In June 2018, Joe Castro set a job alert for U.S. Soccer. It was the moment the U.S. was named a co-host of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
At the time, he was a U.S. Coast Guard officer.
The alert finally paid off in January 2025.
After years of planning, pivots, and an MBA from the Foster School of Business, Castro is now a senior strategy manager at the U.S. Soccer Federation in Atlanta. He works on revenue strategy for the federation, supporting commercial and philanthropic initiatives that will shape and sustain the tournament’s legacy in the sport in America. But that moment was no accident. Castro’s journey, from the Coast Guard to Apple, Starbucks, and now U.S. Soccer, was the product of long-term thinking and a strategic career pivot anchored by the Foster MBA.
“The World Cup is going to be incredible for America, particularly Seattle. I cannot stress the significance of hosting a Team USA World Cup game.”—Joe Castro
A problem-solver at heart
Castro’s pivot toward business and strategy started with a natural disaster. As a young Coast Guard officer stationed in New York, he managed over 100 commercial waterfront terminals and played a key role in the recovery effort after Hurricane Sandy. The storm surge and flooding damaged facilities, triggering a shutdown of the region’s fuel supply.
“That was the first time I solved a big problem using data, but I didn’t fully know how to use data,” he recalls. “We had to figure out which terminals truly mattered to bring back the fuel supply, and we did. We narrowed it to 12 sites that accounted for 85% of the oil and gas production in the region. The Department of Energy agreed with our plan. We turned around what could’ve been a six-month disaster into a five-day wait.”
The experience was formative. “I got a taste for solving massive problems in complex systems and wanted more. It also later dawned on me that being right about the 80/20 rule alone wasn’t enough. The reasoning and insights you provide to decision-makers matter as much: I had to explain that violating our principle of not giving preference to more economically established terminals meant we would be honoring a bigger principle to protect the general public from harm. That was the positioning our leaders needed to make a decision. That was the earliest expression of converting data to insights in my career.”
Later, Castro heard that a colleague with an MBA had transitioned into a role supervising leaders in his chain of command, achieving a substantial career advancement because of the degree. “That was the lightbulb moment. I thought, ‘OK, what am I doing?’ I realized the MBA was a path to broader opportunity and advancement.”
However, for military officers, career transitions take time. “I couldn’t just give two weeks’ notice,” he explains. “I had to signal 18 months in advance that I was leaving, so I had to be very intentional.”
During that time, he began researching MBA programs seriously. At first, he was drawn to schools on the East Coast and imagined going into investment banking or consulting. Then the pandemic hit.
“I was completely alone in New York during the first couple of months of COVID. I started rethinking everything,” he says. “I reread Shoe Dog and grew obsessed with Nike. I started looking at where people came from to get there, where they went to school, and how they got jobs at Nike. That’s when I started looking at the University of Washington and its top ranking in job placement.”
why foster. why seattle.
“During my MBA research, I looked for a program that would give me both a strong post-MBA job placement and a real lifestyle shift,” he says. “Foster and Seattle checked every box.”
Castro connected with Foster alums working at Nike (headquartered near Portland, Oregon, about a three-hour drive from Seattle). He started to imagine what it would be like to live and learn in Seattle. “I was getting into hiking. I wanted to learn how to ski. I also wanted to experience the university setting, which I didn’t have in a service academy. I wanted networking, student activities, and the opportunity to get exposure to the business community. Just before Jump Start, I joined a nonprofit board in Seattle and immediately began accumulating board and P&L experience, a role I still maintain today.”
Castro was awarded a Consortium Fellowship and a scholarship. Once admitted, choosing Foster and the University of Washington was easy.
“I was a little older than some classmates, but I wanted the full experience,” he shares. “Going to student watch parties and seeing the University of Washington in the national championships were all part of it. It helped me feel like I was part of something bigger.”
The ball at the center of it all. Foster MBA alum Joe Castro is playing a key role in U.S. Soccer’s preparations for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
inside the mba program
Castro began working with Foster’s Career Management team early in the program. The team provides bespoke coaching, mentoring, and guidance, from interview preparation to salary negotiation.
“I give Gregory Heller and Leslie Meagley from Foster’s Careers team so much credit,” he says. “I matriculated through the Consortium, which meant early recruiting. They helped me rewire my entire résumé. It wasn’t just editing; it was a whole new way of thinking about how to tell my story. As a veteran, it was invaluable as I searched for my first civilian job.”
That preparation paid off. Castro arrived at an MBA recruiting event with a few interviews already lined up. He left with invitations from Apple, Microsoft, Bain, McKinsey, and BCG.
