmond, Va., approached The Richmond MBA with a collaboration opportunity. “We’d recently began exploring and considering expansion opportunities abroad, so we came to The Richmond MBA in hopes of working with a student through a Capstone Project,” he said.

Considering the global nature of the proposed project, Sam Chin, GB'15, senior business process analyst at Argo Group, a global insurance and financial services company, was approached with the idea.

Chin shared, “My experience lies mainly in process and operations optimization and consulting. I analyze existing processes and manage projects that help achieve more efficient future state processes. I also have extensive experience working with global teams and managing project members over a widely dispersed area. When I was approached with this project, which would employ much of my skills and experience, I was excited to jump in.”

Jonathan Whitaker, associate professor of management, was chosen to be Chin’s Capstone Project advisor due to his background in global operations. He explained, “While the company had an exciting opportunity for expansion, it did not have a framework to evaluate the financial and operational impacts of expansion. As part of the project, Sam performed extensive research to develop a sophisticated framework that could be applied to Red River Foods’ expansion opportunities abroad.”

Chin conducted research in strategic outsourcing, international business and global market trends, which he “incorporated into a methodology and system of thought for assessing and analyzing operational expansion into foreign markets.”

Whitaker shared his experience working with Chin. “I first worked with Sam in my operations management course. He was a top performer, and I looked forward to working with him again. Sam has excellent analytical skills developed through the MBA coursework and his professional experience at Argo Group. Using his education, he successfully applied the skills he’s gained in the financial services industry to a manufacturing setting. He also effectively combined his analytical and interpersonal skills to build a credible relationship with Red River Foods, which gave the client added confidence in his work.”

"Dr. Whitaker was an outstanding mentor," Chin said. "The Capstone Project would not have been successful without his insight and guidance. Overall, I had an incredible experience working with him and learned a lot throughout the project. Red River Foods also provided a wonderful Capstone Project experience. They were very accommodating and supportive at every layer of the organization. They really brought me into their team and helped set me up for success in the project, and I greatly enjoyed working with them," he added.

Phipps looked back on the Capstone Project. “It was a privilege to work with Sam and The Richmond MBA. Sam’s presentation far surpassed our expectations. We were thoroughly impressed with his work ethic, aptitude and diligence, and his ability to create a comprehensive and valid appraisal of Red River Foods' expansion opportunities in an unfamiliar industry over such a short period of time was remarkable. The Capstone Project has provided us with an effective tool to evaluate our global expansion opportunities, which we’ve already begun to utilize.”  

Chin concluded, “The knowledge I’ve gained through The Richmond MBA has been invaluable. Every class opened a new door to understanding the mechanics of the business world and allowed me to better understand and more appropriately act on the many interactions I experience daily in the workplace. Presenting the Capstone Project really was a culmination of the time and energy I’d invested in the program. My entire journey was validated in that last presentation to Red River Foods. In the end, it was the highlight of my MBA experience.”