Lauder Class of 2017 Student Bios - Lauder Institute

Transcription

Class of 2017 Biographies
The Joseph H. Lauder Institute of
Management & International Studies
Equipping yourself with an MBA from the Wharton School
or a JD from the Law School, combined with an MA in
International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania’s
School of Arts & Sciences, is smart business.
As a pioneer in intercultural management education with
international studies and language and cross-cultural
proficiencies, the Lauder Institute offers students:
• Joint MBA/MA and JD/MA
• Regional expertise through the customized language
and culture programs
• The study of global business, inter-cultural management,
and the impact of geo-politics on business practices in the
new global program
• Two-month, in-country immersion programs
• Supportive global community of students, alumni, faculty,
and corporate leaders
• Dedicated Lauder faculty
During the course of the 24-month program, students learn
about business, culture, language, history, politics, and art.
The Lauder Institute Class of 2017
ARABIC
Hoda El-Ghazaly
CHINESE
Victoria Cheng
Jonathan Delikat
Maggie Diehl
Yue Li
Shu Liu
Charlie McCarren
Dee Ng
Daniel Odette
Travis Pfander
JamesRandall
Sumiko Taku
Naga Tan
Emily Tung
Joshua Van Dyke
Ray Wang
John Withers
Wilson Wong
FRENCH
Joelle Birge
Max Ducharme
Caio Guimarães
Christopher Jones
Imran Karim
Alexandre Nogueira
Allegra Richards
Stephen Snyder
SophieThompson
GERMAN
Stephanie vonStaaToledo
GLOBAL
Xinlong Cheng
Miguel GonzálezHerranz
Jackson Hui
Yifan Li
Andrei Vallejo Margarit
AntonioMuñoz Villaneuva
Gabriele Pigoli
Pushpak Pujari
Ivy Wu
JungHa Yi
HINDI
Neha Goel
Manu Mohan
Nidhi Shah
Aroon Vijaykar
JAPANESE
Eric Detweiler
Paul Moss
Ruiheng Wang
PORTUGUESE
Michael Alerhand
Xavier Argente
Jeff Aziakou
Christine Burq
Casey Dwyer
Joel Filippi
Stéphane Fisch
Claudel Kamgang
Jay Lanners
Pierre Le Normand
Yann Manibog
Guillermo Medina Benitez
Guillermo Nemirovsky Dager
Typhaine Robert
Francisco Taboada
Lorenzo Zavala Carvajal
SPANISH
Renan Andrade
Jose Sebastian Apud
Gennadiy Babenko
Frank Ballard
Koehler Briceño
Christina Cerezo
Randal Drew
Vanessa Frances
Bobby Gianchandani
Mizuho Imanishi
Craig Jones
Jessica Kong
Thomas McElwee
Rafael Paixão de la Rosa
Monica Scheid
MICHAEL ALERHAND
Michael was born in Marlboro, New Jersey, and raised by two Jewish parents from Mexico
City. As a result, he grew up in a multilingual and multicultural household that emphasized
education and giving back to the local community. In high school, for example, he created an
ESL tutoring program for Latino immigrants in central New Jersey.
Michael later enrolled at the University of Virginia, where he studied History and
Government. There he was elected to leadership positions for a socially responsible
investment organization and a student-run historical research publication. In addition,
he undertook one summer internship that supported Latino immigrants in their efforts to
become American citizens and another internship with Mexico’s Ministry of Economy.
Following graduation, Michael was chosen by Israel’s Ministry of Education to become
an Israel Teaching Fellow for a program that focuses on reducing the achievement gap in
Israel’s public-education system. During this time, he lived in Netanya and taught English
to at-risk youth in a significantly under-funded and under-staffed public elementary school.
After a year in Israel, Michael decided to pursue his interest in international business by
moving to Mexico City to join Goldberg Alerhand y Asociados, a boutique investment bank
focused on M&A transactions. There he was exposed to a number of industries, ranging from
real estate to consumer goods, infrastructure, and microloans. Among his main contributions,
he directly supported the CEO of a credit-factoring startup company by producing,
developing, and managing its long-term business plans and corporate restructuring; this
company grew its credit portfolio eightfold in three years. In addition, Michael led the
valuation process of nine commercial real-estate development projects across Mexico and
subsequently supervised due diligence procedures for a Canadian investment firm’s entrance
into a multi-billion peso real-estate investment trust.
At Wharton/Lauder, Michael hopes to gain a stronger understanding of Latin American
economics and business practices, and to develop his Portuguese skills to a native level.
After graduation, he intends to pursue a career in investing, with a primary focus on Latin
America.
In his spare time, Michael enjoys travelling, long-distance running, water sports, and reading
history books.
Lauder Focus: Latin America and Portuguese
RENAN ANDRADE
Renan was born and raised in the suburbs of Porto Alegre, a town in southern Brazil. On
family trips to Uruguay and Argentina during his teenage years, he developed a passion for
multicultural experiences, which moved him to start learning English, Spanish, and French.
At Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Renan majored in International Relations,
graduating with a first-in-class honor. He also broadened his perspective on world affairs and
learned how to reach consensus among different value systems through student-exchange
programs in the U.S., Portugal, and Sweden. Inspired by his experiences in those countries,
once back in Brazil he helped to expand the AIESEC network to Porto Alegre and to foster
the creation of UN modeling in public high schools.
After graduation, Renan joined McKinsey as a Business Analyst, where he worked on a
variety of projects from public-service risk analysis to transport & logistics and strategic
planning. He also completed a McKinsey Global Institute secondment in London, where
he helped to redraft and write No Ordinary Disruption, which focused on explaining the
upcoming global trend breaks. He grew professionally through these projects, learning how
to perform effectively at a high level in politically and strategically sensitive environments,
and also refined his passion for business, finding an aspiration to foster public impact with
infrastructure strategy.
Renan later joined GP Investments, a Brazilian private equity fund, to develop a newly
created fund focused on infrastructure. Specializing in ports, railways, and urban mobility,
he refined GP’s strategy for those assets, developed new partnerships for co-investing, and
led the analysis of several projects.
Over the past several years, Renan has sharpened his strategic and pragmatic mindset while
building a strong analytical problem-solving skillset. At Wharton/Lauder, he plans to leverage
his passion for politics and infrastructure with his business skills, focusing particularly on
Latin America.
In his free time, Renan enjoys watching movies, practicing sports (running and football in
particular), and playing the guitar.
Lauder Focus: Latin America and Spanish
JOSE SEBASTIAN APUD
Sebastian was born in Argentina and moved to the Washington, D.C., area at age 8. His
interest in economic development and business began when he witnessed the devastating
effects of the 2001 Argentine economic collapse. As a Wharton undergraduate, he majored in
Business and Public Policy in hopes of one day helping to spur socioeconomic change.
After internships in Congress and at the World Bank, Sebastian realized that social impact
investing (SII) would allow him to use his Wharton degree in a way that was personally
meaningful. To gain the necessary skills, he joined Lazard in New York as an M&A investmentbanking analyst on its Metals & Mining team and spent time at MBA Lazard in Argentina.
In 2010 Sebastian fulfilled his dream of working in SII by joining the Private Equity team
at Developing World Markets, the largest social-impact investor in the U.S. and one of the
largest in the world. For the next 4.5 years, he worked on investments in microfinance,
microhousing, education lending, and SME lending in Latin America, South Asia, and the
Eastern Caucasus region. He was also a panelist at UPenn Undergraduate Microfinance
Conferences (2011-2013) and at the Wharton MBA Latin America Conference (2013).
Sebastian played rugby both in high school (2003 team ranked #12 nationally) and at Penn
(2004 D-I Conference Champions), retiring after countless scars and injuries. In 2014, he
ran the NYC Marathon and the NYC, Brooklyn, and Staten Island half-marathons. He has
decided to come out of retirement to play for Wharton’s Wharthogs.
In 2012 Sebastian joined the board of the Microfinance Club of New York (MFCNY), a
nonprofit whose mission is to be the leading forum for microfinance topics, and became its
president in 2014. From 2012 to 2015, he coached eight- and nine-year-olds at the South Bronx
United, a nonprofit that uses soccer for social change; the team won the championship during
his final season. His other experiences included a volunteer trip to Ghana in 2010 to coach
U12 and U14 teams.
Sebastian loves to travel and recently needed to add extra pages to his passport. He
completed his Advanced Open Water Scuba Diving Certification and has been snowboarding
for 18 years. After completing the Wharton/Lauder program, he hopes to find more ways to
harness the power of markets to generate social change and create large-scale economic
development.
XAVIER ARGENTE
Xavier was born in Barcelona, Spain. At age 12, he travelled for the first time to Asia and
was completely fascinated by the experience. He started learning Mandarin Chinese and
developed a passion for exploring different cultures and languages.
During high school, Xavier was selected to participate in the Ruta Quetzal program, a
cultural-exchange backpacking trip through Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico, where he fell in
love with Latin America. Since then, he has gone back to Central and South America on many
occasions. The summer before graduation, he spent two months in El Salvador working as a
pro-bono consultant for an agricultural business initiative.
Xavier attended ESADE Business School, where he majored in Business Administration. He
also founded the Consulting Club and grew a student-run business that offered consulting
services to local companies. He spent his semester abroad in Singapore, where he continued
to hone his Chinese, backpacked all around Southeast Asia, and worked on a market-entry
project in Indonesia for a local skin-care brand. After graduation, he joined Bain & Company
in Madrid, Spain, for which he worked in over ten countries and had exposure to a broad set
of management issues. Among his projects, he helped to define the strategy for a soft-drink
company and participated in the due diligence that led to the acquisition of two major brands
in Europe and Nigeria. In 2014, he transferred to Bain’s San Francisco office for six months.
There he worked in Silicon Valley for a tech client on its manufacturing and procurement
strategy.
In his free time, Xavier loves skiing, biking, hiking, diving, and food. During high school he
was part of a local skiing racing team and completed the Camino de Santiago by mountain
bike with his friends.
JEFF AZIAKOU
Jeff was born in Washington, D.C., to a Chinese mother and Franco-Beninese father, both of
whom were journalists. Moving every few years, he grew up in Paris and Fontainebleau in
France, and in Washington, D.C., Chicago, and New York City in the U.S.
Jeff attended Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he majored in Applied Economics
and Management and studied overseas in Shanghai, China. At Cornell, he managed an
independent publishing business contracted to produce the university’s yearbook, cofounded
an apparel-design consultancy, was active in Greek life, and volunteered locally with the
Ithaca Youth Bureau in its Big Brother program.
After graduation, Jeff joined the management training program at Aldi, a multinational
grocery chain. As a trainee based in upstate New York, he first worked as a cashier and
store manager, learning all aspects of store operations. He was then promoted to manage the
company’s Central Connecticut stores and more than 50 employees.
Seeking an opportunity to further his understanding of the agribusiness supply chain, Jeff
joined Olam, a global commodities trade house. Initially a business analyst covering the U.S.
business, he then joined the cocoa desk as a trader. He was responsible for the sourcing of
cocoa and cocoa derivatives products from across the globe and managed client accounts for
major chocolate companies in North and South America. He was also charged with hedge
execution and co-managed a proprietary futures-and-derivatives trading book.
In his spare time, Jeff is an avid cook, a long-distance runner, a motorcycle enthusiast, an
amateur iPhone photographer, and a fan of ballet and contemporary art.
GENNADIY BABENKO
Gennadiy was born and raised in Kazakhstan. At age 15 he moved to Moscow, where he
finished high school and was accepted into the Academy of National Economy under the
sponsorship of the President of the Russian Federation. After spending two years there,
he added a double-degree program at ESLSCA in Paris, France, where he could expand
his specialization in Finance as part of the BBA program. In 2010 he graduated from both
universities with honors.
Later that same year, Gennadiy was accepted into the Master in Finance program at IE
Business School in Madrid. During his 10 months in Spain, in addition to being part of a
highly competitive program, he gained access to a large network of young international
professionals and first identified his interest in Latin America.
After graduation in 2011, Gennadiy joined Renaissance Capital, a large Russian bank focusing
on emerging and frontier markets, as part of the Macro and Strategy research team. In
this role he gradually acquired coverage of Kazakh macro; Russian and, later, EMEA and
frontier-market strategy; and MSCI indices coverage. During his 3.5 years with RenCap,
the company underwent a series of restructurings, which allowed him not only to grow as a
professional, accumulating more and more responsibilities, but also to gain experience as a
crisis manager.
In February 2015, Gennadiy joined O’KEY Group, a large Russian retail chain with 112
stores in 29 Russian cities, as Investor Relations Manager. During the short period he
was there, prior to Wharton/Lauder, he was able to experience all the duties of the role,
including a financial-results presentation, an annual-report release, and preparation for and
participation in an international non-deal roadshow with Tony Maher, CEO of the company.
Gennadiy enjoys travelling and playing soccer, having served as goalkeeper for his
university and corporate teams. He is also a long-time member of the Belarus Warhammer
40,000 team that participated in the European Team Championship, a world cup among the
strongest national teams of eight. In addition, he holds the titles of Russia individual and
team champion. He speaks Russian, English, Spanish, and French.
FRANK BALLARD
Frank was born and raised in Indiana, near Louisville, Kentucky. After studying Spanish
with a passionate high-school teacher, he decided to pursue the language seriously during
his undergraduate studies at Indiana University. He spent his entire junior year abroad,
studying Spanish in Lima, Peru, where he lived with a host family.
Frank earned his Bachelor’s in Economics from Indiana University with Honors, High
Distinction and Phi Beta Kappa. He also earned a Certificate in Latin American Studies and
completed a minor in Spanish.
After graduation, Frank moved to Bolivia to help run a multi-center wildlife refuge in the
Amazon. While there, he incorporated a not-for-profit to raise tax-exempt funds for the NGO
in the U.S., increased revenues, and expanded the NGO’s recognition globally. (He also
reared an anteater, cared for howler monkeys, and walked jaguars through the jungle.)
After working in South America, Frank moved to China to learn Mandarin. He travelled
throughout Asia before returning to the U.S. to work for Grameen Foundation in Washington,
D.C. There he was responsible for evaluating projects in the area of poverty alleviation
for global programs in India, Kenya, Indonesia, Mexico, and Nepal. He also worked with
Muhammad Yunus and spoke at various international conferences.
When not studying, Frank is often investigating low-cost travel deals. Last year, he travelled
through Turkey and Korea on a shoestring budget by avoiding the tourist spots and with the
use of a rented car.
Frank looks forward to improving his Spanish-speaking skills while at Lauder and gaining
even more international exposure.
JOELLE BIRGE
Joelle was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. Her
mother’s family traces its roots back to the Normandy and Alsace-Lorraine regions in France.
In addition to learning French at home, Joelle has travelled extensively with her family in
Europe, Africa, and South America.
Joelle graduated from Princeton University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in English
and American Literature, as well as a Certificate in Finance from the Bendheim Center for
Finance. In addition, she was captain of Princeton’s club field hockey team and a writer
for the campus magazine The Tory. She was also actively involved in Service in Style, a
social-service group focused on raising funds and awareness for autism. As chair of the
organization during her junior year, she led several student-run teams in producing a charity
fashion show to benefit Autism Speaks.
While at Princeton, Joelle took advantage of the university’s close proximity to New York
City. To pursue her interests in writing, fashion, and French culture, she interned at
W Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar during the spring semesters of her junior and senior
years. As an editorial intern focused on the French and Italian markets, she gained a deeper
understanding of French culture while practicing her language skills in a business context.
In addition to her passion for French culture, Joelle also developed an interest in financial
markets through her Economics coursework at Princeton. She interned as an investment
banking analyst in the Healthcare group at Credit Suisse during the summer following her
junior year. After graduation, she moved to New York to work for Credit Suisse full time.
She spent two years in the Healthcare group before moving to Boston to accept a position at
Advent International, a global private equity firm. She continued to focus on the Healthcare
sector there and developed a deeper interest in global health and other social sector issues,
which she hopes to pursue during her time at Wharton/Lauder.
Joelle has remained involved in social service, volunteering with the mentoring and
scholarship organizations Student Sponsor Partners and Access Better Learning and
Education while living in New York and Boston. In her spare time, she enjoys running,
reading, and travelling with her family and friends.
Lauder Focus: Europe and French
KOEHLER BRICEÑO
Koehler was born in North Carolina to an American mother and Bolivian father. She has
always loved history, and has been a bookworm all her life. These aspects, combined with her interest in her family’s southern roots and her lifelong quest to understand, embrace, and
actively participate in her father’s culture, led her to major in anthropology in college. As part
of her studies, she traveled to Chile and submitted a thesis on investigative anthropology that
remains, to this day, her longest written Spanish work. After graduating from UNC-Chapel
Hill with highest honors, she spent six months traveling from Chile to Mexico, hiking up
nearly every volcano along the route. This trip planted the wanderlust seed in Koehler, who
has hopped across the U.S. and Americas ever since, never staying more than two years in
any one location.
Koehler moved to Austin, Texas, to spend two years as an Americorps volunteer for College
Forward, a nonprofit that works to support low-income and first-generation high school
students in achieving their dreams of going to college. During this time, she managed the
budget and logistics for a pilot program to incentivize senior students to remain as active
participants in College Forward. The program sparked an exponential increase in scholarship
applications and attendance rates among the participants and continues to be an essential
element of College Forward senior year.
After completing her service at College Forward, Koehler took advantage of the opportunity
to spend three months with her family in Bolivia. She also volunteered at a nonprofit there,
where she dabbled in marketing and event promotion. She then moved to Washington, D.C.,
to expand her experience in international work, and became Project Manager at KaBOOM!,
a nonprofit that promotes community building across North America.
