Taking hits and making plays

“In college, I wasn’t the most gifted athlete, but I outworked the people I played with. When I took over the company, I wasn’t going to get off that treadmill—I was just going to keep going. I had to figure out a way to provide for my family and my mother. It had to work. It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you have no other option.”

In 2001, at 25 years old and with limited business experience, former UNC football player Ryan Carfley ’00 ’16 (M.B.A.) found himself at the helm of his late father’s company. The job recruitment and talent management company was more than $1 million in debt and on the brink of bankruptcy. Against all odds and through two recessions, Carfley—who received Triangle Business Journal’s 40-Under-40 Leadership Award in 2015 and was named one of the world’s Best & Brightest Executive MBAs in the Class of 2016 by Poets & Quants—led his company, Personify, through an incredible transformation.

Photo credit: Ryan Huebler/UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School

Read the complete Carolina Story from UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School…

Carfley will graduate from UNC’s Executive MBA Program in fall 2016. Gifts to The Fund for UNC Kenan-Flagler support the Business School’s top-ranked degree programs, which offer unique learning and career opportunities and unmatched ROI to a diverse range of students.

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