This top banker thinks his Wharton MBA was 'a waste of time', reveals how a trading loss changed his career

Bill Winters, the chief executive of Standard Chartered, has said the MBA he obtained from the prestigious Wharton School was “a waste of time.”

Speaking to Bloomberg's Francine Lacqua in an interview aired Tuesday, Winters was asked what advice he would give to a teenager on what to study.

The veteran banker, reflecting on his own educational path and career, suggested that traditional business education may no longer offer the edge it once did and stressed the importance of communication and critical thinking in an era shaped by artificial intelligence.

“I studied international relations and history. I got an MBA later, but that was a waste of time,” Winters said, adding that the real value came from learning how to think, something he believes is becoming more important with the growing influence of AI.

Winters graduated from Colgate University in 1983 before completing his MBA at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School in 1988.

He said, “For the 40 years since I left university, those skills [thinking and communication] have been degraded, degraded, degraded... They’re coming back now.”

“Why? Because the technical skills are being provided by the machine, or by very competent people in other parts of the world... So I really think in the age of AI that it’s critical that you know how to think and communicate.”

He stressed the importance of curiosity and empathy, advising professionals to deeply understand their audience and anticipate needs.

Winters also revealed a major setback that became a turning point, recounting a trading loss during his time at JPMorgan Chase & Co., where he began his career in 1983 and eventually rose to co-CEO of the investment bank.

“I thought I was going to be fired,” Winters said.

But instead, a senior executive at the bank increased his trading limit.

Winters quoted the vice chairman as saying, “I never give a big limit to somebody who hasn’t had a really bad experience and reacted well to it. And in your case, you were terrified, you were paranoid, but you were also thoughtful and you had a plan. I buy the plan. I can trust you now.”

He described the incident as “a life-forming experience”.

Winters, who founded a private credit fund after being ousted from JPMorgan in 2009, took over as CEO of Standard Chartered in 2015.