Koehler spent the past year as Director of Project Development for a small nonprofit in
Cochabamba, Bolivia. She frequently visits her family in Tarija, Bolivia, and avidly follows
the progress of their vineyard. Eventually, she hopes to develop the vineyard’s international
reach, which she aims to complement with an on-site volunteering nonprofit.
Koehler enjoys family time, Bolivian food, rivers, sailing, reading, cheering on the UNC
Tarheels and Carolina Panthers, and wandering around mountains and towns.
CHRISTINE BURQ
Christine was born near Paris, France, to a French father and Chilean mother. Raised in
a multicultural and bilingual family, she spent her childhood in both countries. Speaking
French and Spanish at home and eager to learn more languages, she studied Latin and
German for several years at school in France. Her parents, through their diverse and
international careers, stimulated her passions for travelling, multicultural collaboration,
and new international experiences.
After high school, Christine moved to Chile to reconnect with her Chilean roots, and studied
Business Administration at the Pontificia Universidad Católica. Returning to France as an
exchange student for a year, she specialized in International Finance and complemented
her studies with International Institutions courses that led to an internship in change
management at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
After graduating first in her class and receiving a Leader for the Future award from Strategy
newspaper, Christine spent six months at a small Chilean technological company that focused
on laser volume measurement, with clients in Brazil, the U.S., and Germany. Primarily in
charge of reorganizing operational flows, she also won innovative-technology government
subsidies for the mining industry in Chile and the lumber industry in the U.S.
Following this entrepreneurial experience, Christine joined the newly created
risk-management department at JPMorgan Chile and, with her manager, built the area to
monitor credit and market risk, satisfying regulators with a stronger risk-management
framework and clearer procedures. After a year, she was assigned a much greater
challenge: project manager for the implementation of COMDER, the first derivatives
clearinghouse in Chile. There, she successfully coordinated the work of 12 different areas.
In close collaboration with JPMorgan and COMDER’s senior managers, she managed the
development of new operational flows and new technology procedures with impacts on
derivatives valuation, accounting, and risk reporting.
In her free time, Christine teaches accounting and project costing to students at her university
and to micro entrepreneurs as a volunteer for a nonprofit organization. For leisure, she loves
dancing ballet, tango, and salsa and playing the piano and the harp. She also enjoys baking
French pastry, skiing, scuba diving, and horseback riding.
At Wharton/Lauder, Christine looks forward to learning Portuguese and international
management so she can join an international financial institution with social impact, such as
the IMF or the World Bank, with a special focus on projects in Latin America.
CHRISTINA CEREZO
Christina was born in London to an American mother and Spanish father and spent her
childhood summers in the U.S. and Spain. When she was age 10, her family moved to
Brazil. From a young age, she has been interested in languages, travel, and culture.
Christina completed her undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Philosophy at
Bristol University. She particularly enjoyed writing her dissertation on the “Unity of
Consciousness.”
After graduation, Christina pursued the opportunity to spend a year studying abroad to
improve her Spanish language skills and gain international experience. She first lived
in Madrid for several months to immerse herself in the language and then travelled to
Central America.
While pursuing her joint degree, Christina completed an internship in asset management
in Brazil. While she thoroughly enjoyed both working in that country and the international
experience that came with the role, she decided to focus on investment banking. After
completing an internship in mergers and acquisitions at DC Advisory, she joined Lazard
full time in July 2008. By first working in the general pool and later specializing in
the technology, retail, and consumer team, she had the opportunity to work for a wide
variety of clients across a broad spectrum of industries.
Projects with a Latin America focus were of particular interest to Christina. Although
there was no particular team focused on that geography, she was able to leverage her
language skills on the sell side of the Latin American business of Damovo Group while
also learning about some of the nuances of conducting business in Mexico and Brazil.
While at Wharton/Lauder, Christina looks forward to improving her language skills and
gaining more business-oriented experience, with plans to join a global corporation in a
business-strategy role. She would like to work across a variety of geographies, including
Latin America and Spain.
In her free time, Christina enjoys reading and planning her next travel expedition. She
is a diving enthusiast and has enjoyed diving adventures in Honduras, Mexico, Belize,
Cuba, Brazil, Nicaragua, Colombia, Panama, Thailand, Vietnam, and the U.K. (where she
became certified).
VICTORIA CHENG
Victoria was born in Qingdao, China, home of the famous Tsingtao Beer. At age 8, she
immigrated to the U.S., specifically to South Carolina, where she learned English and
adapted to a new world. Even after years of living in the U.S., she has always felt the pull of
her Chinese roots. The Wharton/Lauder program provides the perfect opportunity for her to
finally reconnect and to learn more about her country of birth.
After living in South Carolina and Georgia for ten years, Victoria moved to California on
her own to attend the University of California Berkeley on a full academic scholarship. She
majored in Business Administration and held a variety of internships, including at the Apple
headquarters in Cupertino and at a futurist think tank in Washington, DC. She also studied
Japanese and lived in Japan for six months.
After college, Victoria joined the Strategy & Operations practice of Deloitte Consulting’s
San Francisco office. She worked on projects in a variety of industries, from healthcare to
manufacturing, and in a number of countries, including Malaysia and Japan.
However, the draws of Silicon Valley, technology, and entrepreneurship were irresistible.
After a year at Deloitte Consulting, Victoria left to join a brand new mobile gaming startup,
Kiwi, as its first Product Manager. She played a major role in building the company from
fewer than ten employees to over 200 in a year and a half’s time.
After releasing several hit games at Kiwi and putting the startup on a sound financial path,
Victoria joined Storm8, one of the top mobile gaming companies in the world, where she
launched the most profitable game in the company’s history and one of the top games on
iTunes — Candy Blast Mania.
In her spare time, Victoria often travels by herself and always has a trip abroad scheduled.
Prior to entering Wharton/Lauder, she embarked on a four-month-long, one-woman journey,
busing through Latin America, driving on the left side in Oceania, eating through Asia, and
scuba diving wherever there was water.
Victoria is also an avid martial artist with years of experience in karate and Muay Thai. Her
other hobbies include painting in Photoshop, reading books of all genres, and keeping up with
the latest technology.
Lauder Focus: East Asia and Mandarin Chinese
XINLONG CHENG
Xinlong was born in Suzhou, China. He lived there until the end of elementary school, when
he moved to Nagoya, Japan, to join his parents. Not knowing any Japanese, he had to learn to
grow outside his comfort zone and to break through barriers. Within two years, he had made
many friends and become the top student in his class.
Xinlong then moved to the U.S. at the beginning of high school. He attended Washington
University of St. Louis (WashU) with a double major in Biomedical Engineering and Finance.
In addition to being on the Dean’s List every semester, he organized karaoke competitions
and danced during the school’s Lunar New Year Festivals. He also published a research paper
on auditory research and managed a startup’s website while working in summer internships.
After WashU, Xinlong joined Capital One Bank full time in 2011. As an analyst on the
Consumer Bank’s pricing team, he worked on quantitative models that managed deposit
portfolios in excess of $50 billion. He rotated to more white-space strategic teams after a
year, where he led initiatives to study customer behavior and preference. In his most recent
role, he built a behavioral customer segmentation that bridged quantitative analyses with
qualitative insights. He also led efforts to revamp the bank’s customer-experience strategy
based around Net Promoter Score and text analytics. Throughout his tenure at Capital One,
he was highly regarded by many professional partners and was promoted to manager in just
over three years.
When not at a desk or in a classroom, Xinlong enjoys jogging, table tennis, travelling,
photography, and history. Given his knowledge of Chinese and Japanese, he often reads
news topics in multiple languages for a more complete perspective. He recently finished a
photo-essay series of top-10 sights in Washington, DC, and continues to add more worldwide
destinations to his travel blog. Clearly, Lauder is an exceptional opportunity to expand this
endeavor.
After Wharton, Xinlong is looking forward to opportunities to apply his experience in
international financial services.
Lauder Focus: Global Program
JONATHAN DELIKAT
Jon was born in New York City and raised in Greenwich, Connecticut. His travel abroad as a
young child fueled his passion for foreign cultures and exploring new places.
In the wake of 9/11, Jon decided to pursue a career with international impact. He entered
Cornell University in 2006 as an inaugural member of the new China Asia-Pacific Studies
(CAPS) major. He studied Mandarin intensively; spent semesters in Washington, DC,
and at Peking University in Beijing; worked on a presidential campaign; interned at the
2008 Summer Olympics; and authored a thesis on Chinese environmental-policy entrepreneurship. He also indulged his passion for the performing arts, appearing in lead roles in
three Cornell Theater mainstage productions and performing in Cornell’s improv comedy
troupe, The Whistling Shrimp.
Jon graduated from Cornell magna cum laude and was awarded the Sherman Cochran Prize
for Outstanding Performance in China Asia-Pacific Studies.
In 2010, Jon was awarded a Princeton-in-Asia fellowship and relocated to Hangzhou, China,
where he designed curricula and taught U.S. political and cultural classes to over 200 students
at the Zhejiang University of Technology. In 2011, he joined FTI Consulting, a NYSE-listed
advisory firm, working in its Global Risk and Investigations Practice for six months in Hong
Kong and three years in Shanghai. By 2013, he was leading a team of over 20 professionals
on the China Practice’s largest project by revenue, a multimillion dollar risk-management
program for a Fortune-20 client. In the process, he oversaw over 400 investigations in over
100 Chinese cities annually, and developed and led the successful pitch for an innovative
data analytics product to enable the client to better visualize and react to the volumes of data
generated by this investigations program. He also coordinated and led more than 30 fraud
and internal investigations, as well as an undercover field operation into a large Chinese
consumer-goods counterfeit syndicate that resulted in five arrests and the seizure of 70,000
cans of infringing product. In 2013, he was selected by management to receive special
training in fraud-interview techniques. He subsequently conducted numerous successful
interviews in Mandarin, with many resulting in admissions of guilt from suspects.
At Wharton/Lauder, Jon intends to build on his interest in risk-management solutions for
companies operating abroad, particularly in China.
In his spare time, Jon enjoys scuba-diving, golf, biking, hiking, cooking, and the occasional
stab at stand-up comedy.
ERIC DETWEILER
Eric was raised in Fort Worth, Texas. He developed an interest in Japanese culture and
customs through early exposure to Japanese media during his youth, which subsequently
led him to a lifelong study of the language.
Eric attended Southern Methodist University (SMU), where he completed an undergraduate
degree in Finance, with minors in Japanese and Economics, and a master’s degree in
Accounting. During this time, he participated in a year-long study-abroad program at Kansai
Gakuin University, where he polished his language skills and deepened his passion for the
Japanese culture and way of life. After returning to SMU, he passed the highest level of the
Japanese Language Placement Test (JLPT).
After graduation, Eric accepted a position on Ernst & Young’s (EY) Japanese Business Services
team in New York. There, he primarily supported Japanese multinational corporations by
performing audits of their local subsidiaries, with a focus on manufacturing and distribution
clients. After being promoted to Senior, he assumed responsibility for leading the day to day
operations of multiple audit teams, and assisted with both managing client relationships and
coordinating with senior executives in EY’s branch offices in Japan. He also earned licensure
as a CPA in the state of New York.
Seeking to develop knowledge of the financial-services industry and to gain experience in a
transaction environment, in June 2014 Eric transferred internally to EY’s Structured Finance
Advisory Service practice, where he performed due diligence procedures on commercial
mortgage-backed securities issuances. His transaction experience spans a wide range of
pool sizes ($200 million to $4 billion), collateral types, transaction structures, and client
investment banks.
During this time, Eric also volunteered in programs organized by New York Cares, a nonprofit
organization that focuses on community-revitalization projects in the New York City area.
In his spare time, Eric enjoys spending time with family and friends, listening to music,
experimenting in the kitchen, and travelling.
Lauder Focus: East Asia and Japanese
MAGGIE DIEHL
Maggie was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee. Studying French from a young age led
to her keen interest in foreign languages and cultures. A high-school trip to Greece and a
summer job as a camp counselor in rural Germany strengthened her passion for international
travel.
Maggie attended the University of Virginia, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with a double major
in Economics and Foreign Affairs. She spent two semesters studying at Beijing Language
and Culture University and Fudan University in Shanghai in 2008, where her fascination
with Chinese language, culture, and history began.
After graduation, Maggie moved to southern California to work as a Portfolio Management
Analyst at PAAMCO, a $9 billion fund of hedge funds, where she covered the quantitative
trading strategies in the Equity Market Neutral space. After a year, she was selected to move
to the firm’s Singapore office. In addition to providing analytical support for the $400 million
Asia Pacific portfolio, she directly oversaw and wrote monthly risk reports for over $100
million of assets, specifically those deployed to a Japanese long-short equity fundamental
value strategy and a Pan Asia fixed-income arbitrage strategy. She also conducted an in-depth
quantitative analysis on the opportunity set and return profile of an Asia dividend-yield
strategy that led directly to the initiation of the due diligence process for a $15 million
investment.
Through conversations with managers in Tokyo and Hong Kong, Maggie was exposed to
the nascent Chinese hedge-fund industry as well as the developing financial markets there.
To build on her study-abroad experiences and deepen her understanding of China as a
whole, she left Singapore to enroll in the Inter-University Program for Chinese Language
Studies at Tsinghua University in Beijing. After 10 months of intensive Mandarin study, she
rejoined the work force and moved to Shanghai. She was the first foreign hire by Yuanhao
Capital Management, a $100 million offshore Chinese long-short equity fund, awarded Best
Chinese Hedge Fund in 2014, to build its account-management and business-development
infrastructure.
Maggie enjoys being outdoors and, while in Singapore, discovered a passion for scuba diving.
In her free time she loves to experiment in the kitchen and plan her next trip with friends
over a bottle of wine. She is constantly trying to make a dent in an ever-expanding list of
books and is barely surviving her first few months of CrossFit.
RANDAL DREW
Randal was born in Jacksonville, Florida. Fascinated by world affairs from an early age, he
completed his undergraduate studies in international relations at Georgetown University’s
Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS). There, he also continued his lifelong study of the
Spanish language during a term abroad at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain.
His academic accomplishments included a John Carroll Fellowship, a certificate in social and
political thought, and magna cum laude honors at graduation. He is also an award-winning
debater and served as president of Georgetown’s Philodemic Society debating club.
During his summers at Georgetown and after graduation, Randal worked in public-policy
research for organizations including the American Enterprise Institute and ResPublica.
His research and writing covered diverse topics ranging from military technology and
strategy to civil society and economic mobility. Through his work in public policy, he
became passionate about business as a form of public service. He decided to transition into
management consulting and joined Accenture in 2012.
Randal spent three years at Accenture’s Washington, D.C., office. As a generalist, he
worked on strategy-consulting projects across industries, including agriculture, healthcare,
telecommunications, and industrial equipment. He helped companies achieve substantial
growth and attain cost-reduction targets through new go-to-market strategies, operationalefficiency improvements, and international expansion plans. He is especially interested
in how companies enter and compete in new markets, in how public-private partnerships
promote economic development, and in venture capital ecosystems.
In his spare time, Randal reads widely and enjoys travel and the outdoors. His favorite
recent trip was a trek through Uzbekistan with college friends. He also remains an active
Georgetown alumnus and an advocate for the Philodemic Society. He founded the club’s
alumni association, mentors current students, and has launched an effort to establish a
permanent endowment at the university to benefit the Philodemic.
MAX DUCHARME
Max was born in New York City and raised in Montreal. His cultural fluency comes naturally
from growing up in a bicultural home in a cosmopolitan city. Extensive travel and working
abroad have turned that fluency into a passion for an international career.
Max graduated with honors from Lehigh University, where he completed majors in
Accounting and Finance. He began his career in New York City as a member of KPMG’s
Transaction Services group. In that role, he supported strategic and private equity buyers
and sellers with a focus on scrutinizing target companies’ historical results, forecasts, and
business plans and preparing businesses for sale. He was promoted early and given the
responsibility to lead teams in roles normally reserved for more senior staff members. His
most significant assignment was the $1.8 billion carve-out of Barnes & Noble’s e-commerce
platform.
Seeking to leverage the project management and analytical skills he had developed at
KPMG and to further his interest in international business, Max moved abroad. He joined
the executive team of Bité International Group, a telecommunications operator in Lithuania
and Latvia, where he held the position of Head of Strategic Planning and Development. He
was charged with evaluating the company’s strategic options and preparing the company
for sale. His cultural fluency was a tremendous asset in operating and leading effectively in
a new and challenging environment. He was also active in the local community and formed
many lifelong friendships.
For Max, the Wharton/Lauder experience offers him the opportunity to develop an
international understanding and awareness as a foundation for leadership.
Max is happiest cooking and eating with family and friends, ideally after an adventurous day
of skiing on fresh snow.
Lauder Focus: Western Europe and French
CASEY DWYER
Casey was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and grew up in and around New York City.
In high school he was a competitive rower and captained his heavyweight team to the U.S.
National Championships. He attended Columbia University and received a dual BA in
Economics and Political Science. While there, he was a Middle Eastern Languages Scholar,
founded a successful student organization focused on international relations, and was
elected to the Student Governing Board. He wrote his undergraduate thesis on asymmetric
oil trading and specific resource allocation between Latin America and the U.S.
After graduation, Casey joined a strategy-focused rotational program at JPMorgan.
