For three decades, Mac McCullen's career ran on a rule from his time in the Navy: “ducks pick ducks.” You get promoted by thinking like the people around you, not by being yourself. It's how a rescue swimmer like McCullen became a helicopter pilot, then a squadron commander, then the officer in charge of an amphibious assault ship with an 1,100-person crew.
Then, in the first semester McCullen spent earning his MBA online, a professor posed a question that challenged the long-time rule he adopted as his own. Janet Duck, a professor from the Penn State Smeal College of Business, which leads the Penn State Online MBA, asked her students to think, “What if I'm wrong?” McCullen hadn't asked himself that in years. By answering it, one team project at a time, he found his way back to the person he set aside for three decades so a team could move as one.
McCullen finished his MBA in spring 2026 after three years and one move to Paris, France — later fitting course work around a demanding job at GE Aerospace.
Read about his journey to earn his Penn State degree online.
What made you decide to get an MBA, after everything else you'd already done?
I grew up in Tioga County, Pennsylvania, and wanted to play linebacker at Penn State. At 140 pounds, that was never happening. Around my 17th birthday, my dad told me he didn't think he'd be able to help me get through college. I enlisted in the Navy instead.
I earned my bachelor's degree in education from Southern Illinois University through adult and distance learning while I was stationed in Jacksonville, Florida. That was my introduction to online course work. Once I became a helicopter pilot, I earned a master's in aeronautical science from Embry-Riddle the same way, mostly online, because I needed it to stay competitive for promotion. Years later, I was running two businesses for GE Aerospace, working 60 to 65 hours a week. I wanted to get into a position where I could shape strategy instead of just executing it. Penn State has an online MBA program, and it felt like my chance for finishing something I'd wanted as a kid. I did not play football, but I was able to tackle an MBA.
You've said the military runs on “ducks pick ducks.” What did the “What if I’m wrong?” question from Professor Duck do to you?
In the military, you build a cohesive unit by breaking down individuality. That's how it succeeds and how you get promoted. Ducks pick ducks: You choose people who think and look like the ones already in charge. After three decades of that, you lose touch with who you were before you learned the rule.
Professor Duck asked the students in the course that exact question in my first semester, and it followed me through every team project after that. You don't just get to think a certain way about something anymore — you have to explain why you're thinking it and how you got there. I had a classmate from China who was always the first one done, always pushing the group forward. It took me awhile to get used to that pace. By the end of the program, I'd become that person myself. Learning next to people from different cultures and different parts of the world made me ask that question more, and it gave me a fresher perspective — not just on the course work, but on life.
It makes you a stronger member of a team.
You started the program while working at GE and finished it from Paris. How did you make that work?
The beauty of the program is that it's designed for people who are already working full-time — there's no residency requirement, nothing you have to be there for in person. My wife is originally from France, and we ended up moving from the U.S. to France to help with some medical issues her father was having. I was about halfway through the 30-month program at that point, two classes a semester including summers. That meant finding Wi-Fi wherever I could to keep up with course work and meet with my teams over Zoom. It never felt like something I could let slide, because the quality of the work didn't change just because my location did.
Now that you finally have your Penn State degree, what is next for you?
I'm in conversations with one company about a CEO role — that's ongoing, but nothing in stone yet — and I've talked with others about program and operations management, in both France and the Northeast U.S. I haven't landed on the next role yet, and after "ducks pick ducks,” that's by design. I'm not just taking whatever looks like the obvious next move. I need something I'm passionate about, where the values line up with mine. After serving as long as I did, it's not about me. I need a place where I can do some good and contribute to an organization's strategy and vision, not just be part of it.
A Penn State education online
McCullen's MBA didn't just travel with him through a demanding job and a move overseas — it gave him room to question assumptions he'd carried since his first day in uniform, the same ones that had made him a strong officer but had also determined who he was supposed to be.
That is what Penn State World Campus builds into every online program: real academic rigor, on a schedule that adjusts to a life already in motion, wherever it's headed.
Ready to start your story? Penn State World Campus offers more than 200 online degrees and certificates designed to fit your life. Explore your options.
