Santiago Mayoral 

Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business

“Entrepreneurially-minded finance professional who has a strong passion for real estate, does rock climbing and loves the Legend of Zelda.”

Hometown: Mexico City, Mexico

Fun Fact About Yourself: I am a certified member of the Official Rocky Balboa Fan Club!

Undergraduate School and Major: Business, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM)

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Hoteles City Express

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Secured funding to help a mid-size hospitality real estate company become the largest hotel chain in Mexico by executing the IPO of the company, negotiating first syndicated loan and more than 65 individual credit lines that allowed the company to open 20 hotels per year to duplicate its size in 6 years (2013 – 2019)

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? Diversity. My class is culturally and professionally diverse. My classmates come from more than 20 countries in the world and have very interesting backgrounds. Very smart, all of them.

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? Community. I wasn’t convinced about coming to Georgetown until I was invited to the Welcome Weekend. There, I was able to experience Georgetown’s community, a wide network of kind and friendly people who believe success comes in the collective, not the individual. Another factor was academic rigor, which I was actively looking for.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? Real Estate Club

What was the most challenging question you were asked during the admissions process? Considering your professional advancement so far and the opportunity cost of doing an MBA in Georgetown, how can we be sure we are your best option for a school?

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? To continue with the accelerated pace my career has had until now, I realized an MBA is needed. I want to launch my own business in Mexico over the long term. For that, I needed to acquire knowledge on how to motivate and lead teams, identify talent, and gain depth in real estate finance.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? I applied to HBS, NYU Stern R3, Chicago Booth, UT Austin, Babson College, and CUNY Baruch.

How did you determine your fit at various schools? I prioritized school reputation, job placement, community, academic rigor, and location. The tools I used to evaluate McDonough were the school’s website for curriculum, reputation, and job placement. I also spent time attending interviews and speaking to alumni, faculty, and current students to experience culture and location. I knew McDonough was right for my career goals when I found out the relaunched strength of Real Estate, speed in scaling up rankings, job placement, and chats with community.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? My mother passed away when I was 13 and my dad had remarried a year before and moved abroad. I had to find a way to support myself economically, so I decided to launch a startup at age 15. To strengthen my business knowledge and operate my startup better, I enrolled in the best business program for college (ITAM). At ITAM I was recruited to join a very large insurance company and helped to optimize its costs. There I met the CFO of a mid-size hotel company who, after 6 interviews, hired me to contribute to the creation of the largest hotel chain in Mexico and grow personally and professionally with it in parallel.

Where do you see yourself in ten years? Launching the first Real Estate Investment Trust focused on low-income housing in Mexico with a pipeline of 25 projects across the country and sufficient capital to deploy it.