Following several rotations in corporate strategy and sales in New York, he moved to São
Paulo as a Junior Relationship Manager, covering Brazilian Private Equity Funds and Family
Offices. While there, he focused on building both relationships in the Brazilian market and a
professional fluency in Portuguese. After six months, he was asked to join the Brazilian office
full time on a project to insource JPMorgan’s equities and fixed-income clearing business
from a competitor.
During the course of the two-year project, Casey served as Product Manager, Project
Manager, and Program Manager. He successfully managed an $8 million budget and a team
of six employees and consultants across three locations. He led workshops in New Delhi,
London, Rio de Janeiro, and New York and, in doing so, learned many valuable lessons
about executing a large project within a multinational business. The project was completed
successfully, and JPMorgan migrated $80 billion ahead of schedule and realized an ~$40
million profit in the first year of this sector’s operation.
Casey then moved back to New York to join JPMorgan’s Private Equity Group as a Junior
Portfolio Manager. He worked on the management of several large investments in Colombia,
Russia, and Chile, as well as the execution of several large secondary transactions comprising
100+ investments across real estate and buy-out private equity portfolios. He continues to
be actively involved socially and professionally in Brazil and is an investor in several small
Brazilian companies.
At Wharton/Lauder, Casey plans to grow his skill set as an investor and to continue to learn
about Brazil, Latin America, and international business management. He spends his free
time engaging in outdoor activities, listening to audiobooks, playing cards, scuba diving,
trying new food, and discussing investment ideas.
HODA EL-GHAZALY
Hoda grew up in an Arabic-speaking home to parents who encouraged her understanding
of and appreciation for her dual Egyptian-American heritage. Every Saturday through her
teenage years, she attended an Arabic school that, combined with biennial summer trips to
Egypt, provided her with a rich foundation for perceiving different cultural perspectives
and country-specific idiosyncrasies in addition to sparking her intellectual curiosity about
the Middle East region.
While pursuing an economics degree at the University of Tennessee, Hoda studied abroad
at the American University in Cairo, where she advanced her Arabic language skills and
gained significant exposure to the field of development economics through coursework and
volunteer grant-writing at the Institute of Cultural Affairs, Middle East & North Africa.
Her interest in Egypt’s informal economy evolved into a senior thesis, for which she gained
funding to return to Egypt to conduct interviews and visit research centers throughout Cairo
in an effort to examine the implications of the economy’s size. This experience deepened her
appreciation for economic research and led her to accept a Research Associate position with
the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
During her two years with the Federal Reserve, Hoda analyzed volumes of bank balance-sheet
data and authored articles on topics ranging from banking crises around the world to
the growing number of multinational companies emerging from developing economies.
To flex her creative muscles, she also worked with three other researchers to develop an
Excel application to interface with the Federal Reserve’s website. This application gained
recognition from economic commentators, including Paul Krugman and Barry Ritholtz, and
earned the team the Federal Reserve’s Innovation Award.
Hoda then transitioned to Cornerstone Research, a finance and economic litigation consulting
firm, to expand her experience in economic applications. There she worked on a variety
of cases, from investigating allegations of benchmark interest-rate manipulation at a large
multinational bank to dissecting customer data to evaluate bases for class certification. She
also gained a tremendous appreciation for the tools and techniques used to analyze big data.
In her spare time, Hoda enjoys watching classic movies, skiing, reading, travelling, dabbling
in photography, and hiking on sunny days.
Lauder Focus: Middle East and Arabic
JOEL FILIPPI
Joel was born and raised in Verona, Italy, speaking both Italian and French at home
under the tutelage of his mother, who grew up in Paris. His passion for foreign cultures
and languages blossomed under the positive influence of his parents, both French
teachers who pushed him to go beyond the pure knowledge of a language and to discover
new cultures by travelling around the world. During his high-school years, he journeyed
across Europe, spending several summers on immersion programs in both Spain and
the U.K., where he picked up the languages and deepened his knowledge of the local
cultures. He continued to follow his passion by exploring 25 countries spanning five
continents.
During his studies in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Padova in Italy, Joel
also decided to pursue a double degree in Engineering at the Ecole Centrale de Nantes
in France. There, for two years he lived with three Brazilians who shared their culture
and nurtured his passion for South America, and Brazil in particular. While in college,
he also interned in the Congo for an Italian civil-engineering company and in France for
Procter & Gamble and Airbus.
In 2012, after graduation, Joel joined The Boston Consulting Group as a Management
Consultant serving consumer-goods companies. He focused on the travel and tourism
and packaged-goods sectors, helping clients to address challenges, such as strategic
planning and cost-optimization programs. He also spent six months in São Paulo, where
he developed a market-entry strategy for a European coffee manufacturer.
While at Wharton/Lauder, Joel hopes to fully embrace his philosophy of being a
world citizen through a strong MBA education surrounded by a vibrant international
environment and culture.
Joel speaks Italian, French, English, Portuguese, and Spanish. He is passionate about
travelling and sports — especially soccer and skiing — cooking, and spending time with
family and friends.
STÉPHANE FISCH
Stéphane was born and raised in France to a family of medical doctors and civil servants.
At age 16, Stéphane’s high-school teachers recognized his passion for philosophy, and he was
appointed to the concours general de philosophie, which selects the top 0.1% of students in
France. This experience led him to pursue studies in the field of political science. Stéphane had his first professional experience at age 18 in a French renewable-energy
startup in Jiangsu Province, China. He graduated from the Paris School of Political Science
(Sciences Po) with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science in 2009 and a Master’s in Public
Affairs in 2011. While at Sciences Po, he participated in an exchange program at King’s
College London to study War Studies and Medieval Literature. During his Master’s pursuit,
he worked part-time in the office of the French Minister of the Budget, François Baroin.
At age 21, Stéphane was the youngest student to enter the Ecole Nationale d’Administration
(ENA), where he studied public finance, law, and economics.
Stéphane’s professional experience is linked largely with French public administration. After
serving as second secretary at the Embassy of France in Beijing and chief of staff for the
governor (préfet) of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, in 2013 he became head of the Department
of Coordinated Healthcare for Performance and Productivity Improvement in the French
Ministry of Health. There, he focused on innovative techniques to improve the efficiency of
the healthcare system and reduce the impact on public finances. The following year, he was
appointed government commissioner for the 2015 National Healthcare Bill.
Since 2013, Stéphane has been a lecturer at Sciences Po for MPA students in Economics and
International Relations.
Stéphane speaks French, English, Portuguese, and Spanish fluently and is conversational
in Mandarin Chinese and Russian. In his spare time, he likes to play tennis, practice kick
boxing, and run half-marathons. He has played the piano since age 5 and was laureate with
honors at the international piano competition Concours National de France in 2005. He also
published a book of poetry, Eloge du Pays Rêvé, in 2014.
At Wharton/Lauder, Stéphane plans to develop a better understanding of international
business and to learn Portuguese.
VANESSA FRANCES
Vanessa was born in London, England. She spent her first three years living in Barcelona,
Spain, and New York City, before her family settled in Miami, Florida. Raised on the
multicultural island of Key Biscayne and in a bilingual home, she was exposed to the Spanish
language at a very early age. She gained an appreciation for the diversity in Hispanic culture
from her interactions with friends in the classroom and on her soccer team. In addition, she
studied French in high school. She and her family travelled to Barcelona, Spain, twice a year
for winter and summer holidays, which helped her develop her Spanish language skills and
learn some basic Catalan.
Vanessa attended Princeton University, where she majored in Mechanical and Aerospace
Engineering and completed a certificate in Sustainable Energy. She completed a senior
group thesis on micro-scale turbine engines and endeavored, with two colleagues, to convert
such an engine into a power plant to supply energy in developing nations. Following her
sophomore year, she spent her summer as a Corporate Contacts representative for Business
Today, where she met with numerous Fortune 500 executives in the Midwest. She not only
raised money to help fund the following academic year’s events, but also brought notable
C-suite executives to Princeton’s campus as seminar and conference speakers. The summer
after her junior year, she interned with TNO in Helmond, Netherlands, conducting research
on automotive powertrains.
After graduation, Vanessa joined Schlumberger as a Field Engineer in Well Integrity
Technology in Villahermosa, Mexico. She worked on natural-gas well sites throughout the
region, which advanced her Spanish-language expertise. She was also given the opportunity
to complete her operational school training in Tyumen, Russia, during which she spent two
months in Siberia studying well-cementing techniques and learning the mechanics behind
the heavy machinery used at the well sites. She left Schlumberger after eight months to
pursue a position that was more relevant to her mechanical and aerospace background. She
was hired by GE Aviation in Lynn, Massachusetts, to work in the Inlet and Exhaust Systems
group, where she was responsible for military afterburner hardware for the F414-400. She
spent three years working on afterburner mechanical design, first for the Navy and later for
a New Product Introduction project.
In her free time, Vanessa enjoys travelling, contemporary art exhibits, and boxing. She
follows Formula 1, English Premiere League soccer, and NBA basketball.
BOBBY GIANCHANDANI
Bobby’s interest in Spanish-speaking countries was sparked during his undergraduate
studies at Tufts University, where he took courses focused on Latin American and Spanish
literature, arts, theater, and history to complement his degree in Economics. This initial
interest led him to study abroad at the Universidad de Alcala in Spain.
After graduation, to build on his interest in Spanish-speaking countries, Bobby took a
yearlong position as an ESL teacher for adult business professionals in Santiago, Chile. While
in South America, he became further fascinated by the Latin American culture and spent
time travelling through Argentina and Bolivia and volunteering at an orphanage in Peru.
Upon his return to the U.S., Bobby joined IMS Consulting Group, focusing specifically on
healthcare, pharma, and biotech issues in emerging markets. He concentrated on Latin
American projects and helped to build the Latin American teams’ competency in his specialty
area of Market Access, centering particularly on Mexico, Brail, and Argentina. His project
work culminated in a temporary six-month transfer to IMS’s office in Mexico City. Given his unique expertise at IMS, Bobby was promoted twice during his tenure to a Senior
Consultant, managing teams of 2-8 global consultants. In addition, he served as chair of the
firm’s Community Service Initiative and brought over $50,000 of funding to partner charities
such as New York Cares and the American Cancer Society.
Bobby enjoys travelling and, since his year in South America, has slept in mud huts in South
Africa, climbed through ice caves in Iceland, navigated through rural Indian backwaters,
and explored culinary delights in Hong Kong. He also enjoys alternative rock and indie
music and recently attended SXSW in Austin, Texas, and the Northside Festival in Brooklyn,
New York.
NEHA GOEL
Neha was born in San Francisco, California, to a close-knit family that had recently
emigrated from New Delhi, India. Since so many relatives remained in India, she spent much
of her childhood travelling between both cities and developing a love of Indian culture. She
completed most of her schooling in San Francisco, with a brief stint in England.
Neha became interested in Indian history as a teenager, creating her own self-study course
for high-school credit and teaching herself the Devanagiri script. She was fascinated by the
gradual shift of power from the Mughals to the British Raj and the effect this had on newly
independent India’s economic policies, which in turn reverberate in today’s market. These
interests led Neha to earn an A.B. in Public Policy, with a minor in South Asian Studies, from
Princeton University.
While at Princeton, Neha spent a summer working for Ashoka: Innovators for the Public,
a social entrepreneurship fellowship and network, in New Delhi. The experience was very
challenging but also clarified Neha’s future goals.
After graduation, Neha spent three and a half years at Deloitte Consulting, in its Strategy
& Operations group. She focused on payments in particular, helping to coordinate the firm’s
Mobile Payments & Financial Services Practice. She worked with credit-card issuers,
mobile wallets, credit-card networks, and other payment players on projects ranging from
acquisition strategy to change management. Prior to entering Wharton/Lauder, she did a
brief internship at NerdWallet, a booming consumer-finance education startup best known
for its credit-card recommendation tool. Through these experiences, she found the perfect
way to marry her interests in innovation and social impact: “fintech,” or financial technology.
She ultimately wants to work in this field, ideally in India or elsewhere overseas.
Neha loves to read, bake, and travel, having already been to 30 countries. She’s tremendously excited about the personal and professional development the next two years promise at
Wharton/Lauder.
Lauder Focus: South Asia and Hindi
MIGUEL GONZÁLEZ HERRANZ
Miguel was born and raised in Madrid, Spain. In 2004, he began his Electrical Engineering
and Computer Science studies at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and moved to Paris,
France, in 2008 to complete a double degree in Engineering at TELECOM ParisTech. A year
later he graduated magna cum laude.
After graduation, Miguel went to work for Telefónica in Paris as part of the five-person
team that started the business. A year later, after contributing to Telefónica’s 27% growth in
France, he moved to Dublin, Ireland, to join Google’s cloud computing division as a Product
Specialist and, later, a Technical Strategist.
During this time, Miguel stood out as the top performer on a 100-engineer team, building
the first non-English support team and leading the closure of the largest cloud computing
deal ever signed by Google (with bank BBVA for $43 million). In addition, his social
commitment crystallized in May 2012 when he founded JuntoSalimos (www.juntosalimos.
org), a philanthropic venture that aims to leverage technology and the collective intelligence
to develop the entrepreneurial and socioeconomic ecosystems in Spain, Latin America, and
other parts of the world.
After three years in Dublin, Miguel moved to Colombia to join Google’s engineering
organization as its Head of Emerging Markets in Colombia, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Central
America, and the Caribbean. In this role, he managed a team of eight Project Leaders
managing 80 agents and operated a $3 million budget dedicated to developing the Internet
and the technology ecosystem in the region.
Keenly attuned to life-changing opportunities, in October 2014 Miguel joined BBVA as its
Head of Digital Innovation. As the youngest Head of a division at the bank, he built the
Digital Innovation organization from scratch (16 employees) and designed a disruptive
strategy that positioned BBVA Colombia as the digital banking leader in the region.
Outside work, Miguel has been a keynote speaker on social entrepreneurship at several
events in Europe and Latin America, has served as a juror at several entrepreneurship
contests in Latin America, and is currently an advisor for two tech startups in Peru.
In his free time, Miguel enjoys soccer, cycling, tennis, reading, and travelling (he has
travelled to 29+ countries on four continents). He speaks Spanish, English, French, and
Portuguese.
Miguel looks forward to one of the most fulfilling periods of his life within the Wharton/
Lauder community.
CAIO GUIMARÃES
Caio was born in Salvador, Brazil, but grew up in Rio de Janeiro. He had his first crosscultural experience at age 9, when his family moved to the U.S. for four years. Interested in
learning different languages from an early age, he began studying sign language in middle
school.
Back in Brazil, Caio attended the Instituto Tecnologico de Aeronautica (ITA), where he
majored in Aeronautical Engineering. During this time, he was very active both on and off
campus, dedicating a considerable amount of time to one of his passions: education. In 2005,
he created Rumo ao ITA (“On my way to ITA”), a not-for-profit interactive portal where undergraduates could post materials for prospective candidates to top Brazilian engineering
schools. Over the years, he grew the portal into a 100% self-funded organization that is
highly regarded by applicants nationwide. In 2007, following an invitation from a fellow ITA
alumnus and owner of a famous Brazilian publishing company, he dedicated himself to what
became a new hobby: writing. Since then, he has published two mathematics books that have
reached top-selling status among applicants to ITA.
During college, Caio also studied French in hopes of someday complementing his degree
with a study program in France. His enjoyed his first real French experience in 2007, when
he had a summer internship in Paris with an oil and gas technology firm. A year later, he
went to Toulouse as part of a yearlong student exchange, after convincing ITA of the value
of such programs.
After graduation, Caio worked primarily in management consulting. Following two years
with Monitor Group, he moved to the Boston Consulting Group in 2013, where he worked for
the most part with energy-related topics. His ultimate goal is to lead the transformation of
his family business into a relevant and innovative services firm in the oil and gas technology
space. At Wharton/Lauder, he looks forward to learning more about developing family
businesses with a focus on international growth, specifically in French-speaking countries
in Africa.
Caio enjoys travelling and music. In his free time, you will most likely find him with a guitar
in his arms, ready to start a new band – no matter what type of music genre. He speaks
Portuguese, English, French, and conversational Spanish.
JACKSON HUI
Jackson was born and raised in Hong Kong. While growing up, he experienced education
systems in Hong Kong, Beijing, Singapore, and Finland.
After completing his GCE exams in Hong Kong, Jackson was granted early admission to
Tsinghua University in Beijing, with a full government scholarship. To overcome the cultural
barrier and better understand his motherland, he immersed himself fully in the mainland
Chinese environment, e.g., taking the military training and working as a volunteer in rural
China for three consecutive summers. In addition, he explored different parts of the world
and participated in exchange programs with Singapore Catholic High School and Finland
Helsinki University during high school and college, respectively.
Jackson began his career in the Beijing office of CICC, the largest investment bank in China.
His four-year investment-banking career enabled him to see first-hand the inner workings of
an emerging China, and he accomplished a number of deals with total consideration of over
$30 billion in both the Chinese and Hong Kong capital markets. Proficient in Cantonese and
Mandarin, he was entrusted with communicating with regulators both on the mainland and in
Hong Kong, which taught him how to navigate and accommodate the two different systems.
In 2012, Jackson joined the Shanghai office of Advent International, a global private equity
fund with $30 billion in assets under management, focusing on buyout transactions in Asia.
Many of the investments he worked on had cross-border angles and involved global offices’
participation, giving him opportunities to work at the Boston headquarters and the Mumbai
offices. As a CFA holder and avid investor, he also supported Sunley House Capital, Advent
International’s hedge-fund arm, overseeing Chinese stock-investment opportunities.
In his spare time, Jackson enjoys endurance sports. He has completed the Ironman 70.3, full
marathons, triathlons, and 24-hour charity-run relays in eight cities in Asia and the U.S. over
the past ten years.
