Zach Toland loves a challenge. While earning a bachelor’s degree in Business Management at RPI, he landed multiple internships at organizations in the private and public sector. Leveraging a passion for comprehensive data visualization and impactful analysis, Zach helped these organizations make strategic decisions that lead to positive outcomes in the financial markets and for shareholders. Currently he is pursuing a Masters in Business Management. He was nominated for Student Spotlight by his department, who are “incredibly proud of him” due to his tremendous work ethic and his generosity in tutoring undergraduate students.
Zach’s rigorous academic journey began when he was accepted into the highly competitive Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, a National Blue Ribbon magnet high school ranked as the #1 STEM high school in Maryland by Newsweek and #4 in the nation by Study.com. Founded in 1883, the “Poly” provides exemplary opportunities for students in science, engineering, ROTC, robotics, and coding. Zach excelled academically, taking many honors and AP courses, including Physics, Chemistry, Statistics, Literature, Government, and more. As successful on the football field as in the classroom, Zach was a varsity offensive lineman for all four years of high school, team captain for 3 seasons, and earned Scholar Athlete of the Year senior year. Pivoting to Rugby during COVID, Zach was again an outstanding athlete on the pitch and received numerous offers from Division 1 schools.
Attracted to Lally School of Management by coursework that focused on application to real world scenarios and professors that have experience in the field, Zach chose to pursue his Bachelors at RPI. Originally in Business Analytics, he pivoted to Business Management, as he enjoys data intensive work in Excel, Power BI, and SQL dashboards, but is averse to coding.
In 2023, Zach was a Payroll and Tax Finance Intern at New York Teacher's Retirement System (NYSTRS) and was exposed early to the rigor and formalities of accounting within the private pension sector. In Fall of 2024, he served as a Student Assistant within the Bureau of Contracts for the New York State Health Department. Shortly after, Zach was admitted into the Rotational Finance Co-Op Program at Momentive Performance Materials where he was exposed to operations finance, controllership and accounting, treasury, risk assurance, and financial planning and analysis (FP&A).
Beyond academics, Zach was an RPI football player for freshman and sophomore year. Junior and senior year, he became captain of the RPI Men’s Rugby Club. During this time, the team won the Liberty League 15s Conference Championship (fall 2024), ending an 8-year drought. After, they won the Beast of the East 15s Social Cup Championship in 2025 and qualified for the National Collegiate Rugby 7s Championship for the first time in program history. This past season, Zach led the team to 2nd place in the conference, and He was selected to the First Team All-Liberty League Team and chosen as Offensive Player of the Year by his teammates, recognizing his 6 tries as a forward through 6 matches.
Zach has accepted a full-time position at Momentive and works full-time while pursuing his MBA. Sarah Feagan, his advisor, emphasizes that RPI is fortunate that Zach chose to complete his MBA here. “Through his hard work and dedication, he’s a great representative of the excellence our students are always striving for!”
