Meet the USC Marshall MBA Class of 2018

Daniela Bertolla Rocha Aboud

University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business

Describe yourself in 15 words or less: Energetic Brazilian healthy food blogger pursuing a career in marketing and in love with LA.

Hometown: São Paulo, SP – Brazil

Fun Fact About Yourself: I am a food blogger with over 120k followers www.danielabertolla.com.br – Instagram @melhorespratos

Undergraduate School and Major: Insper – Brazil

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation:

  • com.br – Founder
  • com.br – Founder
  • DBurns Design – Social Media Manager
  • Itaú Unibanco – Credit Risk Senior Analyst
  • Grupo Abril – Media Distribution Senior Analyst

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: A year into working at the largest bank in Brazil, I successfully turned my food blog into a thriving business, despite my lack of knowledge about blogging when I first began.

One day, I decided to take a leap of faith, feeling incredibly strange and far outside my comfort zone. My passion grew with each new tested and posted recipe; my excitement to share new ingredients with my followers became my success. I learned the hard way that blogging demanded time, commitment, and discipline. Due to my hard effort since its launch, I gained 30,000 followers within a few months. Today, I am blessed with over 120k followers, ambassador for some international brands, and even presenting on a daily public TV program. And more recently, I launched a channel on YouTube, 4 e-Books and my own Website.

Looking back on your experience, what advice would you give to future business school applicants?  Business school is much more than boosting your intellectual capital and future earnings. When selecting the right program, it is very important to invest time and energy to think deeply about your own needs and find programs that will best match your personal and professional goals.

Online research can give you an idea about the program, but all business schools will seem pretty similar. I believe that no information on the school’s website will be as relevant as visiting the campus and chatting with students to deeply learn about their experiences and the personality of that particular school.

What led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA? I chose Marshall for my full-time MBA program for a number of reasons, but first of all because of the students. I became very enthusiastic about how diverse and high-achieving they are, with a huge variety of career plans and ideas.

Secondly, the PRIME, a business project with a final presentation in business capitals like Buenos Aires and Beijing, also played an important role in my decision for being an amazing opportunity to have a global experience and understand different cultures and motivations.

The entrepreneurship, innovation, and technology focus at Marshall were also very important for me because I want to strengthen my confidence as an entrepreneur to launch my dream startup in the near future.

Finally, Los Angeles is one of the best places in the world, not only for the weather (amazing brighten sun every day) and for diversity of companies in the area, but also for the people that live here who are so nice and happy. And, as a healthy lifestyle blogger, I am passionate about all the outside activities, gyms, and markets and restaurants that focus on healthy eating.

Tell us about your dream job or dream employer at this point in your life? I want to work with digital marketing in a CPG or technology company to gain crucial experience and launch the startup that I am developing: an online platform to connect bloggers and brands in Brazil (www.publipost.com.br).

What would you like your business school peers to say about you after you graduate from this program? I want my peers to remember me as an honest, committed, dedicated, caring and smiling person: a true friend whom they can rely on and as a team-mate who cooperates with energy and enthusiasm to get results. I want them to see me as a person who made a difference in their experience at Marshall and that made the most of the two years at business school.

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