MIZUHO IMANISHI
Mizuho was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. Influenced by the extensive international
experiences of her parents and older siblings, she loved watching TV documentaries about
unfamiliar cultures and enjoyed visiting other countries with her family.
Mizuho became especially curious about Latin American cultures, although she had never
visited the region. At age 16, she enrolled in the AFS exchange program. Arriving from
Tokyo to spend a year in a small town in Santiago del Estero in northern Argentina, she
experienced a huge difference in how people lived. Adjusting to that shift in her daily reality,
she became very flexible and responsive to those around her. Being the only Japanese person
in the town, she immersed herself in the local community and quickly learned Spanish and
made new friends.
Upon her return to Japan, Mizuho entered Sophia University in Tokyo and, with her recent
experiences in mind, decided to major in International Economics. During her senior
year, she spent ten months at Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, expanding her
knowledge of regional economic and social issues and discussing historical and current
topics with fellow students from Mexico.
After graduation, Mizuho became a member of the Energy Unit of a Japanese general
trading company. During her first three years, she actively oversaw her company’s
investments with a Brazilian partner in a bio-ethanol project located in Brazil. Her responsibilities included monitoring the project’s monthly progress and evaluating its viability.
Regular communication with the staff of the Brazilian partner included travelling to Brazil
for meetings. Since most of the documents and presentations were generated in Brazil, she
developed a working knowledge of Portuguese as well.
In 2013, Mizuho joined the trading company’s Liquefied Natural Gas Department. She worked
on developing LNG export projects located in the U.S. as well as off-taking LNG from global
suppliers for Asian buyers. To strengthen the company’s network in the EU, she worked at
the company’s branch in London for three months in 2014, actively interacting with both
Spanish and European LNG parties.
In addition to Japanese, Mizuho is fluent in Spanish and English and has a working knowledge
of Portuguese. In her spare time, she enjoys international travel, scuba diving, and street
dance.
CHRISTOPHER JONES
Chris was born in a suburb of Houston, Texas. Southern by upbringing, but Irish by descent,
he was bitten by the genealogy bug at a young age. By high school, he had traced his lineage
back to a small town in Ireland, where he reconnected with long-lost Irish cousins. These
early genealogical exploits ignited his passion for foreign cultures and fueled his desire to
get to know the world beyond America’s borders.
Chris studied economics at Princeton University, where he graduated magna cum laude.
While there, he served as president of the Princeton Katzenjammers a cappella group;
worked for a summer at NGO Gariwo, an educational charity in Bosnia; and spent a semester
abroad at Cambridge University researching the economy of Ireland’s Gaelic-speaking
communities. After a summer stint at Lehman Brothers in 2008, he returned to Princeton for
his senior year, intent on pursuing his interest in international macroeconomics. His senior
thesis, examining the interplay between language barriers and international trade, received
the Walter C. Sauer ’28 Prize for most outstanding undergraduate work on a topic related to
U.S. foreign trade.
After attaining his Master’s degree in Economics from Queen’s University in Canada,
Chris began his career as an economist with TD Bank in Toronto. There he was responsible
for analyzing U.S. macroeconomic trends for the bank’s business units and retail clients.
He frequently appeared on Canada’s BNN and Sun News television networks; and his
macroeconomic research was regularly cited by major print media outlets such as The Globe
and Mail, Wall Street Journal, and the Associated Press. Living and working in Canada also
sparked his love for the French language. In 2011, he enrolled in his first French class at the
Toronto branch of the Alliance française and quickly developed an advanced proficiency in
the language.
In late 2012, Chris joined Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO) as a
client-facing associate in the firm’s Newport Beach office. In this role, he helped to advise
large U.S. public retirement systems on their fixed-income investment portfolios. He also
authored the monthly economic commentaries and investment outlook for the PIMCO Total
Return Fund, the world’s largest actively managed fixed-income mutual fund.
At Wharton/Lauder, Chris looks forward to improving his French while developing
cross-cultural competencies for helping pension funds manage their assets in a global
marketplace. In his spare time, he enjoys Crossfit, skiing, and country music.
CRAIG JONES
Craig grew up in El Paso, Texas, where he spent his first years of elementary school in
bilingual Spanish/English classes. From a very young age, he was excited to learn about
his Hispanic classmates’ language and culture. He later moved to Kansas City, Kansas, for
high school and then went on to study Accounting and Finance at the Whitman School of
Management at Syracuse University.
Craig spent the first semester of his junior year in a study-abroad program in Madrid, Spain,
living with a host family to maximize his immersion in Spanish. After graduation, he moved
to New York City to work for the Global Capital Markets group with PricewaterhouseCoopers. Several years later, he volunteered to move to the Mexico City office to help grow the
Latin American practice. There, he was given responsibility for capital-market transactions
in Mexico, Peru, and Columbia, and advised clients throughout the deal process, specializing
in SEC financial reporting and raising capital (IPOs, 144As).
During this time in Mexico City, Craig and his wife founded Alegria Home, a modern
home-decor brand. The company works with artisans in Mexico and Guatemala who design,
develop, and sell their products around the globe. It also supports artisans in developing
countries and provides them with economic opportunities to bring their unique products to
market. The couple travelled throughout Mexico and Guatemala — sometimes spending up
to 20 hours at a time on buses — to attend trade shows and to meet the artisans.
Craig will study real estate at Wharton and use his experiences living in Mexico and the
knowledge he gains through Lauder to participate in the growth of the Mexican and Latin
American economies.
CLAUDEL KAMGANG
Claudel was born and raised in Yaoundé and Douala, Cameroon. His travels around the
country exposed him to its various unique cultures and resources. He also became very
aware of the crucial role education plays in enhancing people’s standard of living. Thus, at
age 15, with his high school diploma in hand, he took on the highly rewarding challenge of
studying in France, a country more than 6,000 miles away.
Claudel graduated from Paris Diderot University with High Honors in Computer Science.
In order to gain significant work experience before returning to Cameroon, he accepted a
position with Veolia Water, a leading water-treatment and distribution company in Europe.
Soon after, a newly passed French immigration law prevented him from transitioning from a
student visa to a work visa. He wrote letters, met with numerous officials, and had his story
published in Le Monde. His actions, along with those of others in similar straits, led to the
law being overturned. Witnessing such a result at age 21 made Claudel aware of the close
relationship between government oversight and business. He also understood how vital it
is to consider the roles of a country’s government regulations and social dynamics when
thinking about business of any kind, whether as an employer or an employee.
At Wharton/Lauder, Claudel hopes to understand the secrets behind Brazil’s emergence
and how to strengthen the growing relationship between Brazil and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Ultimately, he plans to provide the means for access to fresh and drinkable water in Cameroon
to the half of the population that now lacks it. His four years at Veolia Water taught him
how water is treated, transported, and distributed to people. As an IT consultant, he also
witnessed firsthand how much of an accelerator new technologies can be in the process.
In his free time, Claudel enjoys listening to music, watching movies, and travelling. He
previously played chess professionally, so he can’t resist sitting in front of a chess table
whenever he stumbles upon one. He also hopes to overcome his fear of deep water by
learning how to swim.
IMRAN KARIM
Imran was born in Vancouver, Canada, to Kenyan- and Tanzanian-born parents of Indian
origin, and grew up in Ottawa. At home he spoke English and the Indian dialect of Kutchi.
At age 5, he also began to study French at school through an intensive bilingual program.
His immersions in a wide range of language and cultural settings shaped his international
perspectives early on.
Imran attended Cornell University, where he completed a major in Government and
a concentration in French. At the same time, he also learned to speak Hindi and Urdu
proficiently, and actively pursued International Relations-related activities such as the
university’s Model United Nations organization. During his junior year, he spent a semester
in Washington, D.C., furthering his knowledge of foreign policy and international finance.
He also spent a semester studying at the Université de Paris in France and a summer at
Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business in the Business Bridge Program.
After graduation, Imran was awarded a prestigious fellowship in International Development
Management by the Aga Khan Foundation, for which he went to India to work on civil-society
initiatives for participatory irrigation management in rural Gujarat. He then joined the
Canadian Foreign Service and was posted for two years in New Delhi, where he worked to
further Canadian commercial interests in the country, to overcome obstacles to international
business development, and to increase the size and diversity of the $5 billion per year
Canada-India trade relationship. During this period, he also assisted in the coordination
and advancement of the Canada-India free-trade-agreement negotiations and helped
launch the Government of Canada’s India trade-advocacy strategy. In his other Foreign
Service assignments, he worked on initiatives to increase the attractiveness of foreign
direct investment to Canada in the oil and mining sectors, briefed Ministers on South Asia
commercial relations, and coordinated Canada’s input on services trade at the World Trade
Organization.
In addition to his other language skills, Imran has developed intermediate proficiency in
Spanish through his travels in Latin America. He enjoys running, swimming, hiking, and
international music and cinema.
At Wharton/Lauder, Imran aspires to gain new perspectives on innovation and businessgovernment dynamics in the context of multinational management, social enterprise, and
sustainability. Ultimately, he hopes to bring together his interests in business, international
development, and foreign affairs to lead entrepreneurial initiatives for the purposes of
social and international development.
JESSICA KONG
Jessica was born to and raised in Maryland by native Korean parents. She grew up speaking
Korean at home and studied Spanish in school. Her interest in international business led
her to study at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, where she majored in
Business Administration, with a concentration in Finance and Spanish.
Nearly two years of Jessica’s time at Northeastern involved studying, travelling, and
working abroad. She spent her summers in Korea, Mexico, and Spain, and enrolled at
the University of Barcelona in 2010 to study liberal arts. As part of Northeastern’s co-op
program, she interned full-time for a semester at the Department of the U.S. Treasury,
Financial Management Services Bureau, supporting the CFO on special projects, and also at
the Allianz HQ in Munich, Germany, with the internal strategy group supporting the COO. While these experiences exposed her to a wider realm of industries, Jessica is passionate
about retail. At Northeastern, she founded Haute Fashion, the school’s first fashion- and
retail-based interest group, while helping to launch BCBGeneration in 2009 as a BCBG Brand
Ambassador. Through these experiences, she developed a strong network within the fashion
and retail community in Boston, planning and hosting numerous citywide events.
After graduation in 2011, to gain broader international experience, Jessica joined McKinsey’s
Dubai office, where she worked across various industries. She then transferred to the
Mid-Atlantic office in 2012 to specialize in Retail and CPG. She worked throughout Korea,
Japan, the UAE, the U.K., and the U.S., supporting senior clients on strategic growth.
In 2013, Jessica decided to transition to luxury retail, joining renowned Swedish bed brand
Hästens. As Country Manager for the U.K., she was responsible for building both the retail
and wholesale channels. After doubling the volume of business within one year in London,
she was promoted to Head of Strategy, Global Retail in 2015 to develop the retail channel
worldwide.
In her spare time, Jessica enjoys travelling and developing her nonprofit, Invest.Her, an
organization dedicated to mobilizing the next generation of underrepresented female business
leaders. She is elated to join Wharton/Lauder and looks forward to gaining experience and
knowledge in Latin America with an eye toward helping new brands enter and develop their
businesses in the region.
JAY LANNERS
Jay was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and grew up in the nearby small town of Covington. He
graduated from Davidson College in 2011 with a major in Economics and a minor in Spanish.
Travelling in Europe several times with his family before college piqued his interest in other
countries and cultures.
Jay began studying Spanish during his first semester at Davidson and immediately became
passionate about learning the language. He studied abroad twice in Spain, including a summer
program in Cádiz and a semester in Madrid. He also did a summer internship in Buenos Aires,
where he fell in love with Argentina, thanks to its kind people and their zest for life. This
experience solidified his desire to pursue an international business career focused on Latin
America. Thus, he began to study Brazilian Portuguese through a self-instructional program
during his last semester of college. He immersed himself more deeply in the language during
month-long trips to São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in 2011 and 2013, respectively.
After spending two years as an Associate Consultant at Bain & Company in Atlanta, Georgia,
Jay accepted a job in Buenos Aires with MercadoLibre, the leader in eCommerce in Latin
America. There, he spent a year and a half in a multifaceted role that involved Strategic
Planning, Investor Relations, and Corporate Development. Exposure to the tech and startup
environments in Latin America fostered his interest in entrepreneurship, leading him to
co-found Klöver (klover.com.ar), a service dedicated to arranging a round of drinks between
two groups of three friends in Buenos Aires.
During his time at Wharton/Lauder, Jay hopes to further develop his entrepreneurial and
Portuguese skills in hopes of returning to Latin America as an entrepreneur. He plans to
focus his long-term career on startups and venture capital in emerging markets, especially
Latin America.
PIERRE LE NORMAND
Pierre was born and raised in France. At age 8, he joined The Little Singers of Paris, a
world-famous boarding school and boys choir, with which he toured many countries over six
years. Through this early exposure to very different cultures, he developed a keen interest
in cultural diversity and foreign languages.
Pierre holds a Master’s in Management from Reims Management School and is a CFA
charterholder. During his graduate studies, he served as founder and treasurer of a local
branch of Cheer-Up!, a national association in France that helps young cancer patients work
on various projects. His internship experiences with large financial institutions in the Middle
East and Europe, working with large multicultural teams, reinforced his passion for global
business.
In 2010, Pierre joined MetLife in Latin America as part of a highly selective two-year
program for recent graduates. He worked in Chile and Colombia, leading large projects
in different areas. After completing the executive-development program, he oversaw the
strategic planning of the agency business for MetLife in Chile, where he helped to expand
the sales force from 600 to 1,200 agents. He also had a direct impact on the sales process by
implementing a mobile sales platform that helped to increase agents’ productivity. In March
2014, he was promoted to strategy deputy to lead both the company-strategy team and the
cross-selling team. During that year he led the strategic-planning process that identified
cross-company initiatives to unlock $20 million in operating earnings over three years.
In his spare time, Pierre loves to participate in sports such as running and horseback riding.
He has run in several half marathons and finished his first marathon in just over three and a
half hours. He has also been a long-time volunteer for the organization team of the Concours
Hippique du Clermontois, a national show-jumping competition in the north of France.
Pierre is native in French and fluent in Spanish and English. At Wharton/Lauder he hopes to
expand his international business horizons and become fluent in Portuguese.
YIFAN LI
Yifan was born in the port city of Dalian, in northeastern China, and moved to the San Francisco
Bay Area at age 10. He attended kindergarten in Japan for a year when his parents were
working there. These experiences of transitioning from one country to another fostered his
deep interest in learning the language, geography, culture, and history of different regions.
Yifan attended Harvard University, where he majored in economics and government. He
continued to study Japanese and gained a deeper understanding of modern Japanese society
and politics through an internship with a National Diet representative during the heated
general elections of 2009. He also gained exposure to the Greater China region through a
study-abroad program at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and by interning at Nomura
International.
After graduation, Yifan joined Bain & Company’s Silicon Valley office, where he worked
on project management, global sales strategy, organizational design, and forecasting and
planning assignments for leading technology and utilities firms in the area. To gain further
cross-cultural team-management experience and exposure to India, he transferred to
the Bain Capability Centre in Gurgaon, India, for six months, where he led teams of local
analysts to support more than 40 assignments from Bain offices worldwide and spanning all
practice areas.
During this time, Yifan also volunteered for the Sunshine Library, an NPO that aims to bridge
the rural-urban gap in education in China through tablets loaded with quality educational
content. Combining his passions for maps and cross-cultural learning, he created innovative
geography-education content that transformed the way geographic concepts were taught in
the supported rural schools. In 2014, he joined Guanghe Xinzhi, the online education-content
provider affiliated with Sunshine Library, in Beijing. He helped to establish a structured
production management process and provided firm-wide training on principles and practices
based on his own experiences to increase productivity and build a more open and proactive
working culture.
Yifan speaks Mandarin, Japanese, and various Chinese dialects, including Cantonese,
Hokkien, and Hakka, which he learned because of his interests in the Chinese diaspora
and East Asian linguistics. In his spare time, he maintains his own satellite-map database
of transportation infrastructure, social and political phenomena, and historic monuments
around the globe, which he uses extensively for travel planning and for learning about
differences in architecture, urban planning, and economic development.
YUE LI
Yue, who goes by Yueli, was born in the southern Chinese city of Nanchang. She moved to the
U.S. when she was six and spent most of her childhood in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan.
Growing up in a Chinese household in the middle of Midwestern America, she developed
early on a love of experiencing other cultures.
Inspired by her engineer father, Yue attended MIT, where she majored in Mechanical Engineering and minored in Music. In addition, she continued to cultivate her interest in other
cultures through MIT’s study-abroad program. She spent a month teaching high school
math and science in Sicily, Italy, and a summer working for El Tecnológico de Monterrey in
Córdoba, Mexico. She also had the opportunity to intern in Beijing during the 2008 Summer
Olympics at the Indianapolis-based diesel-engine company Cummins. That memorable
summer gave her the impetus to learn more about her Chinese heritage and to take Chinese
history and Mandarin courses in college.
After graduating in 2011, Yue moved to New York City and joined Oliver Wyman Financial
Services as a management consultant. She worked on a range of strategic projects with large
banks, insurance companies, private equity firms, and government institutions. Seeking a
more operational- and results-oriented role, she left Oliver Wyman after two and a half years
for the Business Operations team at Venmo, a small mobile-payments company acquired by
PayPal in late 2013.
