Humanities Express

Alumna Elizabeth Mily Finds Success in International Business

Elizabeth Mily (B.A. German and History) will give the Baccalaureate Address at the College’s annual celebration of graduating seniors on June 11. Her success in international business inspired the College to tap her for this honor.

Mily’s interest in international business started when she was a Congress-Bundestag Scholar at school in Germany (in lieu of her senior year in the U.S.). At Ohio State she vigorously pursued studies in European history and German. She recalls, "Professor Alan Beyerchen was not only an academic inspiration to me, but also a major mentor and friend. He was the primary reason I chose to pursue a degree in history."

Also pursuing sports with vigor, Mily was a member of the Women's Crew and a varsity rower; she was captain of the women's rowing team during her senior year. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, she graduated with honors and with distinction in 1990.

In 1991 Mily was a Fulbright scholar to the universities of Hamburg and Cologne, Germany, and earned an M.S. degree, magna cum laude, in foreign service from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in 1993.

She then joined Goldman, Sachs & Co. as a corporate finance analyst: "My humanities background helped me to get my first job. Given my language skills and knowledge of German and European politics, culture and history, I was offered a job in Frankfurt, Germany—the first non-European to receive such an offer at a starting level." Moving to London in 1995, she helped establish the European healthcare group. Today, as a managing director in Investment Banking in New York City, Mily is responsible for coverage of various diversified healthcare companies and runs Goldman, Sachs’ Life Sciences and Diagnostics business.

She is a member of the Fulbright Association, a patron of the Metropolitan Opera, and an active master’s rower with a club in Rutherford, New Jersey.

Mily says, "I am extremely proud to be a graduate of The Ohio State University and am grateful for all of the support as well as the high quality education that I received as a student." The College is proud of Elizabeth Mily and her success in business here and abroad.