Meet Chicago Booth’s MBA Class Of 2021

Denis Blazanovic

University of Chicago, Booth School of Business

Hometown: Eltville am Rhein, Hesse, Germany

Fun Fact About Yourself: I grow a wide variety of vegetables, legumes, and herbs in my own garden.

Undergraduate School and Major: EBS University for Business and Law (Wiesbaden, B.Sc.); Tongji University School of Economics and Management (Bachelor of Business Administration)

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Consultant at Bain & Company

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Optimized service business of top-3 global medical technology player.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? Humble, supportive, goal-oriented, and down-to-earth

What makes Chicago such a great place to earn an MBA degree? Megacity with large cultural variety.

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? A partner at Bain who mentored me and served as a role model throughout the years did his MBA at Booth – observing his technical expertise, his “can-do“ attitude, and his outstanding (!) people skills convinced me to put Booth high on my list.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? I am looking forward to organizing outdoor trips with my fellow students to practice skills and provide a platform to truly get to know each other in a variety of (challenging) situations

What was the most challenging question you were asked during the admissions process? How do you define success?

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? My career so far at Bain has allowed me to accumulate a wide array of experiences – strategic and operational – as well as hone my technical skills and people skills. The intense work in typically challenging client situations has allowed me to enhance my strengths and clearly identify development opportunities. The MBA at Booth will help me to push my skills to the next level.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? HBS, Columbia

How did you determine your fit at various schools? In all major decisions I have to take, I heavily rely on talking to as many people as I can. I had at least a dozen calls with current and especially former students for each school. In my opinion, you can tell quite quickly whether you will fit into a certain school.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? As a teenager I had to spend more than a year in hospital – I learned that the power of will, discipline, a healthy dose of dreaminess and also luck are key ingredients for success. This time helped me to get to know my limits and helped me define my long-term goals in life.

Where do you see yourself in ten years? In a position that allows me to have a positive long-term impact on society.

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