While living in New York, Yue traveled extensively, both domestically and internationally,
and explored the cultural mecca right outside her apartment. Inspired by her experiences,
she cofounded a cross-cultural catering company, the Hutong NYC, which served authentic
Beijing-style steamed buns to companies and individuals across the city. This side venture
combined her interest in operations and love of food and culture. Looking forward, Yue hopes
to solidify her Chinese language skills in a business context at Wharton/Lauder to prepare
for a career in operations for a multinational food company.
In addition to travel and food, Yue enjoys skiing, yoga, Broadway shows, and board games.
SHU LIU
Shu was born in China and spent most of her childhood in Beijing, often travelling to various
Latin American countries, where her parents were stationed as diplomats. From ages 13 to
18, she attended Chase Academy, a private boarding school in the U.K., where she completed
her GCSEs and A-Levels. She also developed a passion for classical music, attaining a
DipABRSM in flute performance and a Grade 8 with distinction in piano performance
from the Royal Academy of Music. She went on to win the Staffordshire Young Musician
of the Year award and was invited to join the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, a
prestigious symphony orchestra that tours throughout the country.
Shu moved to the U.S. to attend Rutgers University, where she graduated cum laude with a
B.S. in Finance. She was heavily involved with Beta Alpha Psi, Ascend, and Volunteer Income
Tax Assistance (VITA). During this time, she interned at major Chinese banks in New York
City and Shanghai.
After graduation, Shu spent three and a half years working as an Associate at Solera Capital,
a New York City-based private equity firm. There, she took an active role in the full spectrum
of private equity, ranging from fund-raising and deal-sourcing to business-building and exit.
She was also involved in the Annie’s Inc. IPO in 2012, which was named “the single best IPO
performance since LinkedIn” by the Wall Street Journal.
With a strong commitment to diversity, mentorship, and core values, Shu was active in
various organizations, such as the Fortune/U.S. State Department Global Women’s Mentoring
Partnership, Women’s Forum Inc., and the Women’s Sports Foundation, where she helped to
organize events and activities to support female leaders and entrepreneurs from around the
world. These experiences led to her passion for developing similar platforms and networks
for female business leaders in China.
At Wharton/Lauder, Shu hopes to further develop a deeper social, political, and economic
understanding of China and to discover opportunities to help promote female advancement
in the Asian business environment.
In her spare time, Shu volunteers with various organizations, including the Rutgers Team Up
Mentorship program, the Overseas China Education Foundation, and the American Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. She enjoys running, yoga, travelling, great food,
and symphony concerts.
YANN MANIBOG
Yann was born and raised in Washington, D.C. The son of two World Bank economists from
France and the Philippines, he developed an early interest in global issues and cultural
and socioeconomic diversity. He deepened his understanding of these issues through the
multilingual international school he attended and his experiences in his mother countries.
Yann majored in Mechanical Engineering during his undergraduate studies at Northwestern
University. He also developed his problem-solving skills while working for a startup, where
he designed a micro-scale wind turbine for consumers in rural India. After winning the
Dow Chemical Innovation Award, he and his team worked in Gujarat, India, where they
conducted tests with local families. In between school and work, Yann hosted a weekly radio
show and deejayed in clubs in Chicago. He graduated from Northwestern magna cum laude
and received the Director’s Award for Engineering Design.
Yann found his place in global business as a management consultant with A.T. Kearney,
where he focused on advising global clients in the energy and public sectors. His experience
revolved around enterprise-wide cost transformations, whether in merger-integration
settings or more general performance improvements.
Most recently, as the youngest Manager in the firm, Yann had the opportunity to lead a change
management program in the UAE. In this role, he helped to establish a new government
entity in the region. This experience — and other experiences developing strategies for
various multinationals — helped him understand how large organizations operate and how
to make decisions in these often-difficult environments. In his spare time, he participated in
business-development efforts for AT Kearney’s Energy and Process Industry practice and
founded the San Francisco office’s soccer team.
Yann enjoys running, playing soccer, riding motorcycles, and exploring drum and bass
music, a niche and evolving genre of dance music.
ANDREI VALLEJO MARGARIT
Andrei wasborninIbagué,Colombia,toaRomanianmotherandColombianfather.Helived
primarily in Bogotá until moving to New York City at age 6. He is fluent in Romanian,
Spanish, and French; proficient in Portuguese; and is currently working on adding a nonRomancelanguage—Turkish—tohisrepertoire.
Throughout hislife,AndreihasremainedclosetohisfamilyinRomania,spendingevery
childhood summer in his mother’s home village in the Romanian countryside, which
affordedhim a unique perspective of the country’s painful transition from communism.
Growing up in such contrasting environments fostered his curiosity and desire to
understand the forces that shape the world’s immensely different societies and economies.
This desire led Andrei to pursue his undergraduate degree at Wharton, concentrating in
Finance and minoring in Economics and Mathematics. During this time, he also enjoyed a
semester abroad, studying in Lyon, France.
After graduation, during the height of the global financial crisis, Andrei began his career
in Morgan Stanley’s Financial Institutions Investment Banking group, where he had the
opportunity to work immediately on some of the firm’s highest-profile assignments,
including advising the U.S. Treasury Department on the successful bail-out and
restructuringofFannieMae and Freddie Mac.
Seeking amoreinternationalandentrepreneurialexperience,AndreithenmovedtoHSBC
tohelpestablishitsLatinAmericaM&AgroupinNewYorkCity.There,headvisedLatin
American and Emerging Market clients such as Camargo Corrêa, BRF Brasil Foods, and
Almaraioncomplex,cross-borderM&Atransactions.
To develophisunderstandingofhowtomanagecompanies,AndreileftHSBCin2012tojoin
CoveView Capital Partners, an operationally focused, lower-middle-market private
equity firmbasedinConnecticut.There,heworkedhand-in-handwithportfolio-company
management teams to design and implement operational improvements and growth
initiatives across the industrial and retail sectors.
As amemberoftheGlobalProgramatLauder,Andreihopestogainexposuretoareasofthe
world he has not seen or experienced yet, such as Africa and Asia, and thus further his
understanding of their important and growing roles in the world economy.
Andrei is passionate about science and the outdoors and enjoys trail-running, back-country
skiing, scuba diving, and virtually every other outdoor activity. He is also an avid sci-fi and
fantasy fan.
CHARLIE McCARREN
Charlie was born and raised in Denver, Colorado. Growing up in the shadows of the Rocky
Mountains, he developed a keen interest in the outdoors. To this day, he remains an avid
skier, snowboarder, and trail-runner.
Charlie attended the University of Michigan, graduating in 2007 with a degree in Economics
and History. There, he was active in the student government, played on the men’s club
water polo team, and served as a mentor to local middle-school students. His interest in
economics and Chinese history culminated in a senior thesis that sought to address why
Hong Kong remained a British crown colony during the post-war period of decolonization.
After graduation, he received two fellowships to study in Beijing, China — first at Peking
University and then at Beijing International Studies University (BISU).
During his time in Beijing, Charlie quickly improved his knowledge of Mandarin from a
rudimentary to an advanced level. He spent three semesters studying Chinese at BISU, taking
classes in the morning and interning at SJ Grand International Business Solutions, a boutique
consulting firm, in the afternoon. At SJ Grand, he was responsible for drafting bi-weekly
reports addressing key developments in China’s business and regulatory environments.
After completing his internship in Beijing, Charlie moved to Seoul, South Korea, to take up
a sales position for a firm specializing in international employee relocations. In addition to
gaining direct sales experience, he had the opportunity to study Korean in the evenings.
Living and working in Korea provided him with another vantage point from which to analyze
the regional dynamics at play in East Asia. After two years, he decided to return to the
U.S., where he joined IHS as an economist, researching and forecasting commodity prices.
His knowledge of Mandarin played a crucial role in broadening his team’s coverage of
commodity and material prices throughout China.
Charlie aspires to deepen his connections with China and East Asia more broadly through
Wharton/Lauder. In particular, he wants to transition into a management or strategy
consulting role in the region, focusing on the consumer electronics, industrials, and metals
& mining sectors.
In his spare time, Charlie still finds time to enjoy the outdoors. He also helps coach a U.S.
Masters swim team and is a nationally ranked Masters swimmer. Outside the pool, he enjoys
reading books on Asian history, business strategy, and science fiction.
THOMAS McELWEE
Tom was born and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina. His interest in Latin America and
Spanish began when he was a middle-school exchange student in Mexico City, Mexico.
This experience led him to study the language in high school and to major in Comparative
Literature and Spanish at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
While at Chapel Hill, Tom spent a semester studying abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
This adventure inspired his senior thesis in Comparative Literature, which compared the
historical, lyrical, and musical similarities between the Argentine Tango and Mississippi’s
Delta Blues.
Feeling that one semester in Latin America was not enough, Tom moved to Buenos Aires
immediately after graduation in 2009. He spent most of his two years there working
with Horizon Capital, a boutique merchant and investment bank focusing on energy and
transportation.
While investor interest in Argentina continued to wane, exciting opportunities were opening
in nearby Brazil; and Tom decided that he needed on-the-ground time in that country to
broaden his Latin American experience. He moved to São Paulo, Brazil, in 2011 to pursue
new opportunities. With visa options proving difficult, he enrolled in an accounting program
at a local university in order to qualify for internships, and took a six-month position with JP
Morgan’s Latin America Equity Research team. At the end of the internship, he was hired
full-time and spent over three years covering the Industrials and Agribusiness industries of
Brazil, Mexico, and Chile.
At Wharton/Lauder, Tom hopes to broaden his Latin American experience further by gaining
a better understanding of Peru, Mexico, and Colombia. Eventually, he hopes to leverage this
knowledge within a corporation looking to grow in the region.
GUILLERMO MEDINA BENITEZ
Guillermo was born and raised in Mexico City, Mexico. At age 17, he was awarded a
scholarship to study at the United World College of South East Asia (UWCSEA) in Singapore.
After his time at UWCSEA, Guillermo decided to pursue a B.A. in Economics and Mathematics
at Macalester College because he believed in the practical applications of both degrees
in today’s business environment. Based on his earlier experience in Asia and his passion
for internationalism, he studied abroad at Template University in Japan during his junior
year. At Macalester, he was involved in a number of activities, including the Macalester
Sustainability Committee and the Macalester Investment Group. He also co-wrote multiple
chapters of the econometrics textbook currently used by students there.
After graduation, Guillermo joined Deloitte Consulting’s Strategy and Operations division,
where he focused on the M&A and Restructuring area. He gained significant experience in
the Consumer and Industrial Products and Financial Services industries while supporting
multiple global transactions. He also co-led the Deployment and Retention Committee as part
of his involvement with the National Business Analyst Action Committee and led multiple
Junior Achievement projects in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Building on his previous experiences, Guillermo became passionate about international
business and entrepreneurship opportunities. At Wharton/Lauder, he plans to continue
exploring business opportunities in Latin America while learning Portuguese.
In his spare time, Guillermo is an avid soccer fan and enjoys international travel.
MANU MOHAN
Born in New Delhi, India, Manu spent his formative years being planted in and uprooted
from five cities and seven international schools in Thailand, India, and Singapore. He grew
up speaking Thai with his nanny, English with his parents, Hindi with his grandparents, and
German with his classmates. His upbringing as a third-culture child molded his alternate
sense of belonging and deep-rooted adaptability to people of other cultures.
Manu’s entrepreneurial passion led him to enroll at the National University of Singapore
and Stanford University for a joint-degree program focused on engineering and entrepreneurship management on a full academic scholarship. In addition to a position on the Model
UN team, he held leadership roles on organizing committees for business-plan competitions
at NUS and Stanford. He started a company in his junior year that melded his keen interests
in finance and venture capital. Armed with this perspective, he interned on the Sales Trading
floor at Deutsche Bank in India and Nomura’s Investment Banking division in Singapore and
Hong Kong.
After graduation, Manu spent two years in Goldman Sachs’ Investment Banking division in
Hong Kong, where he was instrumental in executing over $7 billion in equity transactions
in the Financial Institutions, Natural Resources, and Healthcare sectors in Asia. Realizing
that the most rewarding aspect of his job was working with nascent companies in the
developing world, he joined International Finance Corporation, the private-sector arm of the
World Bank, where he helped structure equity, debt, and mezzanine investments deploying
upwards of $270 million toward projects that increased access to nutrition, healthcare, and
education in Asia.
Manu continued his entrepreneurial journey, serving as the CFO of his most recent startup,
Oddle, which provides F&B vendors with online enterprise software for sales-order
management, marketing, and data analytics. Oddle has received $1million in venture capital
and private investor funding.
In his spare time, Manu is an avid photographer, self-proclaimed music and film aficionado,
and voracious traveller, having backpacked across Europe, traversed America on numerous
road trips, and camped in urban Japan on shoestring budgets.
At Wharton/Lauder, Manu hopes to understand in his culture of birth the same nuances he
has sought to grasp in other cultures. He wants to build proficiency in Hindi; improve his
understanding of India’s history, culture, politics, and business practices; and develop the
cross-functional leadership and management skills necessary to succeed in a global economy.
PAUL MOSS
Paul was born and raised in Southern California, but has lived in cities across the U.S. most
of his adult life. In addition to his domestic travels, he spent an extended period of time living
and working in Asia, where he developed knowledge of the Japanese language and culture.
Paul’s love for language and culture initially began in high school, where he studied Spanish
for three years and enjoyed many aspects of Latin American culture. Shortly after completing
high school, and with no knowledge of Japanese, he was sent on a volunteer assignment to
Tokyo, where he spent two years learning the language through a full immersion. In Japan,
he participated in a number of volunteer activities, including work with the elderly and
disabled, English instruction, and various other character-building leadership activities.
Upon his return from Japan, Paul entered Brigham Young University, where he majored
in psychology and took advantage of many of the Marriott School’s business offerings. He
served as president of the Consulting Club and was selected as a member of the school’s
Business Strategy program. He also took a number of courses to build on his foundational
knowledge of Japanese and spent time serving as a volunteer interpreter for the school. He
graduated cum laude in 2011 with a B.Sc. in Psychology and a minor in Business Strategy.
After graduation, Paul took a position with Deloitte Consulting’s Strategy and Operations
practice in Seattle, Washington. There he advised clients in a number of industries, including
Life Sciences, Technology, Retail, and Telecommunications, while developing a broad skill set
across strategy, finance, and M&A. He was sent to Japan on a number of occasions to advise
U.S. and Japan-based clients, which allowed him to work closely with Japanese executives in
a variety of settings. Prior to joining Deloitte, he worked for Boeing, in a Corporate Finance
role, and for a boutique strategy consultancy, where he led the firm’s training initiatives.
In his spare time, Paul enjoys reading, long-distance running, and eating sushi. Through the
Wharton/Lauder program, he hopes to expand his interest in Asian economies and further
improve his proficiency in Japanese.
ANTONIO MUÑOZ VILLANEUVA
Born and raised in Ciudad Real, a small city in the middle of Spain, Antonio was exposed to
multicultural environments from a young age. He lived in Germany, spent several summers
in the U.K. under different academic exchange programs, and travelled frequently around
Europe. These experiences helped him develop a strong awareness of global business and
international relationships. He is business-fluent in Spanish and English and is conversant in
German, French, and Portuguese. He has worked in Spain, Germany, Brazil, and Cameroon
and has visited more than 30 countries.
In 2008, Antonio graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering from the universities of
Castilla la Mancha, Spain, and RWTH Aachen, Germany. After graduation, he joined the ACS
Group, one of the world’s largest construction companies. In 2010, he moved to the Allianz
Group’s Global Corporate & Specialty division, serving as an underwriter and global-risk
engineer.
At Allianz, Antonio led multicultural and cross-functional teams, leading technical due
diligence and risk analysis for corporate clients in the energy and heavy civil industries. One
of 12 people worldwide selected for Allianz’s Global Talent Development Program (Class of
2014), he led a multinational six-person team that completed a global productivity analysis,
reporting directly to the Chief Financial Officer. He also spent several months in São Paulo,
Brazil, helping in the development of the local team.
An avid social entrepreneur, Antonio directed the construction of a hospital and a primary
school in Cameroon, and currently serves as an advisor and angel investor in two startups in
the healthcare and data analytics industries.
Antonio has played for one of the best handball teams in the world, Club Balonmano Ciudad
Real, which won the Spanish National League, the European Champions League, and the
World Clubs Cup, among other honors. He has also played in the third German handball
league.
At Wharton/Lauder, Antonio plans to develop a regional focus and gain the grass-roots
cultural exposure he is seeking.
GUILLERMO NEMIROVSKY DAGER
Born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, Guillermo is the son of a Venezuelan mother
with Lebanese roots and an Argentinean father of Russian descent. Growing up around a
dining-room table that coupled arepas, kibbeh, and borsch with the respectful discussion
of sensitive issues, he developed a keen interest in multiculturalism and the importance of
diversity of thought.
Seeking to further understand and find solutions for the socio-political challenges in his
country, Guillermo attended the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University,
earning a degree in International Politics and a certificate in International Development. He
complemented his studies with internships in the Economic Department of the Embassy of
Venezuela and conducted research at the International Monetary Fund, both in Washington,
D.C.
After graduation, Guillermo joined the Export Credit & Multilateral Agency Financing (EAF)
team at Citibank in New York, where he covered Latin American clients. His transaction
experience included structuring a World Bank Guaranteed Loan for the construction of the $2
billion Panama City Metro and negotiating U.S. government-backed lending for microfinance
and SME portfolios in Central America. He also developed expertise in corporate finance and
asset-backed fixed-income structures in the aviation sector.
