Marwan Hamdan

University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management

“I am a management consultant with a passion for music, art and design.”

Hometown: Beirut, Lebanon

Fun Fact About Yourself: I work to fly, fly to dream, dream to design, design to live, live to work!

Undergraduate School and Major: Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the American University of Beirut

Most Recent Employer and Job Title:

• Senior Manager, Peppers & Rogers Group
• Senior Consultant, Ernst & Young

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: I consider the work my team and I did for a key government institution in Dubai during 2016-2018 timeframe to be the biggest accomplishment in my career so far. Over the course of 1.5 years, we grew the business with this account from 1 project to over 4 projects and half-a dozen short assignments. Revenue from this account tripled over the same period. The highlight of our accomplishment was when the crown prince and future ruler of Dubai approved the 5-year Culture, Arts, Heritage and Literature Sectorial Strategy we had developed for the Emirate of Dubai; the accomplishment was published in the local news.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? I haven’t met any of my classmates face-to-face yet. From the interactions I had with some of them on social media, I realized that they all shared one common denominator: Drive. They are driven by their career goals and are channeling all their energy and focus to achieve those goals. The MBA program is a journey. You can’t sprint your way through a journey; you need to have the energy, focus, drive and intellect to experience every moment of truth across this journey.

Aside from your classmates, 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? Rotman has a unique major called “Business Design” that distinguishes it from the rest of the competition. Business Design is an area that interests me as I am looking to further my career within this field post-MBA. For this reason, and because Rotman is considered the number one business school in Canada, I found Rotman’s MBA program to be the right fit for my professional career aspirations.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? The Business Design Club will be on top of my list. I am also looking forward to engaging in many of the sports activities that are going to happen on- and off-campus.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? I realized that, although I had 9+ years of experience working in management consulting – serving both private and public sector clients across several verticals and areas of expertise – I still did not have all the tools and knowledge necessary to achieve my long-term career ambitions. An MBA will provide a solid base in the areas of design, entrepreneurship and innovation.

How did you decide if an MBA was worth the investment? Coming from a Business Administration educational background and having worked in management consulting, an MBA is the next logical step in my career.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? None. From the start, my target was an MBA program in Canada. Since Rotman is the number one Business School in Canada, its MBA program was the obvious choice. Therefore, I focused all my energy and effort to nailing the Rotman MBA application.

How did you determine your fit at various schools? (What factors did you prioritize? What tools did you use to evaluate schools? How did you research culture? How did you know it fit your career goals?) Two factors influenced my decision to choose which school to apply to: (1) the school’s learning methods, and (2) networking opportunities. Rotman excels in both areas, with its innovative “integrative thinking” framework and as a multi-cultural hub.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? I consider (1) becoming a Canadian permanent resident and (2) a Rotman MBA student as two of the most defining moments in my life right now. I always wished I could live, study and work in Canada, seeing how beautiful and culturally rich this country is. After all these years of planning for such a move, I get to finally experience it!

What do you plan to do after you graduate? Post-MBA, I hope to join an industrial design consultancy firm such as Karten Design, RKS, or IDEO or a technology firm that has “design” engraved in its DNA such as Apple and acquire the skills needed to realize my long-term career goal.

Where do you see yourself in five years? I see myself having established my own creative design consultancy company, focused on delivering customer-centric solutions to SMEs by embracing creativity, innovation, and disruptive technologies.