“Arriving on campus with guaranteed interviews before school even started blew my mind,” he recalls. “Never thought I’d be that guy—the person who lands interviews at the most desired MBA destinations. But I wasn’t selected to move forward with Nike. I was devastated because that’s the one I badly wanted. However, Foster Career Management helped me in this experience by narrowing down the two biggest things an MBA student must know before applying for jobs: function and industry. They helped me recognize that I wanted to work in business strategy at an iconic, direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand, and that signaled to potential employers that, although I was pivoting from the military, I had a serious sense of direction.”
apple: a high stakes internship
During the MBA program, Castro accepted an internship offer from Apple and spent summer 2022 in Cupertino as the project manager for the iPhone 14 worldwide retail launch.
“It was the real deal. It doesn’t get much bigger than a team of elite MBAs responsible for the global launch cycle of Apple’s entire product portfolio. The iPhone line of business represents 55-60% of their revenue,” he recalls. “For the iPhone 14, I was what Apple calls the DRI (Direct Responsible Individual) for the product launch readiness at all Apple Direct retail worldwide, including their online store (AOS). I was nervous because I was the only intern on that team.”
It was a once-in-a-career experience, but also a learning moment.
“I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to experience life at Apple Park,” Castro recalls. “I learned so much from that team, and am still close with many of them. Most importantly, my time there helped me realize that I wanted to move closer to strategy work, to be in the room where strategic decisions are made. And there was still so much about corporate ways of work that I needed to learn,” Castro says. “But I gained so much. It sharpened my hard skills, how I work under pressure, and what questions I should be asking as a business leader. It was an incredible experience.”
At U.S. Soccer headquarters in Atlanta, Joe Castro helps shape strategy for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. “The case was about World Cup legacy planning… and I was ready, because of Foster.”
strategy at starbucks
During year two of the MBA program, Castro secured a full-time strategy role in Seattle at Starbucks’ global headquarters. The role focused on store performance and insights for Starbucks’ North American, company-operated portfolio (a business segment worth over 80% of its total revenue).
“In this role, we were tasked with answering two complex and vital questions: How are my stores doing, and why?” he says. “We built a repeatable scorecard to evaluate store performance and identify where to prioritize resources and training so that we might uncover new learnings.”
That role helped him build more than data fluency.
“Unlike management consulting roles, where you give a client insights and data-driven recommendations, and then move on, this role taught me about living and breathing the implementation side of strategy work,” he shares. “When we launched the Store Health Pyramid, we owned it. While we celebrated its wins, we also managed its growing pains and gaps.”
“The quick service restaurant (QSR) industry is incredibly complex,” he says. “Starbucks gave me a much stronger sense of prioritizing, turning around insights fast, and leading through ambiguity, but it also taught me how challenging change management at scale can be. New solutions, though well-intentioned, will often clash with existing systems, highlighting the market need for savvy business strategists who can think in systems and their interdependencies at the outset before making sweeping changes.”
scoring a dream job at U.s. soccer
In the summer of 2024, the job alert Castro had created years earlier was finally triggered.
U.S. Soccer was hiring a strategy manager to directly support its In Service to Soccer Strategy and preparations for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, including games in Seattle.
He applied. After four interviews and a 24-hour strategy case, he got the job offer.
“The case was about World Cup legacy planning. I had to lay out a strategy, identify goals, and recommend programs,” he recalls. “Everything I’d done—my MBA, military work, Apple, Starbucks—came together. And then, of course, there’s the fact that I’ve played and supported soccer my whole life.”
Now based in Atlanta, Castro is working on one of the most high-profile projects in global sports. Seattle will host four group-stage matches and two knockout rounds, including one of Team USA’s three group-round matches. “The World Cup is going to be incredible for America, particularly Seattle,” he says. “I cannot stress the significance of hosting a Team USA World Cup game. And it’s already a huge soccer town. The economic activity and the energy generated by this are going to be unreal.”
“The MBA gives you a long runway. It sets you up to play the long game.”—Joe Castro, Foster MBA alum and senior strategy manager at U.S. Soccer
joe castro’s advice for future mba students
Castro encourages anyone considering an MBA, especially veterans or career changers, to go for it. “The MBA doesn’t give you every answer, but it gives you frameworks. It teaches you how to think, ask better questions, and filter the noise,” he explains.
His biggest piece of advice? Make the most of every minute you spend in business school. “This is time you’ll never get back; time to dedicate to growing your skills, deepening your knowledge, and growing as a person.”
“Your most valuable resource in business school is your time,” he says. “Run down that rabbit hole. Read the extra book. Go to the event. You won’t get this kind of space again.”
He also cautions against expecting immediate payoff. “You might not leave graduation with your dream job, and that’s OK,” he says. “The MBA gives you a long runway. It sets you up to play the long game. A prime example is never landing the Nike interview, but now working a job where I am literally required to wear Nike.”
Several years after deciding to pursue an MBA, Castro has no doubt it was the right call. “The MBA changed how I approach problems, lead, and think about systems,” he says. “But it also changed who I surround myself with: my network, mentors, and peers. That’s the stuff that stays with you.”
And when the job alert went off and the dream role appeared? “I was ready,” he says. “Because of Foster.”
Learn more about the Full-Time MBA here.