Guillermo was then hired by the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) to participate in
the development and management of its EAF product in the Americas. In this role, he led
the issuance of MUFG’s first U.S. Export-Import Bank-Guaranteed Bond, which supported
the sale and financing of multiple Boeing 737-800 aircraft. He then transitioned into MUFG’s
Project Finance Department, focusing on advising the implementation of non-recourse
green-field transactions in the oil and gas, infrastructure, and power space. He participated
in marquee transactions, including assisting South Africa’s Sasol Corporation in financing
the construction of its $9 billion Lake Charles polyethylene plant in Louisiana and in a $700
million Samsung-sponsored combined-cycle power plant in Antofagasta, Chile.
Guillermo was heavily involved in MUFG’s corporate social responsibility efforts, and was
selected to present on the bank’s results in this space during the 2014 One Young World
Conference in Dublin, Ireland. In New York, he is also a junior board member of South Bronx
United, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping first-generation youth from immigrant
families achieve academic and athletic success.
In his free time, Guillermo enjoys watching Argentinean futbol, participating in winter
sports, and playing the tenor saxophone.
DEE NG
Dee grew up in Hong Kong and studied Chinese history and literature throughout her
middle-school education. At age 15, she moved to Boston for high school and began her
journey abroad. During her college summer internship in Los Angeles, California, she worked
part-time on weekends at a Taiwanese teahouse, where she practiced speaking Mandarin and
continued to advance her conversational skills by speaking the language with her friends.
Dee was a McMullen Scholar at Cornell University, where she majored in Operations Research.
She participated in the engineering co-op program with Estée Lauder’s manufacturing
plant in Long Island, where she helped to optimize the efficiency and operating costs of the
company’s production lines. Melding her love of sports and music, she was the captain for
an intramural volleyball team, which reached the finals several times, and cofounded an a
cappella group that performs Asian music at different cultural events.
After graduation in 2007, Dee moved to New York City and joined Capgemini Consulting’s
technology transformation practice, where she helped to formulate business-technology
strategies for Fortune 500 clients. She later joined Ernst & Young’s consulting practice in
New York and was promoted to Manager in 2012, leading and managing $300,000-$5,000,000
client projects across the Life Sciences, Retail, and Utility industries. In 2013, she returned
to Hong Kong and joined Deloitte Consulting, delivering business and operational strategies
for Healthcare and Public Sector clients. There, she managed a team of ~20 consultants in
a diverse working environment where she spoke English, Cantonese, and Mandarin with
different project teams. Throughout her consulting career, she has also been an active
mentor, leading counseling and campus-recruiting initiatives for her companies.
At Wharton/Lauder, Dee looks forward to leveraging her professional experience in the
U.S. and China with her international business education to facilitate future cross-cultural
business opportunities.
During her free time, Dee helps to support her family’s garment-manufacturing business
in marketing and client development. She also plays in competitive volleyball leagues and
enjoys snowboarding trips in Asia and Europe. She is a vocalist for her church’s worship
arts team and a teacher for the children’s program on Sundays. Her weekend evenings are
usually spent with fellow foodies, exploring new restaurants and cuisines from different
countries.
ALEXANDRE NOGUEIRA
Alexandre received his Industrial Engineering degree from the Federal University of Minas
Gerais (UFMG) in Brazil. There, he was a junior researcher and led a project at Vallourec
& Mannesman to increase the efficiency of internal logistics by using simulation software.
He was awarded the Santos-Dumond scholarship and spent a semester at ISIMA in France,
with a focus on industrial computer programming. During this time, he developed a strong
interest in the French and Maghrebian cultures. Back in Brazil and increasingly interested
in finance, he participated in an internship at a Brazilian financial consulting company, where
he developed and implemented algorithms for credit analysis.
After graduating from UFMG, Alexandre pursued a Master’s in Finance at HEC Paris,
France, concentrating on asset management and graduating with Highest Honors. During
this one-year program, he joined Goldman Sachs’ Wealth Management division as a summer
intern in Geneva, Switzerland. He worked on a multicultural team where he was responsible
for conducting research and analysis for ultra-high-net-worth individuals’ investment
portfolios. He was offered a full-time position and was transferred to São Paulo, Brazil,
where he joined Goldman Sachs’ Portfolio Management group. There, he co-managed 49
funds of funds for the Wealth Management division’s clients.
In 2014, Alexandre left Goldman Sachs to join J. Mendes, an investment office. Among his
many projects, he redesigned the offshore-investment structure, created the first in-housemanaged fund of funds, implemented in-house portfolio consolidation, restructured family
members’ retirement funds, and led new partnership negotiations.
At Wharton/Lauder, Alexandre plans to further investigate how to create value by investing
in private companies. He also wants to expand his cultural awareness and communication
tools to help him navigate through the French and North African ways of doing business.
Alexandre speaks fluent Portuguese, English, and French. He studied Mandarin for two
years and plans to take up these studies again someday. He is an avid reader and a passionate
cook, having obtained a French-cuisine diploma from École Ritz Ecoffier in Paris. He is a
PADI-certified diver and has completed several long-distance running races.
DANIEL ODETTE
Daniel was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. Early experiences travelling with his
family and studying French and Spanish sparked his interest in other cultures and languages.
He began studying Mandarin at Middlebury College and completed the Middlebury Summer
Language School prior to spending a semester in Hangzhou, China. He then spent two
months backpacking across China and Southeast Asia. To better understand the forces of
globalization and development he had observed, he completed a double major in Chinese and
Economics, graduating with honors.
After graduation in 2010, Daniel moved to Shanghai and spent four years working in the
research department for the real-estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle. He eventually became
manager of the firm’s Real Estate Intelligence Service, which provides analyses of the
residential, office, and retail property markets across 26 cities in mainland China. In this
role, he coordinated a team of more than 40 researchers across 12 offices and travelled
extensively to conduct first-hand research in cities around the country. He also oversaw
the firm’s research on real-estate capital markets, tracking investment trends and advising
a wide variety of clients, including real-estate developers, private-equity investors, and
sovereign wealth funds, on their strategies in China.
Daniel’s experiences in China led to his keen interest in the country’s ongoing economic
expansion and, in particular, the fields of urbanization and real-estate development. He is
a member of the Urban Land Institute and was a participant in its Young Leaders Group
in Shanghai, where he organized property tours, panel discussions, and networking events.
He was also a member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai and, as part of
its Real Estate Committee, presented regularly to the Chamber’s members on real-estate
and economic trends in China. He is passionate about architecture and urban planning,
particularly the fields of sustainability and green building design. He received Green
Associate certification from the U.S. Green Building Council and has conducted research on
the environmental sustainability of commercial properties in Shanghai.
Daniel helped to organize the Middlebury Alumni Association in Shanghai. He also initiated
a summer-internship program at his firm for Middlebury students.
Daniel hopes his experiences at Wharton/Lauder will strengthen his understanding of global
economic and business trends and enable him to work in a global role in the real-estate
industry. In his free time he enjoys reading, snowboarding, playing guitar, and travelling.
RAFAEL PAIXÃO DE LA ROSA
Rafael was born in São Paulo, Brazil, and lived most of his life both there and in a mid-sized
city in the south. Descended from Spaniards and Italians, he carries a passion for learning
and exploring new places and cultures.
Rafael earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Fundação Getulio Vargas,
graduating in the top 5% of his class. He was also part of the group (finishing in second place)
that represented the school at the 2008 Scotiabank International Case Competition in Canada.
Concurrently, he worked as an intern for ten months in the Wholesale Business Intelligence
division of Banco Santander, where he and his manager implemented a new wallet-size
tool and performed key competitive analyses. He then embarked on a six-month exchange
program in the Netherlands at Universiteit Maastricht. As he experienced more of the world
and expanded his goals, he decided to continue his education and entered the prestigious law
school at Universidade de São Paulo (USP), simultaneously attending evening classes and
working full-time.
Rafael then joined General Electric (GE) through its Financial Management Program
(FMP), a two-year program that provided four assignments in Brazil and the U.S. He then
chose to work in GE’s healthcare business, first as the FP&A for the Brazil aftersales P&L,
shaping reports and controls to support an increase in profits. Later, he became the Brazil
Commercial Controller, managing policies and commercial processes as well as integrating
the healthcare division’s first acquisition in Brazil. Just over a year later, he was promoted
to Commercial Finance Manager, his most recent position, where he led the contract-risk
management-system simplification, coordinated the implementation of payment instructions
for customers, and revamped both the order-booking process and the operational team. At
the same time, he maintained strong ties with the leadership program, co-leading an internal
recruiting initiative of strong interns and assigning them to extended preparation prior to
their joining the FMP. In addition, he was a grader for the Controls module during 2H’2013
and coached some of the FMP freshmen.
At Wharton/Lauder, Rafael plans to examine Latin American issues in depth and then
translate his acquired knowledge into action to meet local needs and characteristics.
In his spare time, Rafael enjoys going to the gym, running, travelling, and reading.
TRAVIS PFANDER
Travis was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio. During middle school, he traveled to Western
Europe as part of the People to People Student Ambassadors program, which sparked an
early international interest. At Chaminade Julienne High School, he pursued this interest by
studying both Latin and, briefly, Spanish.
Travis attended Princeton University, graduating with honors with a degree in Operations
Research and Financial Engineering. He was active in a wide range of campus groups,
including Business Today, The Daily Princetonian sports section, and the Orange Key tour
guides. He was treasurer of the Princeton Charter Club, one of the school’s eating clubs.
Despite having no foreign-language requirement as an engineering student, he chose to begin
studying Mandarin Chinese from scratch. He spent the summer between his freshman and
sophomore years at the Princeton in Beijing immersion program and continued his Chinese
studies over the next three years.
After graduation, Travis joined Goldman Sachs in New York as an investment banking
analyst in the Corporate Risk Management group. He spent two years structuring bespoke
interest rate and foreign exchange derivative transactions for the firm’s corporate clients.
He worked across industries ranging from healthcare and consumer retail to industrials and
natural resources, and he structured hedging transactions in a variety of situations.
After realizing that the market-oriented nature of the group interested him the most, Travis
joined the Goldman Sachs Investment Strategy group, a global macro tactical investment
team. There, he researched and analyzed economic and financial markets for the firm’s
high-net-worth private wealth management clients. He contributed to the team’s research
publications, including two of its annual comprehensive Outlook publications, and developed
trading ideas for implementation in the team’s tactical portfolio.
In his free time, Travis enjoys a wide range of interests. He learned to ski in the last few
years and recently joined a curling league in Brooklyn. He enjoys fantasy football and is an
avid sports fan. He currently serves on the board of governors of the Princeton Charter Club.
At Wharton/Lauder, Travis looks forward to expanding his knowledge of international
business, investment, and strategy and furthering his understanding of East Asia, after
spending the first part of his career in New York.
GABRIELE PIGOLI
Born and raised in Italy, Gabriele developed a passion for all that was diverse when he was
very young. At age 14, he embarked on his first semester abroad in Ireland, which was soon
followed by a semester in Australia and California.
Believing economics would be a way to combine his passions for history and problem
solving, Gabriele attended Bocconi University, where he earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s
degrees in Finance. While there, to fund his travels, he started a profitable tutoring agency,
connecting university students from out of town with local school teachers. This enabled him
to visit five continents before graduation.
A strong supporter of the equity story of emerging markets, Gabriele took his first job in
research at Beltone Financial, a leading Egyptian investment bank, where he was one of
two non-Arabic members of an award-winning 20-person team. He left the country in the
wake of the Egyptian revolution to join Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest bank, as part of its
first management program. During his tenure as an analyst, he achieved an early promotion
and was relocated to Hong Kong as a manager to support the set-up of the bank’s first
global-markets platform in Asia. There he developed the commercial strategy for Greenfield
accounts and supported the Sales team through its launch and implementation, becoming the
youngest expatriate in that position in the branch’s history. Subsequently, he was relocated
to the bank’s headquarters in Milan, to start up the newly created Healthcare Coverage team.
In his free time, Gabriele enjoys playing the piano with his jazz band, creating new recipes
in the kitchen, skiing, and scuba diving. He speaks Italian and French and plans to improve
on his basic Mandarin.
At Wharton/Lauder, Gabriele seeks to learn as much as possible from his classmates,
believing that unique ideas can blossom only in a diverse environment.
PUSHPAK PUJARI
Pushpak was born in Rourkela, a small town in eastern India. His father’s work took him to
different parts of the country, with their diverse cultures and religions. As a result, Pushpak
grew up in a multicultural environment and spoke five different Indian languages. His
first international experience was a summer research internship at the University of New
Mexico, where his work with people from all over the world sparked his passion to explore
various cultures and work with people from completely different cultural backgrounds.
After majoring in Electrical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi,
Pushpak pursued cross-cultural experiences centered on technology in Japan, where he
worked at Sony Corporation for four years, designing digital camera systems and providing
professional imaging solutions. During his time there, he developed a specialization in
display and touch-based technologies and gained valuable international management skills
by working with various global Sony units and leading teams to integrate touchscreen tech
into a flagship camera model. Prior to that, he formulated the technology strategy and product
roadmap for touch-based devices and helped revise the line-up of all of Sony’s camera lines.
Realizing that the language barriers and alienation the international employees faced kept
them from contributing optimally, Pushpak was inspired to work with the Global Human
Resources division to develop a buddy program and a business-training curriculum to help
these employees make new friends and adjust to their new work environment. Also, following
his passion for low-cost and high-tech devices, he was one of the core members of the Sony
Reverse Innovation Committee, which focused on developing products to bring health and
education innovations to emerging economies.
Pushpak’s long-term goal is to build healthier communities by developing low-cost healthcare
and wellness devices that will transform the lives of millions around the world.
In his spare time, Pushpak enjoys reading and travelling. He is an avid photography
enthusiast and loves to experiment with various styles and settings. He eagerly awaits
winter opportunities to go skiing. He also enjoys hiking and has scaled Mt. Fuji multiple
times.
JAMES RANDALL
James was born and raised in Melbourne, Australia. During high school, he began learning
Mandarin Chinese and participated in an exchange in Wuxi, China. The experiences and
challenges of attending a Chinese school and living with a local family sparked his passion
for learning about other languages and cultures.
James attended Bond University in Australia, studying on the Australia Day Scholarship.
He was actively involved in student life, including the surfing club and playing the cello in
the school’s string quartet. He continued to seek out international adventures and spent time
at both Uppsala University in Sweden and the University of Texas Law School in Austin.
He graduated in 2009 with a Bachelor of Law with Honors and a Bachelor of Business.
After graduation, he moved to Beijing for a year to further his Chinese studies at Tsinghua
University.
James sought a career with opportunities to develop business skills across a range of
industries and to work internationally. He joined L.E.K. Consulting in 2011 and returned to
his hometown of Melbourne. He worked on many types of projects, including corporate and
business-unit strategy cases and due diligence work. In Australia, he gained experience in
industries as varied as agriculture, superannuation, fast-moving consumer goods, electricity
transmission, retail, digital media, and aviation. Some of his more significant projects
included assessing a joint-venture opportunity for two listed Australian food companies and
providing support during negotiations for several large financial-services contracts.
In 2013, James took a sabbatical to continue studying Chinese at Beijing Language and
Culture University. Following that, he moved to Shanghai to work in L.E.K. Consulting’s Life
Science practice, where he advised global pharmaceutical and medical-device companies.
He also led training sessions for the Asia region and enjoyed various culinary, cultural, and
sporting activities with his colleagues.
In his spare time, James is an avid skier and surfer and loves to play tennis. He is also an
accomplished cellist and has toured internationally with the Chamber Strings of Melbourne.
As a Leonard Lauder Fellow, James is excited about continuing to study Chinese and learning
about East Asian political, cultural, and economic issues.
ALLEGRA RICHARDS
Allegra was born in New York and grew up in Switzerland and Russia. Living abroad for over
15 years fueled her eagerness to explore other cultures, languages, and ways of thinking.
Allegra returned to the U.S. to attend Harvard College, where she studied English and Visual
and Environmental Studies. She explored the American expatriate condition in her senior
honors thesis, which focused on the written works of Henry James and Edith Wharton and
on the paintings of John Singer Sargent. In addition, she wrote for both The Harvard Crimson
and The Harvard Independent, directed and produced theatrical productions, managed the
international students’ society, and was a coxswain on the intramural crew team. She was
awarded the Thomas H. Wood Prize for the most promising undergraduate journalist.
After graduation, Allegra returned to expatriate life, this time as a reporter for the Associated
Press in Rome. But writing about current events wasn’t enough. Allegra wanted to get
closer to the action, so she accepted a position at the White House as the sole intern for the
President’s speechwriting team and then worked in foreign policy for the U.S. government.
More recently, she worked as a Senior Consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton, where she advised
senior government leaders on technology.
Allegra aims to merge her interests in foreign policy, geopolitics, and business with the
ultimate goal of working in both industry and government during her career. At Wharton/
Lauder, she looks forward to developing practical ways to manage across cultural boundaries
and to contribute to global institutions. She also hopes to improve her French, develop her
Arabic, and forge close relationships with classmates who share her international frame of
mind.
In her spare time, Allegra loves oil painting, travelling, yoga, and tennis. She speaks fluent
French and Italian, as well as conversational Russian, Spanish, and Swahili.
Lauder Focus: Western Europe and French
TYPHAINE ROBERT
While born in Paris, Typhaine spent very little time in France, as she moved to London at age
3. Living in a bilingual environment led to her strong interest in cross-cultural experiences,
especially after she added a third language, Spanish, through her studies. While she was a
teenager, her family relocated to Geneva, Switzerland, where she focused on her dream of
becoming a top internationally competitive tennis player.
