QUEST has numerous alumni spread across the world, working in extremely interesting fields and industries. One such alum is Jenna Beglin (Cohen), who is the Senior Manager at the Design & Innovation team at Samsung. Jenna was able to provide me with some insight on what she does at Samsung and what has led her there. 

At UMD, Jenna was a member of Cohort 15 of QUEST. Upon graduation from UMD, Jenna started in technology strategy consulting at Accenture, got her MBA from Cornell, worked at a brand and innovation consulting agency called Sterling Brands (an Omnicom agency), and then transitioned to Samsung. 

At Samsung, Jenna’s team has a multitude of responsibilities. Her team develops the pipeline of innovation ideas for Samsung’s services group, usually including software and mobile phone apps. She helps design these concepts, prove the business case, manage the prototype build and test the concepts with consumers. She also conducts other primary consumer research to inform product growth and go-to-market strategy. Currently, Jenna works with Samsung’s software products, like Samsung Health, Samsung Pay, Bixby Voice, and Bixby Vision. She conducts consumer insights for these products to inform product road maps and growth strategies.

When talking about other products she’s worked on, Jenna says, “In my past life at Sterling, I conducted consumer insights work to inform the branding and design of a new “Keurig for Cocktails” called DrinkWorks – a collaboration between Anheuser Busch and Keurig.” She’s also developed a brand architecture to inform innovation and branding for Pepperidge Farm. 

When asked about her time at QUEST, Jenna says it impacted her in many ways. She says, “QUEST taught me how to think in a structured way, how to problem solve, and how to manage clients and stakeholders – important skills in ANY industry.”  Her favorite part of the QUEST experience was how  “QUEST, especially Dr. Suarez’s lectures, made me feel like I could and want to change the world.” Dr. Suarez was the director of QUEST for her first two years in the program. He taught Jenna her capstone class, and she considers him to be one of the most inspirational people she has ever learned from. 

Jenna recently got dual citizenship (US & Spain) and is hoping to move to the EU soon. She also got married three months ago. Congratulations are definitely in order and it’s definitely inspiring to be able to trace a path of a QUEST alum from where many of our students are right now to the juncture of life Jenna’s at currently. Kudos to her for having found her niche in an industry and position that sounds extremely interesting and rewarding. We look forward to staying in touch!