“Neither my parents nor I had a means to pay for me to go to college, so my only ticket to higher education in America was a scholarship,” says Akmaral Omarova, a native of the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan. Saint Mary’s gave her that ticket, and she went on to major in business.

Her career, she says, was influenced by Professor Mary Ann Merryman’s excitement about accounting and Professor Jill Vihtelic’s ability to make corporate finance so interesting. “They played big roles in my pursing a finance career in public accounting.”

After graduating in 2002, Omarova started the Transaction Advisory Services department at Ernst and Young in Kazakhstan. She was only 23 at the time. She is currently a management consultant for the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in Moscow and works with the largest Russian companies in financial services, oil and gas, and metals. “My current project is in the Ukraine and I travel there every week,” she says. Omarova is also working on establishing a women’s initiative group at BCG Moscow. Her goal is to plan a program that caters specifically to the needs of women clients and employees. “After all,” she says, “I went to an all-women’s college!”

written by Amanda Goetz ’08