Alumni spotlight: Cash Nickerson, MBA’93

Before Cash Nickerson finished his MBA, he earned his law degree  (WashU JD’85), and accepted a position with the Union Pacific Railroad as an attorney focused on mergers and acquisitions. The company quickly moved him into business positions, including running Union Pacific ExpressAir in St. Louis, where he continued taking courses at the Olin Business School.

In 1990, Nickerson joined Jenner & Block in Chicago as an associate. He made partner in 1993 — the same year he earned his MBA — and ­soon began thinking about another career move. “Many people didn’t understand why I wanted to make a change after I made partner,” he says. “But I couldn’t imagine staying. I was like, what’s next?”

His answer involved founding a series of companies that provided specialized business services. He sold his first entrepreneurial venture, human resources outsourcing startup Workforce Strategies, for $8.5 million in 1995. “That will addict you to entrepreneurship,” he says. He took the online business portal company Mucho.com public through a reverse merger in 2000.

Nickerson joined PDS Tech in 2003. During his 12 years with the company, one of the nation’s largest temporary staffing firms, he has satisfied his urge to start new things by nurturing outside interests. He has written five books of essays, three of them focused on employment and the workplace. After the first book, he created his own publishing company to maximize profits.

This is an excerpt from story published in Washington Magazine and online The Source.

Link to complete article.

By Mary Lee, a senior writer in Development ­Communications. For a related video featuring Cash Nickerson,and Kelli Washington, BSBA’94 talking about the meaning of  scholarships they received to attend WashU visit together.wustl.edu/circle

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