After earning her French baccalaureate, Typhaine returned to the U.K. to study discrete
mathematics at the University of Warwick. There she developed strong logical reasoning
skills and an appreciation for elegant solutions. During her university summers, she
discovered trading by interning at Commerzbank and BNP Paribas. After graduation,
she was offered a position as a trader at Commerzbank. After spending three years in the
theoretical world of mathematics, she chose the most tangible asset of all, commodities.
Over the course of four years at Commerzbank, Typhaine was given sole responsibility for
the agricultural trading books, managing both the established structured products book and
the brand new corporate hedging book. As she traded wheat grown in France and sold in
Egypt, corn processed to run U.S. cars, and soybeans from Brazil used to feed Chinese pigs,
she developed a new global perspective. Through her fascination for the sugar and coffee
industries, she accumulated knowledge about the Brazilian economy, political environment,
and weather. This experience piqued her curiosity, leading her to want to better understand
the country, culture, and language.
In 2013, Typhaine got her first taste of the world of startups when she met 1995 Lauder
alumna and serial entrepreneur Christine Bourron. She became involved in Christine’s
latest business, Pi-eX Ltd., as it was developing a new innovative platform to trade financial
products based on fine art. This new adventure inspired Typhaine to plan to work after
Wharton/Lauder in an environment that values entrepreneurship and leadership.
Outside the office, Typhaine’s love for the Swiss and French Alps means that most of her
holidays are spent hiking, snow-shoeing, and skiing. However, she is also an avid scuba diver,
and spent a month diving in Thailand after graduation. She looks forward to Lauder’s Culture
Quest, as her knack for crazy adventures started at age 18 with a 36-hour charity hitchhike
through five countries, from Warwick, England, to Prague, in the Czech Republic.
MONICA SCHEID
Monica was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She began to learn Spanish in high
school and quickly became fascinated with travelling to different parts of the world,
learning new languages, and building relationships with individuals from around the globe.
She participated in several exchange trips in Central America during high school before
enrolling in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
At Georgetown, Monica focused her studies on the intersection of economics and politics,
analyzing the impact of public policy on economic development, trade, and finance. She lived
abroad for a year in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she attended the University of Buenos
Aires and took courses on Latin American economic and social development, comparative
politics, and MERCOSUR, the South American trading bloc. In her spare time, she enjoyed
learning how to tango and salsa. She also served on the steering committee of the Carroll
Round, an annual international economics conference hosted by Georgetown, and interned at
the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration, where she identified
new trade opportunities in emerging markets, focusing primarily on Brazil. After graduation, Monica joined Accenture’s Management Consulting practice. As a
member of the Communications, Media, & Technology industry group, she worked with the
leading cable and communications companies in the U.S. During her first two years, with two
teammates she drove $25 million in annual cost savings for a cable client through strategic
sourcing opportunities; she independently worked with Senior Vice President-level clients to
develop a scalable, repeatable upsell model for their small and medium business channels;
and she jointly designed new product concepts for a $70 billion company that were ultimately
developed for market trial. She also ran the management consulting new joiner program for
Accenture’s Washington, D.C., office. She was promoted to consultant in under two years and
relocated to the Chicago office. Most recently, she managed the redesign of an internal sales
application for a leading cable company and worked to define the customer-care integration
strategy for the merger of two industry-leading clients.
Outside work, for the last three years Monica served as a résumé and interview coach for
KIPP charter-school students. In addition, she co-led a 30-person committee supporting the
education and employment needs of members of Catholic Charities’ Refugee Resettlement
Program in Chicago. She also enjoys running and is an avid home cook and baker.
NIDHI SHAH
Nidhi hopes to solve India’s sanitation problems and cares deeply about issues affecting
women worldwide. It all began with her birth to Gujarati parents in New Jersey. She then
grew up in the bustling city of Bombay, India, learning Hindi and Marathi through her early
schooling. She celebrated her eleventh birthday and beyond back in New Jersey and now
considers both places home.
A tinkerer from a young age, with strong support from her widowed mother, Nidhi attended an
engineering high school where, for her senior design project, she invented and programmed
an automatic home window. She also organized the collection of used bicycles with Pedals for
Progress and donated them to people whose primary mode of transport was a two-wheeler.
Nidhi went on to pursue a degree in chemical engineering at Columbia University, after
spending a year at Rutgers. During her time at Columbia, she had the unique opportunity to
study abroad for a semester at University College London, where she discovered her inner
foodie and also volunteered as a mentor for inner-city youth.
After graduation in 2011, Nidhi joined Koch Modular Process Systems as a process engineer.
She designed portable chemical separation factories for many different industries and
learned a great deal about American manufacturing. In early 2014, she started up a plant she
had designed. She was the youngest person and only female on a team of 20.
Seeking greater challenges and hoping to make a more meaningful contribution to the world,
Nidhi then explored local and state politics, volunteering her time to help Cory Booker
get elected to the U.S. Senate. She then began volunteering with Toilets for People, an
organization that is addressing the global sanitation problem. Armed with these experiences
and a newfound passion, she plans to create her own for-profit venture to tackle sanitation
issues in India. At Wharton/Lauder, she will hone her Hindi language skills and cultural
acumen in support of this larger goal.
In her spare time, Nidhi mentors female engineers to help them find their ideal career paths.
When she wants to relax, she relies on a few different activities, from watching Netflix with
her husband to eating out (especially Thai food) and working out (she’s working on doing a
strict pull-up).
STEPHEN SNYDER
Stephen was born and raised in New York City. Growing up in a multiethnic metropolis with
family, friends, classmates, and mentors from dozens of countries around the world fostered
his interest in learning foreign languages and interacting with other cultures.
Stephen earned a Bachelor of Arts with Highest Honors and High Distinction from the
University of Michigan in 2010. In a class of over 400, he was one of four recipients of the
William Jennings Bryan Prize from the Political Science Department for demonstrating the
most promise in the field. He also received the James M. Gartenberg Memorial Scholarship
and served four years as chairman of the alumni association committee that grants this
award to incoming students from New York City. In addition, he remains an ardent fan of
Michigan football and basketball.
While in college, Stephen travelled frequently, including nine months studying in Paris, two
months intensively learning Azerbaijani in Baku with the U.S. State Department Critical
Language Scholarship Program, a month interning in the Canadian House of Commons in
Ottawa, and academic tours of Iceland and Greece.
After graduation, Stephen joined the boutique emerging-markets-focused strategy consulting
and intelligence firm Ergo in New York. During his four years there, he managed teams
of in-house analysts and overseas subject-matter experts to produce ground-level insights
about pressing competitive intelligence, regulatory analysis, market landscaping, and due
diligence challenges for C-suite audiences at leading private equity, law, agriculture, and
energy firms. As a speaker of French, he regularly covered francophone markets, particularly
Algeria, about which he authored in-depth profiles of the 50 most influential leaders in the
country. He also served as the point person for numerous key initiatives within the firm,
such as launching joint ventures and spin-off firms, developing new products, streamlining
standard operating procedures, and creating multiple quantitative benchmarking indices.
Stephen speaks fluent French, intermediate Spanish, and conversational Modern Greek and
Azerbaijani. He is passionate about bicycling, travel, the culture of the former Soviet Union,
seltzer, and exploring Brooklyn.
FRANCISCO RODOLFO TABOADA
Francisco was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in a Spanish-Italian family. His
early exposure to multicultural backgrounds sparked his passion to explore new languages
and territories.
Francisco attended the Universidad Católica Argentina, where he studied Economics
and graduated magna cum laude. Discovering a particular interest in finance, he served
as a teaching assistant both at his university and in introductory finance courses at the
Universidad de Buenos Aires.
After graduation, Francisco joined Prefinex, a financial advisory firm that specializes in
M&A transactions across Latin America, with a particular focus on Brazil. He participated
in deals in the food & beverage, auto-parts, and energy sectors. Travels to Minas Gerais and
São Paulo enabled him to develop his Portuguese skills and connect with a culture he has
always found fascinating.
Francisco then took on an Analyst position at Compass Lexecon within its International
Arbitration group. There, he explored the economic consulting world while combining
his economics background with his financial work experience. He participated in over 15
arbitration cases by developing damage valuation models and leading research projects in
the oil & gas, utilities, and mining industries in Latin America and Eastern Europe.
With the goal of refocusing on finance and deepening his interaction with Latin America,
Francisco joined the Buenos Aires office of KBR Group, a boutique investment bank
headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and specialized in M&A and financing alternatives
through innovative structures. His work entailed onsite project development in Brazil,
Chile, Peru, Venezuela, Colombia, and Argentina, covering the oil & gas, petrochemical, and
renewable-energy industries.
Francisco contributed directly to KBR’s growth and institutionalization on both the execution
and origination sides: He pursued initiatives that accounted for 20% of the Buenos Aires
office’s revenue and led the recruiting processes for the Bogotá and Buenos Aires offices.
These outcomes led to his becoming the youngest Associate across the bank’s 11 offices.
Francisco’s interaction with Latin America extends beyond the professional realm: He has
been an active member of TECHO, a Latin-American NGO that provides housing solutions
for underprivileged families. He has also participated in a government-backed national
housing project in Venezuela, serving as a financial advisor to assess the program’s economic
sustainability.
Francisco speaks Spanish, English, fluent Portuguese, and conversational Italian. In his free
time, he loves travelling and exploring cultures through their food, cooking, and playing
soccer and tennis.
SUMIKO TAKU
Sumiko was born in China’s rural Shandong Province, about ten hours away by train from its
provincial capital of Qingdao. She moved to Japan at age 2 and later to Vancouver, Canada, at
age 14. These relocations gave her a sense of multiculturalism at an early age and provided
her with the motivation to explore the world.
While attending the University of Toronto, Sumiko participated in an exchange program at the
University of Sussex, one of the most international universities in the U.K. Her interactions
with international students from all over gave her an appreciation for the European and
Latin American cultures.
During college, Sumiko interned with Morgan Stanley’s Equity Sales and Trading team. Her
fascination for dynamic financial markets eventually led her to join Barclays after graduation
in 2011. There, she worked in sales to launch fixed-income and mutual-fund products for the
Japanese retail market. She first worked on a project to market a strategy for iPath, Barclays’
Exchange Traded Note, which was newly launched in Japan the year she joined the firm.
The following year, she transitioned to a team to market secondary fixed-income securities,
covering primarily emerging-market products. She strategized the marketing scheme with
major Japanese security houses and private banks’ product teams and successfully launched
several new asset classes, growing the market size in Japan to $1.5 billion.
Sumiko is an enthusiastic traveller, having visited more than 25 countries to date. Her
hobbies include Bikram Yoga, collecting kimonos, cooking, and photography.
At Lauder/Wharton, Sumiko plans to deepen her understanding of the Chinese culture and
business environment. She expects to pursue impact investing focused on emerging markets
after graduation.
NAGA TAN
Born to Indonesian and Singaporean parents, Naga grew up in Singapore with a keen interest
in cross-cultural issues. Witnessing the destruction and chaos of the 1998 race riots in
Indonesia, during which his own relatives’ lives were threatened, only served to heighten his
sensitivity to the nuances of different cultures and the overriding need for mutual respect.
Naga spent two years serving in the Singapore Air Force, rising to the rank of Lieutenant. As
an Air Defense Artillery Officer, he was involved in several joint exercises with the Royal
Thai Air Force and helped his battalion attain the highest levels of competence and readiness
in its annual assessment. After completing his National Service, he moved to the U.K. to
study at the London School of Economics (LSE).
While at the LSE, Naga co-founded an Economics Conference, served as vice president of the
Finance Society, and furthered his interest in international affairs by working as a research
assistant at the Department of International Relations. He also undertook summer internships
in the hedge fund strategies group at Goldman Sachs and the public markets division at
GIC, one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds. During his senior year, he worked
part-time at Halcyon Asset Management, a multi-strategy hedge fund with approximately
$12 billion in assets under management, analyzing European merger arbitrage opportunities
with the investment team.
After graduating with first-class honors, Naga joined Morgan Stanley as an Analyst on
the European fixed-income trading desk. During his two and a half years there, he was
responsible for fulfilling the firm’s primary dealer obligations in weekly euro governments’
Treasury-Bill auctions, as well as trading in secondary markets. He was also given sole
responsibility for managing a $4 billion Credit and Emerging Market Repo trading book and
successfully drove a 20% year-on-year increase in trading revenue for the desk.
Naga’s love of outdoor challenges has led him to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, abseil down sea
cliffs in Wales, scale several 13,000-foot peaks in the Alps, and complete Ironman triathlons
in the heart of the Austrian and Swiss countrysides. He is also an avid cyclist and basketball
fan, and loves Sichuan cuisine despite a sensitivity to spicy food.
At Wharton/Lauder, Naga aims to attain full business proficiency in Mandarin while
developing a deeper understanding of the political and historical undercurrents that shape
today’s global business environment.
SOPHIE THOMPSON
Sophie grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, gaining early international exposure while
visiting her father’s family in the U.K. and on trips through Western Europe and Latin
America. These travels sparked her interest in foreign languages and international relations,
leading her to enroll at Middlebury College. There, she majored in International Politics and
Economics, with a focus in French, and spent a semester in Paris studying at the Sorbonne.
After graduating in 2009, Sophie attended the Tuck Business Bridge Program to broaden her
knowledge of business fundamentals prior to joining Management Systems International, a
consulting firm specializing in international development. There, she worked on economic
development projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mali but soon sought out
a paralegal role with the Royal Bank of Scotland to supplement her economics knowledge
with legal experience to better effect change. She saw how the success of developed and
developing economies hinged on the robustness of their financial systems and, as a result,
sought a deeper understanding of international capital markets and financial models.
This led Sophie to join Bloomberg LP in 2011 as a fixed-income analyst in the Analytics
department, where she assisted Bloomberg’s clientele in market-related questions in
English, French, and Spanish. In 2012, she transitioned to sales and account management,
maintaining and growing Bloomberg’s client base in Quebec and Ontario and, most recently,
managing the fixed-income relationship for UBS in New York City.
In her spare time, Sophie enjoys playing field hockey, soccer, and tennis; dancing; and
sampling food and wine from around the world. She also maintains an active role with
Middlebury College’s alumni association.
At Wharton/Lauder, Sophie hopes to broaden her international business expertise and later
secure a position in strategy consulting in Africa and Latin America.
EMILY TUNG
Emily was born in São Paulo, Brazil, to Chinese-Taiwanese parents. Growing up, she spoke
Mandarin at home and Portuguese in school. When she was twelve, her family moved to a
suburb near Los Angeles, California, with a large Hispanic population. This prompted her to
simultaneously learn English and Spanish, which fueled her passion for languages and her
desire to explore the world. Her multicultural upbringing helped her adapt quickly to the
U.S. and develop a unique global perspective.
At UC Berkeley, Emily studied Business Administration, with a concentration in Global
Management, and followed her Latin roots by taking up a Spanish minor and studying
Hispanic literature. Curious about her Asian heritage, she also studied abroad in Hong Kong
and pursued a fellowship in India with the TATA Group’s Sustainability team. On campus,
she was involved in social-impact extracurricular activities. She served as an instructor for
a student-led microfinance class and coordinator for Oakland Chinatown’s Volunteer Income
Tax Assistance (VITA) program, an IRS-sponsored initiative offering free tax counseling in
low-income communities.
After graduation, Emily spent two years with Accenture Management Consulting in New
York City, working on corporate strategy and operational efficiency projects in the Financial
Services, Pharmaceutical, Nonprofit, and Telecommunication industries. Her experience
in the private sector, coupled with her passion for social impact, then led her to join the
Strategy team at the NYC Economic Development Corporation, the city’s primary engine for
economic growth. There she worked on building public-private partnerships that furthered
Mayor De Blasio’s economic development agenda. She won a company-wide competition,
”NYC’s Next Big Idea,” and was awarded $100,000 to help develop and implement her idea
– the creation of New York City’s first commercial vertical farm, an innovative way to grow
fresh produce and support the city’s food security.
In her spare time, Emily is active in her community as a Junior Board member of Upwardly
Global, a nonprofit that helps highly skilled immigrants advance their economic mobility.
She also enjoys sports and travelling and recently combined them by going with Coca Cola
to the World Cup in Brazil.
At Wharton/Lauder, Emily hopes to build on her global citizenship and learn about multi-sector
solutions that address critical challenges that emerging markets face.
JOSHUA L. VAN DYKE
Josh was born and raised in a multicultural suburb of Detroit, Michigan. Travelling
internationally from a young age, he developed a keen interest in foreign cultures. Following
three semesters abroad as an undergraduate, his interest developed into a passion for
immersion in foreign languages, cultures, and environments. In 2004, he launched his career
in East Asia, where he lived for the last decade.
Josh attended the Honors College of Michigan State University, where he earned a B.A. in
Finance. He studied abroad in Australia and was awarded the Freeman Asia Scholarship to
study in Thailand. His fascination with East Asian languages, foods, and cultures compelled
him to return to that region. After graduation, he joined a local investment bank where he
began his career by helping Thai corporate clients recover from the effects of the Asian
financial crisis by restructuring debts and recapitalizing balance sheets.
Keen on developing his career in the broader region, Josh moved to Hong Kong and
Singapore, joining BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank, where he was instrumental in executing
investment-banking transactions across capital structures, industries, and geographies. In
2008, a senior banker who had been a mentor established Sprint Capital Partners, a private
equity firm focused on investing in the mining, energy, and utilities sectors. Josh was
recruited to the new firm, where his first principal investment deal involved researching
and bidding to acquire a distressed portfolio of water-treatment plants located in ten cities
across China.
