Park Fellows Alumni Spotlight: Brian Hittle, MBA ’03

In a recent interview, Brian Hittle, MBA ’03, who writes under the pseudonym Brian Andrews and is half of the New York Times bestselling writing team Andrews & Wilson, discusses leadership, storytelling, and finding purpose in a character.

The impact of the Park Fellowship

Reflecting on his experience as a Roy H. Park Leadership Fellow, Hittle highlighted its strength, which he attributes to the diverse endeavors Park Fellows pursue. He describes the program as instrumental in reshaping his thinking and deepening his understanding of his leadership style.

He pointed to a broad leadership crisis, particularly in the corporate world, where many leaders have moved away from a servant leadership mindset. He expressed a strong desire to see Park graduates champion the program’s ideals—honesty, morality, and service-driven leadership—not just in their personal growth, but as a guiding force in their careers. His hope is to see more Park Fellows rise to CEO positions and redefine leadership through principled decision-making.

Question 1: Do you ever incorporate different leadership styles in your characters?

Before diving into this question, Hittle reflected on a key moment that helped him understand his own leadership approach: taking the Myers-Briggs personality assessment during his time in the Park program. This experience gave him a deeper appreciation for the variety of leadership styles—and how different personalities influence the way people lead.

That awareness finds its way into his writing. By incorporating diverse leadership styles into his characters, he ensures that his stories resonate with people from a range of backgrounds and experiences. One example is Keith “Chunk” Redman, originally introduced as comic relief but who became so popular that he earned his own series. At first, Hittle and his team approached this expansion with some hesitation—many leading male heroes tend to be brooding, struggling with internal demons, and often self-destructive. Audiences are drawn to these figures because they want to see them turn things around.

Chunk breaks that mold. He’s a hard worker, has his life together, and maintains a strong family foundation. His leadership style contrasts with John Dempsey’s intense, mission-driven approach by focusing on team spirit, camaraderie, and lifting those around him. With Chunk, it’s always about “us”—a dynamic that sets him apart and adds depth to the leadership themes woven throughout Hittle’s work.

Question 2: Can you tell us about your journey and how you’ve been creating impact?

It took time for Hittle to determine how he wanted to create impact. Finding a guiding principle—a “north star”—is essential before applying lessons in the most effective way, he said. That journey led to storytelling. Through his writing, he weaves together lessons from Park and his experiences in the Navy, using them as a foundation for his narratives.

The Navy, he explained, deeply shaped both his books and the characters within them. Military service instilled a mission-first mentality, where service—not financial gain—took precedence. This philosophy translated into his writing, where his protagonists aren’t just action heroes fighting for the sake of spectacle; they are driven by purpose. He observed that while movies and books often depict characters as strong and heroic, few emphasize their moral compass or the deeper “why” behind their actions. He actively seeks in his work to address that gap.

“What Jeff Wilson (his co-writer) and I do is write characters who represent in deed and in word a principle-based mentality—in the military we call this ‘mission before self,’” he said. “Our characters often find themselves in moral conundrums, just like we all do in real life. If you pull back your vehicle and hit a car parked behind you, you have a choice—you can do the right thing (e.g., leave a note) or leave. In a world and time where we think we live under a microscope, there are many instances where no one is watching to see if you did right or wrong, and you will have to make a decision based on your moral compass. It’s up to you and your personal north star to determine how to behave with fellow humans on a daily basis. We try to provide role models as characters in our books. For instance, when John Dempsey (one of the main characters in their series) has a choice, he does the right thing even if it doesn’t benefit him. He doesn’t deviate from his moral compass.

“We get emails from fans telling us our characters feel very personable. Six or seven books into our series, our message is starting to make a difference. After succeeding with the first books in the series, the editor of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan franchise asked us to take over the series. This was a tremendous step for us. Jack Ryan is a character that has an incredibly strong moral compass and some of the principles we are trying to share with the world. By crafting stories with principle-based behavior, I am sharing the Park Fellowship ‘servant leadership’ message with the world. In my books, I have spread the Park Fellowship word with people from different backgrounds and experiences.”

Question 3: Given how powerful your message is for adult audiences, have you thought about doing something more catered for kids?

Hittle recently spoke at his daughter’s school, an experience that made him realize the potential impact of sharing his message with younger audiences. He sees future conversations at high schools as a valuable way to inspire students and is also looking forward to engaging with Park Fellows during his upcoming trip to Ithaca.

This question naturally led him into the other half of our discussion—his focus on the inner monologues that shape a hero’s journey. He explored the idea that everyone has an internal voice, one that can often be a relentless critic. Many people, he noted, are their own harshest judges, and this self-criticism can significantly affect their confidence, performance, and long-term trajectory. Through his writing, Hittle aims to reframe this inner dialogue. Rather than letting his characters battle self-doubt in the usual destructive way, he makes their inner voices act as coaches—mentors that guide them forward rather than tear them down.

About the author

Juan Chamorro is in his second year of the Two-Year MBA program at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management. Prior to joining the MBA class of 2025, Chamorro was an equity research associate at Bloomberg in New York City. Chamorro was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia. After graduation, he will move back to New York City to work in investment banking at Guggenheim Securities.