From Fashion to Transformation: A Career Reinvented Through Resilience and Rigor
Greg Williams remembers the exact date: Jan. 16, 2023.
He was starting his MBA when a sweeping Microsoft layoff affected 10,000 employees, including him. Suddenly, Williams was trying to move his education forward while the career beneath him shifted.
“I remember vividly,” he said. “I was like, ‘I need to do something.’”
Williams kept going. Once he completed his MBA, a professor encouraged him to consider taking his education even further with a Doctorate in Business Administration.
Williams’ first reaction was understandable: “What more is there to do?”
That question eventually led him to UNC Charlotte.
It was another unexpected turn in a career that began far from financial services. Williams studied fashion and retail merchandising as an undergraduate. He pictured himself moving to New York, creating clothes and working Fashion Week.
For years, he stayed close to that world, working for brands including JCPenney and Banana Republic. Then his career began to evolve. He earned Six Sigma and project management credentials, spent time at Microsoft and eventually joined Capital One, where he now serves as manager of operations strategy and transformation.
“It’s been a rollercoaster,” he said.
UNC Charlotte’s DBA program appealed to Williams because it was built for experienced professionals and offered something he did not want to lose: face-to-face connection.
During the program’s first two years, students come to Charlotte for intensive weekend residencies each month. That means stepping away from work and family for long days of learning alongside faculty and classmates.
For Williams, that immersion was the point.
“The immersive learning experience with other students is the reason why I chose UNC Charlotte over other schools,” he said.
The commitment became more complicated when Williams moved from Chicago to Washington, D.C. for his position at Capital One. His monthly trips to Charlotte have included rain, snow, delayed flights and weekends when downtown events send hotel prices climbing.
Sometimes, the flight becomes his study space.
“Instead of taking the peanuts and the Coke and relaxing, I’m leaning back and figuring out how best I can get something done,” he said.
Williams has found the effort worthwhile. He enjoys the rigor of the program and has been impressed by the faculty members leading it.
“We have some of the world-renowned researchers teaching in our program,” he said. “I think that speaks volumes.”
His research focuses on organizational design and how workplace structures affect change. As artificial intelligence creates new questions and fears across industries, Williams wants to help organizations respond with evidence rather than assumptions, and with greater awareness of the employees and families affected by their decisions.
“I’m not just guessing,” he said. “I can use literature. I can use data.”
Although Williams now lives hundreds of miles from Charlotte, he has found a genuine sense of community at the university. He has participated in the Belk College Connect Summit, guest lectured and looked for opportunities to contribute his ideas and experience to campus life.
Capital One also supports his education through its Tuition Benefits Partnership with UNC Charlotte. Williams values the financial assistance, but he is equally grateful that his supervisor protects the Fridays he needs to attend residency weekends.
“Once I complete this degree with their financial help, this will be something that I own,” he said. “They can’t take it away from me.”
Williams plans to graduate in May 2027. He hopes to lead organizational transformations, advise companies and help leaders manage change without losing sight of the people experiencing it.
It is not the Fashion Week future he once imagined. But Williams’ career has shown him that an unexpected change in direction can still lead somewhere meaningful.