Meet Virginia’s Darden School of Business Class Of 2018

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Augusto Santiago Torres Bozzi

University of Virginia, Darden School of Business

Describe yourself in 15 words or less: Friendly, hard-working and thorough. I love sailing, fishing and cooking. I’m also a new dad!

Hometown: Cartagena, Colombia

Fun Fact About Yourself: In 2007 I was listed in a Colombian magazine as one of the 100 “Don Juanes” (roughly translated: Casanova) of the year. The “recognition” was not because of my sex appeal, but because that year I got the highest score on a test among all undergraduate seniors of the country. I hope that’s not disappointing.

Undergraduate School and Major: Universidad de los Andes at Bogotá, Colombia. Double major: Industrial Engineering, and Systems Engineering and Computing

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation:

  • MKT2 (Manufacturing Know-How Transfer and Training) Development Engineer at Saint-Gobain Glass – Direction Technique Internationale, Aubervilliers, France.
  • WCM (World Class Manufacturing) Coordinator for Global Projects at Saint-Gobain Glass – Direction Technique Internationale, Aubervilliers, France.
  • Business Development Analyst at Abonos Colombianos ABOCOL S.A., Cartagena, Colombia.
  • Business Development Coordinator at Sociedad Portuaria Regional de Cartagena S.A. (Port of Cartagena), Cartagena, Colombia.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: When I worked for Abonos Colombianos ABOCOL S.A., I was chosen to be part of the very small team that started the process of selling the company. Building this transaction with a limited team and without the support of an investment banking firm was a great challenge which involved valuating the company, preparing all the documents and participating in negotiations, while keeping all these activities in the strictest confidentiality. This was a huge undertaking given the scope of the whole process.

Looking back on your experience, what advice would you give to future business school applicants? Make sure to choose a school that actually fits you and what you are looking for in an MBA program. Although there are a lot of great schools out there, each person may thrive in different types of environments. Once you have narrowed down your choices, if you have the chance to visit the school, do it. It’s the best way to get the feel of the type of experiences that you will have in the next two years. Visits were key to ruling out schools that looked good on paper but were not for me, and led me to be 100% convinced about my final choice at Darden.

What led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA? Although I’ve geared my career towards finance, I have a background in computer science and optimization, so I wanted an MBA program that would allow me to reinforce my combined skills to come up with very clever and unique ways of creating value. With this in mind, I was attracted by Darden’s superior academics and by the Theme Track Concentrations, specifically Business Analytics and Business Development and Growth.

I was a candidate for the Darden Jefferson Fellowship, which allowed me to visit the school and participate in very interesting events with even more interesting people. Through this experience I realized that Darden was a great fit for me. Also, getting to know the city of Charlottesville convinced me that it would be an ideal environment for my baby daughter to grow up in during the next two years, so my mind was made up.

Tell us about your dream job or dream employer at this point in your life? I would love to work on value creation, either as a senior corporate executive or through Private Equity, focusing on companies in distress and turning them into highly valuable ones through financial optimization and process improvements.

I dream of this type of job because of the great impact that it can have. I’ve seen how improving the value and financial status of an organization can allow it to focus on offering better products or services, creating more and better jobs and further investing in its community.

Most importantly, I want to be proud not only of the goals that I reach, but also of how I reach them, so I would like to be in a company and an environment where it pays to do things right.

What would you like your business school peers to say about you after you graduate from this program?  I would like my school peers to say that I am someone they would blindly rely on because of my kindness, competence and integrity.

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