When Thomas Lengel sits in a classroom at the Manderson Graduate School of Business, he brings with him more than a notebook and a laptop. He brings years of real-world experience, lessons learned on warehouse floors and in management meetings, and a renewed sense of purpose.
Lengel, a Wilmington, Delaware native with deep family ties to Alabama, earned his undergraduate degree in finance and economics from Culverhouse in 2019. He left campus with a solid foundation, but like many new graduates, he still had questions about the direction of his career.
“I was originally in tax consulting,” Lengel said. “I kind of realized I didn’t enjoy the desk job as much, and one of my clients offered me a sales position that turned into a management position. I really preferred the operations side of it.”
For the next several years, Lengel built a career in operations and management for an air filter distribution company in Houston. He managed people, processes, and products. Along the way, he discovered how efficiency and problem-solving could make or break a business. After six years away from Alabama, he began to feel the pull of home.
“I’d been looking for a new job and wanted to get closer to family again,” he said. “But I hit a crossroads. All the jobs I wanted required an MBA. So, I could either keep trying to push through being less qualified or take a step back and do it the right way.”
That moment of reflection led him back to The University of Alabama and the Manderson MBA program, where he found the perfect fit in supply chain and operations management. “It just kind of seemed like a sign,” he said.
Coming back to school after years in the workforce has its challenges, but Lengel says it’s also given him an advantage.
“I recommend it for sure,” he said. “There are classes, like accounting, where I understand more now because I’ve seen what those numbers mean in the real world. I came in much more targeted. I know exactly what I want to do.”
That clarity has shaped his approach to the MBA experience. While many of his classmates are learning concepts for the first time, Lengel brings context and an understanding of how data and decisions impact a business beyond the classroom.
He’s especially drawn to the “puzzle-solving” nature of operations management. “I love looking at how a business is functioning, where areas can improve, what problems we’re having,” he said. “It’s like using math to solve problems and make things work better.”
For Lengel, returning to Manderson wasn’t about starting over, it was about building on experience and rediscovering the excitement of learning again.
“I was pretty unprepared for what it would feel like being back in the classroom,” he said, smiling. “But now I can see how everything connects. The work, the numbers, the people— it all fits together.”