Meet Washington Olin’s MBA Class of 2018

Ramin Lalezari

Washington University in St. Louis, Olin Business School

Describe yourself in 15 words or less: Healthcare innovator, MedTech nerd, policy advocate, rookie cook, Seinfeld fanatic, aspiring surgeon.

Hometown: Los Angeles, California

Fun Fact About Yourself: I once had a YouTube video hit 300,000 views (now taken down due to a copyright claim) where I played Eazy-E in a shoddy Boys In Da Hood music video that my friends and I made for a high school filmmaking project.

Undergraduate School and Major:

Washington University School of Medicine: M.D. candidate

University of California – Los Angeles: B.A. in Business Economics

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation: IDEA Labs (A 501(c)3, student-run, biotechnology incubator) – Vice President, Chief Medical Officer, Director of Finance, Project Leader

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: I helped expand the IDEA Labs program by launching chapters onto 5 campuses across the US, turning our student group into a national organization. 

Looking back on your experience, what advice would you give to future business school applicants? For the GMAT – Do questions, questions, questions! There’s a style to the test, and you have to train your brain to get into its groove. Don’t worry about timing when you start. Just try to understand why the correct answer choices are correct and the incorrect choices are incorrect.

For your essays, and your interviews for that matter, know your story. What is it that makes you you? Try to piece together everything in your life that has led you to where you are today – why you’ve made the decisions you’ve made; how you’ve achieved your accomplishments; Where your passions come from – and then explain to the reader or interviewer how the MBA fits into your plan. If you shared your story correctly, the gap where this piece goes should be glaringly obvious.

What led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA? Fortunately I was already intimately involved with WashU through my studies here as a medical student. The university has consistently gone above and beyond to support and champion its student ventures. Without the backing of Washington University, a group of students would not have been able to launch a now-national scale biotechnology incubator supporting 30 teams having cumulatively raised over $2 million, while allowing for the students to hold 100% of their intellectual property. This university believes in its students sincerely and it is that belief that lets us thrive. So primarily, it was the relationship between the student body and Washington University that drove me to stay here for business school.

St. Louis is furthermore a powerful city to be in for a person interested in medical technology and innovation. It is not only home to one of the country’s strongest hospitals, drawing in some of the most brilliant medical minds of our time, St. Louis is also experiencing an entrepreneurial renaissance. The rate at which its startup community has been booming owes its growth in some part to the community’s unmatched eagerness to take a vested interest in others’ success. Doors are always open. Phone calls are always answered.

Tell us about your dream job or dream employer at this point in your life? First and foremost, my passion lies in medicine and I do wish to practice. I am planning on specializing in the field of orthopedic surgery and completing a residency after graduation. After the signing of the Affordable Care Act into law in 2010, probably the largest governmental overhaul since the New Deal, I became very interested in how we pay for healthcare in this country. I am confident that an MBA from Olin will give me the tools to merge my passions: medicine, entrepreneurship, and public policy.

What would you like your business school peers to say about you after you graduate from this program?  He brought good insight to the classroom, learned something from others, made a mark on the class, and was, most of all, a fun person to be around.