I was born and raised in New York City, but I knew that I wanted to earn an international MBA. I actually see it as a real disadvantage for Americans to pursue an MBA in the US: in a globalizing world, international business and emerging market development will be where the greatest opportunities for profitability will arise; if you keep thinking domestically while the rest of the world globalizes, you will inevitably be left behind.
Studying at HEC helped me tremendously to arrive at my current position. I work for Banco Votorantim Securities, Inc., which is a Brazilian bank and the second largest holding company in Latin America. We recently founded the New York broker-dealer, and I've seen how the work I did at HEC directly relates to my current role: at HEC, I studied Corporate Entrepreneurship, which is the expansion of companies, and what we're doing here is actually expanding the bank to become an international investment bank. One of the best things about earning an international MBA at HEC is that a lot of the cases we worked on were not for American companies; they were for European ones, so they really offered a European perspective on business and allowed us to learn more about European companies. This insight into the European market has been invaluable in my career.
Almost every day I meet with someone from HEC here in New York who directly helps me in my business. Thanks to the HEC network, some of my best contacts here are with European/French Banks, who are big investors in emerging markets like Brazil. In addition, a large percentage of the people who start hedge funds in London and NY are French, and the HEC alumni network is a huge resource: around 20% of the alumni base is CEOs or founders of companies, which offers incredible access. I constantly draw on the HEC network to expand my contacts in New York, London, and Paris. Here in New York, the HEC alumni network is very strong. We have many events, several every month, which are a great way to connect with the HEC community on a personal and professional level.
One thing that I hear a lot from prospective HEC MBA candidates is that HEC just feels different from any other MBA program. Every single candidate that I interview says: “I go to the MBA fair, and I just get a different vibe from HEC. You guys are friendlier, you're more to the point; you're straightforward.” I can sense the momentum in HEC's development in the sheer numbers and quality of the candidates I've been interviewing: here in NY, we've had 2 or 3 interviews every week, which is a huge increase from when I applied. As a former trader at Merrill Lynch, the first lesson I learned was to catch something early in its rise and ride it all the way up. This is definitely the case with HEC MBA participants, who will continue to watch the program rise through the ranks of top-20 worldwide MBA programs, where it already stands at #18.