A Passionate Professional Journey: Lifelong Connections in Georgetown’s Executive MBA Program
As the spring semester comes to a close, Georgetown McDonough is pleased to commemorate the accomplishments of the Class of 2025. To celebrate, we’re spotlighting several of the exceptional students in the Class of 2025 as they share their personal stories, reflect on their time on the Hilltop, and preview what the future holds after commencement.
When Brian O’Connor (EMBA’25) and Sheila Taheri (EMBA’25) decided to pursue an Executive MBA at Georgetown McDonough, they were focused on building a successful future – one they did not imagine they would share together.
O’Connor and Taheri come from different backgrounds. He is from New York, while she grew up in Northern Virginia. O’Connor is a U.S. Navy veteran and Taheri works in healthcare technology. But the two share an interest in entrepreneurship – a common thread that would ultimately intertwine their lives forever.
“I think my gut was telling me Georgetown is the right choice – and clearly it was,” Taheri said.
O’Connor and Taheri met through various cohort activities at the start of their first semester in fall 2023 and quickly bonded over a strong alignment in their core values. Additionally, both had recently experienced a significant life transition, moving from the West to East Coast. Although they had varying life experiences, the two found they complemented each other well.
“Sheila crushed negotiations, and I was always good at the venture capital, strategy side of things,” O’Connor said.
“Initially for both of us, the focus of our experience was just about the program and working on ourselves,” Taheri added. “But naturally, it seemed like we were a good fit time after time, and it was just hard to deny it.”
Eventually, O’Connor asked Taheri to be his date to a gala for the Honor Foundation, a career transition program for U.S. Special Operations Forces. The couple later solidified their relationship between their first and second semester. In August 2024, after returning from their Global Business Experience trip to South Korea, O’Connor proposed.
When it came time for the couple to tie the knot in March 2025, they knew just the right person to call – their classmate Fr. Luc Philogene (EMBA’25), a Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.
“After 17 years of priesthood, I can’t count the number of marriages I’ve attended and blessed,” Philogene said. “For Brian and Sheila, this has a special meaning. I saw this love being born, I saw the first moments of this love. It was a great joy and a blessing for me to be able to bless and witness the marriage of two friends, two classmates.”
The couple was married in a sanctuary known for its humble beginnings – a sentiment that resonated deeply with Taheri and O’Connor’s own journey.
“We’ll always reflect and have memories on that day and with this class,” O’Connor added. “Our personal and professional lives have intertwined. It was a super important and impactful time for Sheila and me.”
Philogene, O’Connor, and Taheri will all cross the Commencement stage this May with not only a hard-earned degree and skills to advance their careers, but also a network of lifelong connections. They encourage future EMBA students to be open-minded to new experiences and to learn from the wide array of perspectives within the cohort.
“I used to be in the military, and the person sitting next to me had a master’s in peace studies,” O’Connor said. “That diversity of experiences is awesome for your personal and professional development.”
As O’Connor and Taheri enter this next chapter of their lives together, they plan to apply the lessons learned in the EMBA program as they build Darksaber Labs, an AI defense technology startup founded by O’Connor. The two will forever be grateful for the lasting impact of their Georgetown experience.
“It’s just so funny because I told myself, ‘Okay, I’m going to take these 21 months and focus on myself and my career,’” Taheri said. “I was not thinking I was going to meet my person.”
