Meet The HEC Paris MBA Class Of 2018

Antonio Mont’Alverne

HEC Paris MBA

Describe yourself in 15 words or less: Someone who seeks to enthusiastically work within close-knit multicultural teams to tackle complex challenges.

Hometown: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Fun Fact About Yourself: Once a buddy and I crossed France in a ‘70s stripped down Renault 4L in a one-shot, 14-hour drive, just for the sake of it! In fact, I never get tired of driving, and I will surely agree to drive anything with four wheels and a motor.

Undergraduate School and Major: Double degree from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Mechanical Engineering) and Ecole Centrale Marseille (Ingénieur Géneraliste)

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation:

Helibras

• Project Engineer (July 2013 – August 2016)
• Innovation Engineer (August 2012 – June 2013)

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: In late 2015, I became the project coordinator for the engineering activities related to the H-XBR Program in Brazil – the integration of multiple mission systems for seven custom-tailored configurations of Airbus Helicopter’s H225M heavy helicopter for the Brazilian Armed Forces.

Looking back on your experience, what advice would you give to future business school applicants?  Going for an MBA is not an easy decision, and it demands commitment all the way through. Even before setting our feet on campus, it does completely change our lives and takes us way out of our personal comfort zones.

Even before preparing for the GMAT or taking any other step in the application process, I would recommend challenging yourself to know what really motivates you to seek a business education. Once we get the real “why,” it becomes much simpler to dedicate ourselves to every single step of the MBA application.

Just keep in mind that all of the steps in the application process – the needed GMAT preparation, the passionate presentation of your professional plan to others, the writing of honest and compelling essays – are just the beginning of something much greater.

What led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA? I plan to pursue my career in the industrial sector, so the first and main characteristic that appeals to me is the school’s close ties to the industrial sector. After graduation, usually 50% to 60% of the class finds placement in this industry. That is clear evidence of the excellence of HEC’s MBA curriculum for those seeking a similar path.

Also, due to HEC’s long tradition of excellence in business education, its alumni can be found today in many different key positions of top companies, making an exceptional professional network. This allows HEC to provide its MBA students with direct access to major executives, their ideas and testimonies, through activities such as the CEO Speaker Series.

I have also found that the HEC program does have the right class size and composition. Every year the class is composed of around 200 students from the most diverse backgrounds, and the absolute majority of them come from outside of France. In an ever-more-connected world, this multicultural and diverse learning environment will be a major asset in our preparation for our post-MBA careers.

Finally, HEC’s MBA program also has a holistic trait, allowing students to enrich their experiences on campus through out-of-class activities like the MBAT or the St-Cyr Seminar. This, combined with the customization possibilities offered by the curriculum, should allow each one of us to build a custom-tailored MBA experience.

Tell us about your dream job or dream employer at this point in your life? In the next years, we will have to move more people and more products faster and more efficiently. However, how do you increase overall traffic while reducing its footprint? Will disruptive innovation be the solution for sustainable mobility, or will just a smart combination of today’s technology be enough?

As an enthusiast of transportation and the industrial world, I want to do my part in answering such questions by taking part in the creation of tomorrow’s mobility. To do so, I would like to be part of a team that leads innovative initiatives which combine information-revolution technologies – embedded electronics, Internet of Things and Big Data, for example – to create products and service solutions that will replace the transportation methods we now use.

What would you like your business school peers to say about you after you graduate from this program?  I am sure that from next September on we will be in for an incredible experience at HEC, with much to share between us from our previous experiences, and each person’s particular view of the world. So, at the end, I would be very glad if they said that I have, in some way, contributed to making their time at HEC the time of their lives!

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