Meet London Business School’s Class of 2019

Allie Fleder  

London Business School 

Describe yourself in 15 words or less:  Gay gringa with a passion for Latin America.

Hometown: Westfield, New Jersey

Fun Fact About Yourself: I play the accordion!*

*Badly. So very, very badly.

Undergraduate School and Major:

Undergrad: Columbia College, Columbia University

Major: Latin American & Iberian Studies

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation:  I’ve had just one job since leaving college and before starting at LBS: this was as  Chief of Staff to the President/CEO of the Americas Society/Council of the Americas (AS/COA), a position I held for just over five and half years. (I began as a President’s Office Associate, then became Manager before becoming COS.)

Through AS/COA, I stood on the front lines of the U.S.-Cuba and broader U.S.-Latin America relationships, learning the subtleties of diplomatic language and power dynamics, and developing a rapport with important public and private leaders in the area. As the Chief of Staff to the CEO of a small but influential NGO whose counsel impacts investments and policy decisions across Latin America, I garnered an insider’s knowledge of how multinational and local companies enter and operate in the region. This insight and these connections allowed me to help navigate companies’ entries into Latin America, including the Cuban market.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far:  I helped start the “Young Professionals of the Americas” network at The Council of the Americas, which counts some of the top rising talent in Latin America and the U.S. among its active membership.

It is a highly engaged group of over 250 young leaders in Latin America and the U.S. Its members include leading young entrepreneurs, economists, and policy experts, as well as sons and daughters of Latin America’s magnates, prime ministers, and congresspersons.

Looking back on your experience, what one piece of advice would you give to future business school applicants?  When you sit down to start the process, you’ve got to be “all in” with your studying. Going for “just one drink” with your friends during that time you had allotted for studying only prolongs the painful process. Decide the target mark that you need to achieve, and—even though it’s tough—keep taking the test until you get there. It’s not about getting any better at math or mastering the subtle idiosyncrasies of the English language; it is about learning to take the test.

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?  London Business School’s student body is by far the most truly international of all the top 2-year MBA programs. No one country or region dominates. The curriculum therefore consistently contemplates a global versus solely domestic (U.S.) market. (And in all honesty, the current students were the most down-to-earth I met throughout my business-school “research”.)

What would success look like to you after your first year of business school?  It would be continuing and accelerating a cross-border career with an expansive international network.