While most careers involve the mundane numbers-crunching and marketing presentations, there exist paths to careers in business that are by no means conventional.

Andrew Kahn '03 pursued one of those unconventional routes to his business career after graduating from Brandeis.

Kahn began his journey into capitalism with a detour "down under." A first team all-conference outfielder and winner of the Athletic Director's Award for outstanding athletic and academic performance on Brandeis' baseball team. Kahn, however, was not ready to give up on his dream of playing baseball just yet, and so, he made the decision of a lifetime: he scraped up his savings and flew to Australia with fellow teammate Jon Brown '03 to play professional baseball for a year before returning to the United States.

"It was amazing," said Kahn in a phone interview with the Justice. "[The Brandeis baseball team] had a great run in '02 and '03, making the NCAA tournaments in consecutive seasons, and Jon and I were looking to keep playing. An old Brandeis coach got us connected with the opportunity in Sydney, and so we took advantage of the opportunity to play professional baseball."

"We lived out of a Suzuki Sidekick the team gave us, which we eventually had to sell because we ran it into the ground. It was an awesome experience."

At Australia, Kahn got his first taste of the business world. Besides playing baseball, he and Brown ran baseball clinics at local elementary schools and gave private lessons.

Following his time in Australia, Kahn decided to head back to the States. An Economics major who wrote his honors thesis on the economics of minor league baseball wanted to try his hand at sports business, reputed for its difficulty at getting a foot in the door. Luckily, a fortuitous opportunity arose with Mandalay Entertainment Group.

"I had a family friend who connected me to Mandalay," he said. "They told me that if I wanted to learn the sports business the right way, I had to move to 'Frisco,' to which I replied, 'Sure, I would love to go to San Francisco. Little did I know that they meant Frisco, Texas," Kahn laughed.

He worked at Mandalay for five years, eventually rising to the role of vice president of business development for the Frisco RoughRiders, managing a department of seven and $5 million in sponsorship funds.

Eventually, however, Kahn's California roots tugged hard enough at his heartstrings that he began to look for a path back home. Kahn pursued his Master's in Business Administration at UCLA Anderson School of Management, graduating last spring.

With the digital revolution taking place, in which many industries are forced to shift from paper to computers, a company's need to capitalize on the Internet and its many distribution channels is the norm. This has never been more true than at his current employer, Ticketmaster, where Kahn works in strategy and business development.

"We are concerned about the way that the market changes," said Kahn. "We are very progressive and focusing on setting trends."

His experience at Mandalay, Ticketmaster and his MBA internships at Universal Sports Network and a NYC-based hedge fund have helped Kahn learn the inner workings of business, especially in terms of strategy.

"I am intimately involved in planning the strategy of our business," he said. "I work as an internal consultant, figuring out what the future of our business will be like. Mergers and acquisitions, business development, new product development, and solving general business issues are all things for which I am responsible."

Just as there is uncertainty in the business world, Kahn admitted that, as a West Coast native, he was taking a chance in coming to Brandeis.

"I did not know anybody and I was forced to start over in terms of making friends," he said.

However, he added that Brandeis' academic strength and the camaraderie of the baseball team, where coach Varney and his teammates pushed him to become a "better teammate and person"-coupled with his decision to write a senior thesis on something that he was passionate about- proved to be key factors in career success so far.

A former cartoonist for the Justice, Kahn still enjoys utilizing his creative talents in his spare time and remains an avid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Lakers. He admits that the best part of being in Los Angeles is the ability to surf.

Just 31 years old, Kahn has had quite an illustrious career and looks to have a bright future ahead.