McKenzie O’Malley

I'm a first-generation college student who graduated from the University of Tampa in May 2022 with a major in business marketing and a minor in Spanish. Growing up in the south suburbs of Chicago, my first job was cleaning construction houses for my dad with my sister. My dad owns his own custom home building business, and my grandma was president of Coldwell Banker without ever going to school, so entrepreneurship runs in my family. Throughout high school and college, I worked various jobs including at an ice cream shop, my cousin's spray tan salon, and Nordstrom on commission-only sales. In college, I was a mentor for the Success Scholars Program, helping first-generation college students and underrepresented minorities with everything from choosing majors to roommate issues. I started my career with an internship at Appy Hour, a startup app promoting food, drinks, and happy hour events at restaurants, where I worked in marketing and as a brand ambassador. After graduating, I joined Harness Giving as a business development representative doing heavy cold calling work with nonprofits. I eventually went full-time with Appy Hour and was promoted to account executive of brand relationships and suppliers. Looking for more room for growth and a more established company, I joined Bizerba almost a year ago as a Territory Sales Manager for the Southeast region. The transition was challenging at first, adjusting to a whole new industry and much bigger territory, but once I applied my cold calling skills and did a lot of cold outreach, things started to click. I recently received a Peak Performance Award for selling more automatic wrappers than all other sales reps across the country during a promotion that ended in March. I'm also doing some modeling on the side and working on other personal projects to continue growing my network and career.