Pivot: It’s Family Business
Why Merjan Bubernack left her job and headed home.
In 2022, Merjan Bubernack (B’15) attended a silent retreat in California that became a turning point in her career. After eight years in corporate America, she emerged with a renewed sense of purpose and decided to return to her hometown of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to join her family’s business.
Started in 1968 by Bubernack’s grandfather, ET&T — a telecommunications and technology company — has been managed by her father and mother, Michael and Fusun Bubernack, since 2001. Merjan joined the team in July 2023, but before that her experiences at Georgetown McDonough and beyond all contributed to her rising success to take on the mantle of director of customer success at ET&T.
While a student at Georgetown, Bubernack was actively engaged in campus life, serving all four years with the Alumni Association’s phone-a-thon initiative, founding the Turkish Students Association, and working in and around D.C. for a social newsletter taking photos at fundraisers and engaging with people in the community.
This exposure to community engagement led Bubernack to seek out roles in sales after Georgetown. Her first job was at Oracle, and she explained that while it wasn’t the typical role McDonough students think about going into after graduation, Bubernack knew early on she saw a different path for herself.
She discovered the role after a recruiter came to the Hilltop for an event. “There are quite a number of us from Georgetown who got hired there… It taught me the basics of sales, getting out there prospecting, and building a relationship that led to new business.” She stayed in this role for a year and half before pivoting to sales in the restaurant industry at Caviar (now part of DoorDash).
Bubernack signed nearly 300 restaurants in D.C. onto the e-commerce food delivery platform during the two and half years she held this position. “I ate so much good food. I met a lot of really interesting people. I loved it. And again, it was building those relationships, learning about people and what drove their business, and how we could help them be successful,” she said.
However, Bubernack’s long-term goal wasn’t to stay in the restaurant industry. Around 2019, a friend and Georgetown classmate recommended that she join them at Tableau. Within a week of Bubernack accepting the job, Tableau was acquired by Salesforce, making her one of many in a 70,000 person company.
Then, in 2020, COVID-19 hit. Despite the global pandemic, Bubernack rose to become the top rep in her division, earning back-to-back President’s Club honors. This planted the seeds for a promotion. Each time the conversation about a promotion arose, she was passed over. In 2022, she decided to hit the pause button and reassess by attending a silent insight meditation retreat.
“You’re supposed to really be in your zone. I walked out of it and said, ‘I’m ready to go to mom and dad.’”
For Bubernack, the reason to pivot to her family’s company was simple. “It’s really about continuing a legacy about investing in the community,” she said. “We’re building a community here. We’re building a town that’s really exciting to me. I think that the opportunities in smaller family businesses are just as lucrative as the ones that you could find on Wall Street.”
As director of customer success, Bubernack works at the intersection of sales, marketing, and operations. She’s also considering how AI can be leveraged to optimize processes, and bring ET&T into its next phase. As a third generation business owner, Bubernack noted that she initially felt a huge weight of responsibility. After meeting with others in her same position, however, and speaking with them about what they want for this next generation, Bubernack feels more empowered. She recognizes her abilities to foster community, honed from years working in sales, and leverages the Georgetown value of cura personalis in everyday interactions with clients, whom she runs into at places like the grocery store and events around town.
Looking back on her pivot from corporate employment to serving in the family business, Bubernack encourages other Hoyas with this message about finding your way post-degree:
“There’s a whole world out there [and] only a small fraction of companies may come on campus and recruit. Think about what excites you, what inspires you, [and] open your horizons [to] what companies and business are out there.”
By 2024, Bubernack was named one of the NextGens to watch. She noted, “It’s opened up a lot of opportunities for me to connect with other family businesses. I’ve been able to connect with people who had their own lives and decided to go back to family business, and pivot and grow and bring that next generation mindset into a lot of these legacy businesses.”
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.