Inspired by China’s tremendous growth and dynamism, Josh convinced his supervisor to
sponsor him to attend Tsinghua University while working part-time. He moved to Beijing not
knowing a single word of Chinese and, after two years of intensive studies, progressed to an
advanced level. During this time, he also conducted research on China-themed investments.
In 2011, Josh returned to Hong Kong, where he managed a small team of analysts and worked
on all aspects of deal-sourcing, research, negotiation, and execution – while also collaborating
with portfolio-company executives to implement value-creation initiatives. His experience
led him to investments in emerging markets as varied as Kazakhstan, Pakistan, and Egypt.
He also used his Chinese language skills professionally in liaising with co-investors based
in China.
In his spare time, Josh enjoys reading and actively investing in deep-value opportunities
across public markets. He also enjoys hiking, travel, water sports, photography, and tennis.
AROON VIJAYKAR
Aroon was born in Fremont, California, and moved with his family to Bangalore, India, as a
six-year-old. Living there served to acquaint him with the land of his ancestors in addition
to planting a seed of interest in the challenges of development. This fostered his passion for
working to alleviate poverty. Already speaking English and Marathi at home, he became
trilingual, as he learned Hindi during five years of elementary school. He found great value
in being able to engage with a much wider range of people in India, thanks to this proficiency.
Back in California after elementary school, Aroon pursued his passion for languages by
studying Spanish language and literature for seven years and earning a Bank of America
Achievement Award in Spanish, awarded annually to high school seniors in California. He also
found an outlet for his interest in global issues by competing in the Foreign Extemporaneous
Speaking category of High School Speech & Debate, placing sixth in the state championships
in 2006. Crafting arguments on questions of international political and economic relevance
inspired him to major in Economics at UC Berkeley. Outside the classroom, he explored his
passion for the performing arts. He performed across the U.S. and in China with the UC
Men’s Octet, the school’s flagship a cappella group, and led Berkeley Dil Se, a South Asian a
cappella group.
After graduation, Aroon moved across the Bay Bridge to join Monitor Group, a strategy
consulting firm, in San Francisco. There, he worked on commercial-strategy projects across
industries, including technology, pharmaceuticals, industrials, and aerospace & defense. But
after two years in the commercial practice, he wanted to work on problems that he cared
about more deeply. Thus, he moved to Mumbai to join Monitor Inclusive Markets (MIM),
a unit of Monitor that developed market-based solutions to poverty. While at MIM and
then at FSG, a social-impact advisory firm, he travelled to remote corners of India to study
low-income customers and design business models and ecosystem interventions that would
enable socially beneficial industries like sanitation, reproductive health, and early-childhood
education to scale up.
Going forward, Aroon is interested in building and growing businesses that serve low-income
customers in India, likely in the energy sector, in hopes of addressing India’s electrification
imperative.
STEPHANIE VON STAA TOLEDO
Stephanie is international by both birth and nature. She was born in São Paulo, Brazil, to a
German mother and a Brazilian father. As an infant, she moved with her parents and younger
sibling to Miami, Florida, before settling down at age 5 on a farm in the southern Brazilian
countryside, very close to a Dutch colony.
At age 14, she moved 300 miles from home to attend a better high school. Her decision
culminated in her admission, at age 17, to FGV-EAESP, the prestigious training ground for
business leaders in Brazil.
During her time in college, Stephanie was a captain of the soccer team, a teaching assistant
for Strategic Management, and a volunteer at the school’s Social Project of Adult Literacy.
In 2008 she spent a semester at the Universidad Salamanca, focusing her studies on social
sciences. She also worked as an intern at leading international corporations, including
Moody’s and BNP Paribas, and at the renewable-energy startup ERSA (now known as CPF
Renováveis).
In 2010, Stephanie graduated with a major in Corporate Finance and began her career at
Accenture’s Finance & Performance consulting branch. Shortly after, she was invited to
rejoin BNP Paribas, this time as an M&A analyst. She provided advisory services on M&A
transactions in several industries with cross-border elements.
Two years later, Stephanie embarked on a 9-month journey around the globe, seeking ways
to promote inclusive economic development. This interval marked her transition from
investment banking to entrepreneurship. In January 2014, she joined Tricae, one of Rocket
Internet’s most promising ventures in Latin America.
Growing up between a strict German education and a more relaxed Brazilian environment
gave Stephanie an early appreciation for cultural differences and the courage to overcome
language barriers. Today, she speaks native Portuguese, is fluent in German and English, and
has advanced skills in Spanish and Dutch.
At Wharton/Lauder, Stephanie plans to broaden her understanding of management, deepen
her knowledge of global leadership issues, and focus her studies on innovative business
models and early-stage investment mechanisms.
Very curious and active, Stephanie loves going out for a run, visiting museums and exhibits,
and meeting up with friends. She is also a passionate traveller and yoga practitioner.
Lauder Focus: Western Europe and German
RAY WANG
Ray was born in Lanzhou, China. At age 6, he moved to Belgium, where he learned Flemish.
At age 20, he moved to Cleveland, Ohio. He attended Yale University, where he studied
economics and history while also completing a pre-medical curriculum.
After graduation, instead of going to medical school, Ray joined the Detroit, Michigan,
office of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). There, he worked in a variety of industries – in
particular, medical devices, consumer goods, industrial goods, and pharmaceuticals.
After three years, Ray left BCG and joined Schooner Capital, a family-investment office
based in Boston, Massachusetts. Managing the fortunes of one Boston-based family, Schooner
invests in startups in the U.S. and in companies within emerging and frontier markets.
During his two years there, Ray started and co-led the firm’s public equities portfolio in
emerging and frontier markets. He visited over 200 companies in more than 20 countries.
His first investment for the firm was in Zimbabwe.
In his spare time, Ray loves to run, play golf, and ski. Having grown up in several countries,
he caught the travel bug early. He is also active in community service and has worked for
development organizations in Ghana and inner-city Detroit.
At Wharton/Lauder, Ray plans to expand his understanding of the Chinese economy and
society. In the long term, he looks forward to building a career as a value investor in the
emerging and frontier markets.
RUIHENG WANG
Ruiheng was born in Harbin China, recognized as the Icy City for its well-known winter
tourism. In high school, she volunteered as a tour guide for international students visiting her
hometown. This experience ignited her curiosity about foreign languages and sharing values
with people from around the world. She now speaks fluent English, Chinese, and Japanese.
Ruiheng chose to matriculate in China’s top pharmaceutical engineering program at
Tianjin University to learn how to apply engineering principles to solve problems in the
pharmaceutical industry. While developing quantitative and analytical skills, she found her
passion for organizing and planning. As vice president of the Student Union, she directed the
welcoming party for 400 first-year students.
Ruiheng earned her Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering at Nanyang Technological
University in Singapore. Recognizing what technology could contribute to the development
of new pharmacy products, she learned that business skills were also vital for delivering
these new products to end users.
At Toshiba in Japan, Ruiheng connected cutting-edge technologies with the market and
earned recognition as a market expert on Chinese electronics. She identified opportunities
in different market segments, from consumer appliances to clean energy, and created
strategies to promote Toshiba’s memory-semiconductor devices in China.
Later, Ruiheng honed her entrepreneurial skills by incubating Smart Grid, a new
semiconductor business unit, for Toshiba. As the strategist and marketer, she launched
business-feasibility studies for Smart Grid and planned semiconductor products to help solve
Japan’s energy crisis after the 2011 nuclear disaster. She enjoyed discovering unmet market
needs and transforming technologies into useful products that help people. As the leader of
a new business-development project at Toshiba, she created a car-to-pedestrian system to
protect people, which led to a collaboration with a well-known automobile company to create
a smart-traffic system for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Ruiheng is passionate about snowboarding and scuba diving, and friends count on her to
organize trips and recommend cuisines that add new flavors everyone can enjoy.
JOHN WITHERS
John was born and raised in London, U.K. From a young age, he travelled around Europe, the
Far East, and the U.S., spending long summers in Massachusetts with his Italian grandparents
and two younger brothers. After his family moved to Singapore when John was eight years
old, he became fascinated with cultural diversity, especially in East and Southeast Asia,
which set him on his path to the Lauder program and beyond.
Back at secondary school in the U.K., John discovered a passion for business while playing
a key role in the operations of the student-run Young Enterprise company Ellipsis. Whether
designing marketing materials, writing policies, or selling student-manufactured flashlights,
he loved experiencing how diverse people, activities, and structures integrate to form an
effective organization. After completing his A-levels in advanced mathematics, physics,
and Italian, he moved to Williamstown, Massachusetts, to attend Williams College. He made
the most of an interdisciplinary curriculum, taking classes in dance, algebra, English, and
history while majoring in Economics and Chinese. In 2007, he founded a mixed martial arts
club that is still going strong and, in his senior year, became co-president of Sankofa, a step
team with an African heritage.
After graduation, John continued to pursue his interest in interdisciplinary solutions by
joining J.P. Morgan Private Bank in New York City as part of an internal consulting team.
There, he worked across the technology, risk, legal, sales, and other divisions to deliver new
systems, processes, and control frameworks. Before his program ended, he was invited to
London to develop operating models that addressed the evolving regulatory environment,
influencing over $15 million in investment over two years. Most recently, he was promoted to
vice president and took on a product-management role where he was able to develop his own
team and coordinate the private bank’s first global product launch, raising over $1.3 billion
in assets to date.
At Wharton/Lauder, John plans to “level up” his Mandarin proficiency; evolve his technical
knowledge base; improve his soft skills; and understand how his experiences in product,
operational, and organization change apply to those in other industries.
In his free time John enjoys challenging his physical and mental coordination. Whether via
martial arts, dance, or juggling, he loves to move. He also enjoys reading, listening to the
people he meets, and playing games.
WILSON WONG
Born in Hong Kong, Wilson moved to Vancouver, Canada, at age 6 and grew up speaking
Cantonese at home. The city’s multicultural makeup and diverse culinary offerings inspired
his passion for exploring different cultures and languages from a young age. In high school,
he studied French, Latin, and Mandarin Chinese.
Wilson attended Columbia University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude,
with a double major in Economics and Political Science. His thesis examined domestic and
transnational Internet activism surrounding health issues within China and situated its role
in the broader development of the country’s civil society. During his time at Columbia, he
continued his Mandarin studies and served as editor-in-chief of the Columbia East Asia
Review, a multidisciplinary academic journal of undergraduate research on East and
Southeast Asia. A summer internship with a social entrepreneurial business incubator in
Shanghai solidified his interest in a professional future in East Asia.
After graduation, Wilson moved to Hong Kong and joined the Manager Trainee program at
the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the territory’s de facto central bank. He strengthened
his business Cantonese and cross-cultural management skills while working within the
organization’s Monetary Operations and Economic Research divisions. As a Manager within
the Market Development division, he handled a diverse portfolio of initiatives to enhance
Hong Kong’s competitiveness as an international financial center and hub for offshore
RMB business. He directed the development of CNH HIBOR, the world’s first interest-rate
benchmark for pricing RMB loans and financial products situated outside mainland China.
He also spearheaded a public-private joint assessment of Hong Kong’s corporate treasury
environment, distilling the findings into policy and legislative recommendations currently
being adopted by the Hong Kong government.
In 2013, Wilson joined his family business, which develops residential property within
mainland China. In addition to working in a general management role, he focused on
professionalizing the enterprise’s management practices and transforming its work culture
in preparation for its future expansion.
In his spare time, Wilson enjoys travelling, wandering around museums, and trying new
foods. At Wharton/Lauder, he looks forward to building his Mandarin skills and deepening
his understanding of business practices within China and other emerging economies.
IVY WU
Ivy was born and raised in Wuhan, one of China’s major transportation hubs as well as an
intersection of different cultures, where she cultivated a curiosity about people’s different
cultural backgrounds at an early age.
In pursuit of more international opportunities, Ivy went to Hong Kong for her undergraduate
studies. She attended the Chinese University of Hong Kong on a full merit-based scholarship,
with a major in Quantitative Finance and a minor in French. While there, she took every
opportunity to experience different cultures: She visited Taiwan and France during summer
programs, ventured on a backpacking trip in Tibet, and studied abroad for a year in the U.S.
After graduation, Ivy joined a rotational program in the finance function with Ferrero, a
multinational chocolate & confectionery company. She worked in France and Italy as a
financial controller, first for commercial entities and then for industrial entities. With no
previous knowledge of Italian, she learned the language in just three months. Most recently,
she was based in Luxembourg, the firm’s headquarters, to work for the Emerging Area. She
participated in the long-term strategic planning process, working closely with the CFO and
product managers to evaluate the profitability of various innovation projects.
By engaging with a variety of cultures and witnessing business strategies in different
markets, Ivy has realized that consumer behaviors are a manifestation of their respective
cultures. At Wharton/Lauder, she aims to leverage her language skills and international
experiences to broaden cross-cultural perspectives and gain further insights into global
business issues, eventually preparing herself to be a global business leader.
In her spare time, Ivy enjoys learning different kinds of dance, such as contemporary, jazz
and salsa. She also enjoys yoga and jogging.
JUNGHA YI
JungHa was born in Seoul, Korea, and moved to Beijing, China, when she was ten, not knowing
that she would spend over 15 years there. She developed her interest in the global community
during her studies at an international elementary school, interacting daily with students
from more than 20 countries. This passion subsequently encouraged her to participate in
an exchange program at UCLA, to establish the U.S.-China Business Association at Peking
University, and to backpack across nine countries.
JungHa attended Peking University, majoring in Finance and Marketing. After graduation,
she joined Deutsche Bank (DB) Singapore as an analyst. There, she provided a wide range
of capital-raising and treasury solutions for Fortune 500 multinationals. After two years,
she joined Deutsche Bank Beijing as the only non-Chinese member, covering Chinese
state-owned-enterprise (SOE) clients to deliver sophisticated financing solutions. Over the
course of a year, she developed five new SOE client relationships and closed numerous
financing transactions, including the bank’s first leveraged finance transaction in the gaming
sector.
Wanting to have a deeper impact on the growth trajectories of companies, JungHa joined
HAO Capital, one of the leading Chinese private equity funds, focusing on investment
opportunities in China’s healthcare and consumer markets. Her key achievements
included establishing a medical-device joint venture with TCL Group, structuring a joint
investment in a top Chinese education company with Baidu.com, and leading investment
in the environmental-solution provider LP Amina. In each case, she played an active role
in defining the strategic directions and guided the companies in expanding overseas at the
board level. For example, she was a core member of the corporate development team at TCL
Healthcare, working closely with senior executives to evaluate and acquire targets in the
U.S., Europe, and North East Asian countries. After graduating from Wharton/Lauder, she
plans to follow her passion for the investment industry and leverage her skill sets toward
conducting cross-border M&A transactions to grow and invest in pan-Asian companies.
JungHa speaks fluent Mandarin, Korean, and English. She is also the deputy CFO of her
family business, for which she led the acquisition of a local competitor and established credit
lines for a number of CAPEX projects. She enjoys reading and swimming and appreciates
contemporary arts and musicals.
LORENZO ZAVALA CARVAJAL
Lorenzo was born in Madrid, Spain, and raised in several countries in North and South
America, developing an early passion for Latin American countries, cross-cultural
experiences, and learning languages, as well as a strong commitment to social causes.
As a business major at Lancaster University, in the U.K., and at Universidad Pontificia
de Comillas – ICADE, in Madrid, Spain, Lorenzo developed a strong interest in finance
and banking, which led him to intern at Lehman Brothers’ investment-banking division in
London, and then join Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) as a full-time investmentbanking analyst after graduation. He spent four years at BAML, first in Madrid and then
in London, where he worked on some of the corporate transactions that helped shape the
current Spanish and Latin American economic landscapes.
Driven by his strong commitment to social causes, Lorenzo left BAML in early 2013 to join
a local NGO in northwestern Cambodia, where he not only managed existing humanitarian
programs and their respective teams, but also launched projects and initiatives that tackle
all types of newly identified needs. For example, he worked to ensure that mentally disabled
children living in remote villages receive adequate and regular treatment by establishing
a joint venture with a specialized hospital in Phnom Penh, and that NGO staff are trained
regularly on how to manage teams and the NGO efficiently.
During his time in Cambodia, Lorenzo had his first social entrepreneurship experience,
co-leading the creation of a textile school and production center employing more than 200
people with physical disabilities or in dire need. He realized that establishing a financially
sustainable and socially impactful company is possible and, most importantly, that this
company can and must compete effectively with “non-social” industry players.
This experience motivated Lorenzo to combine both his financial and his social entrepreneurial
backgrounds by working as an associate for the largest impact-investing fund in Spain,
where he was responsible for investing the fund’s assets in Spanish social enterprises.
Lorenzo enjoys travelling and outdoor sports, including biking, skiing, and playing soccer
and tennis. He is passionate about photography and music and looks forward to forming
bands with other music-loving Lauderites.
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
Non-Discrimination Policy Statement
The University of Pennsylvania values diversity and seeks talented students,
faculty and staff from diverse backgrounds. The University of Pennsylvania does
not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity,
religion, creed, national or ethnic origin, citizenship status, age, disability, veteran
status or any other legally protected class status in the administration of its admissions,
financial aid, educational or athletic programs, or other University-administered
programs or in its employment practices. Questions or complaints regarding this
policy should be directed to the Executive Director of the Office of Affirmative Action
and Equal Opportunity Programs, Sansom Place East, 3600 Chestnut Street, Suite 228,
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6106; or (215) 898-6993 (Voice) or (215) 898-7803 (TDD).

Lauder Class of 2017 Student Bios - Lauder Institute

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