Meet IESE’s MBA Class of 2019

Kateryna Markova 

IESE Business School 

Describe yourself in 15 words or less: Confident and pragmatic woman, who prefers a logical and rational approach in everything I do.

Hometown: Kiev, Ukraine

Fun Fact About Yourself: I can’t stop buying books! Last time I went to a bookshop I had to hail a taxi because I couldn´t carry everything on my own.

Undergraduate School and Major: 

Kyiv National Economics University

Master’s Degree, Information systems and technologies

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation:

LG Electronics – Junior Logistics Specialist to Junior Demand Planner

Danone – Demand Planner -> Demand Planning Manager -> Supply and Production Planning Manager 

Imperial Tobacco – Market Intelligence Analyst -> Operational Planning Manager

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: As a supply manager, I led a project of process optimization in the planning department. The aim was to bring together people from different functions to create one strong team to revise working processes. It was a challenging to motivate such a diverse team, and get them to work together to contribute to common goal. But the team ended up being amazing and we overachieved all our KPIs. Moreover, the process optimization helped to reduce by eight times the level of expired goods in the company, saving the company millions each year.

Looking back on your experience, what one piece of advice would you give to future business school applicants?  Just do it. Every MBA student failed at least once during the application process. Don’t let these failures demotivate you or ruin your confidence. If you don’t achieve the expected results on the GMAT or whatever, try and try again. Yes, it is not easy to get into your dream school, but everything depends only on you.

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? I chose this program because I wanted to study in a diverse class and IESE gives me this opportunity. There are people from nearly 60 different counties in my class. This diversity helps us learn to look at familiar situations with fresh eyes and different viewpoints. This is important for me because I want to become a leader who can evaluate situations from different perspectives.

What would success look like to you after your first year of business school? The most difficult aspect of the first year of the MBA is to set priorities: study, the search for the right internship, balance commitments to family, friends etc. You suddenly realize that time is your main limitation factor and you just can’t be everywhere at once. Therefore, the measure of success for me after my first year will be the achievement of all my goals with no regret about missing something.