Meet Georgetown McDonough’s MBA Class of 2019

Amir Pilehvar Mohammadabadi

Georgetown University, McDonough School of Business

Describe yourself in 15 words or less:  Always seeking ways to change the status quo and live up to what it takes in order to grow myself as a human being

Hometown: Tehran, Iran

Fun Fact About Yourself: My childhood dream was to become a manager! In what field and for what I have no idea. Now my dreams are much bigger 

Undergraduate School and Major: Bachelor in Industrial Engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation:

• Parsonlinegroup of companies-Strategic Management and Excellence supervisor
• Parsonlinegroup of companies-Chief of Staff
• Parsonlinegroup of companies-Advertising Manager
• Parsonlinegroup of companies-Retail Executive Vice President

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: I started my work in a private ISP 6 years ago as a staff and moved up to an executive position two years later at the age of 26 as the youngest C-level in the history of our company. Recently I was promoted to the retail executive VP whose job is managing the profit and loss of a vertical which contributes to 60% of the group’s turnover. I succeeded to almost double the bottom line in a six month period through changing or marketing strategy.

Looking back on your experience, what one piece of advice would you give to future business school applicants?  I would advise them to choose a program which fits their own criteria and do not choose one solely based on the rankings. I would also encourage them to consider several factors such as location, their post-MBA goals, alumni network, community and etc. instead of focusing on a few.

What was the key factor that led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you? One of the most important factors for me to choose McDonough was its strong community in entrepreneurship. Although I entered the corporate life almost right after graduation and fast tracked my way up the corporate ladder, my true passion is to become a well renowned entrepreneur. Besides that, I love DC.

What would success look like to you after your first year of business school? As mentioned, my true passion is to become an entrepreneur. I am also interested in marketing the most among all organizational functions. My goal for the first year is to expose myself to Georgetown’s entrepreneurship community as much as possible while getting an internship in a marketing/ business development role in tech. I believe marketing will be the leverage through which I could approach entrepreneurship.