Landing the Interview: Taking on New Challenges: How to be an effective leader – and collaborative teammate

Matt Shay (EMBA’11) speaks with Claudia Del Rio (B’25) about building confidence, overcoming challenges, and supporting others.

What drew you to Georgetown’s Executive MBA program?

I was a mid-career executive when I decided to get my MBA. It was for a few reasons. One was that I had a background as an English and political science major during my undergraduate years. Then, as an attorney, I focused on government relations, legal affairs, lobbying, and legislative activity. But as I moved into new roles in the association world, my primary clients were CEOs of companies who were members of my board and association.

I realized I needed more exposure to the business side of the way companies operated. I picked Georgetown because of its reputation and proximity to Washington and the ability to draw business and government leaders into the university, both as instructors and students. The things we learned during our coursework were immediately applicable in the work I was doing. It helped round out my perspective on the way in which business actually operates, exposed me to subject matter that I’d never had before, and gave me confidence to be credible when I had conversations with executives and represented them on association business.

How has Georgetown impacted your career?

The Georgetown degree has enormous value in the market, and it’s a globally-recognized institution. As proud as I am of my undergraduate and law degree, the Georgetown degree on a resume from the McDonough School of Business, even for somebody at this stage in my career, still adds value. People respect it and recognize the work that goes into obtaining the degree and being associated with Georgetown. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about the lessons I learned and professors I was fortunate enough to learn from, and to apply those lessons in the work I do at the National Retail Federation. 

It was while I was at the Franchise Association that I started my MBA. In the middle of the two-year experience, I changed jobs and came to the National Retail Federation (NRF). I think the search committee that hired me saw that as a commitment to lifelong curiosity, and helped give them a sense that here was someone willing to learn new things and take on challenges.

What are the challenges you’ve faced at the NRF, and how have you navigated them?

The initial challenge was thinking that I knew what the opportunities were and not fully appreciating how substantial the challenges were until I got there. There was a lot of work restructuring and rehabilitating the organization from a financial, personnel, and operations perspective. Once we got that done, we laid a solid foundation for a healthy organization able to serve members and take on new priorities. That really helped us endure the next challenge – the pandemic.

We have a revenue model that relies heavily on programs and events to offset the expense of other activities, specifically our lobbying and advocacy work. We went into the pandemic with a $60 million annual operating budget. Because we had to cancel events and programs, our revenue dropped to $20 million a year, and that presented real challenges for how we took care of the team, supported staff, and served our members. We were able to rely on the balance sheet, a very robust line of credit, and aggressive cost management to avoid layoffs, furloughs, or pay cuts. Everyone kept their benefits. At one point, I took a voluntary pay cut. Today, we’ve more than recovered, and we’re on the way to $100 million in annual revenue.

Any advice for alumni looking to lead a large organization?

You have to recognize that sometimes you should begin with a leadership role at a smaller organization. No one starts at the top, whether you build a business as an entrepreneur or are a manager, corporate leader, or nonprofit leader.

I also can’t overemphasize how important it is to be a supportive, positive, collaborative teammate. When executives are looking at the next generation of leaders, they’re looking for individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to the success of the team and organization ahead of their own personal interests.

This story was originally featured in the Georgetown Business Spring 2025 Magazine. Download the Georgetown Business Audio app to listen to the stories and other bonus content.