Carlotta Benfenati

SDA Bocconi School of Management

“Passionate about life, facing each day with a smile.”

Hometown: Milan, Italy

Fun fact about yourself: I graduated as a professional Sommelier ten days after getting a Master’s Degree in Biomedical Engineering.

Undergraduate School and Degree: Bachelor Degree in Biomedical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy; Master Degree in Biomedical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy.

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school? Zimmer Biomet, Product Manager

Where did you intern during the summer of 2019? NA (1 year MBA)

Where will you be working after graduation? Bain & Company, Summer Associate

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School: President of SDA Bocconi Healthcare Club for the year 2020; Member of Professional Women Network Milan.

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? I’m very proud of the fact that my team reached the finals of Alira Competition in November 2019. The competition is a healthcare-related case competition; the experience of presenting in front of a panel of experts was unique and very useful.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? During my time at Zimmer Biomet, I worked on multiple projects aimed at implementing the best strategy to compete in regional tenders. I was a strong contributor in the team and the company won all the tenders, resulting in a high potential revenue increase for the following four years.

Who was your favorite MBA professor? Professor Stefano Gatti was my favorite professor because not only he was able to explain very clearly each concept, but had a contagious passion for the subject (Banks and Capital Markets).

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? My favorite moments of the MBA were the Aperitivo organized by the school before the beginning of every term and after special events. Aperitivo is an informal moment to chat with people, meet your peers, and discuss any kind of topic. These little moments make the experience of the MBA at SDA Bocconi unique because of the feeling of being part of a big family.

Why did you choose this business school? SDA Bocconi is offering different specialized Masters, many of which focused on healthcare. The possibility to enroll in a business school that was offering not only an excellent quality MBA program but also expertise in the Healthcare industry, made SDA Bocconi a perfect fit for me.

What is your best advice to an applicant hoping to get into your school’s MBA program? Be honest when applying because when you will have to explain your choices during the live interview it is very important to be convincing. Also being yourself with honesty may be your best strength since Bocconi values diversity and uniqueness.

What is the biggest myth about your school? The biggest myth about SDA Bocconi is that the school is only focused on Finance; the reality is that the school has been growing a lot offering excellent quality courses on a vast range of topics.

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? Looking back, what I would do differently is to start asking for the help of peers when preparing for interviews. When I started doing that, I realized it was very useful to put my ideas into perspective and be more impactful when speaking under pressure.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? The classmate I admire the most is Fabrizio Salinaro. He is super passionate about history and sustainability and he is able to include in surprising ways these two topics in discussions. He always has a good word for everyone because he genuinely cares about others. In fact, he is never sugary.

Who most influenced your decision to pursue business in college? A friend and ex-colleague was the person who influenced me in pursuing the idea of enrolling in an MBA program. While working with him, I realized he was able to focus on technical aspects and integrate them with business opportunities; I admired this kind of approach. Thanks to him I started thinking that an MBA could be an interesting way to complement my engineering background with a business approach

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list?

• Work in a dynamic environment in order to keep learning something new every day
• Find a job where I feel that I can personally make a positive impact on society

In one sentence, how would you like your peers to remember you? I would like them to remind me as the smiling girl who lives next door, ready to fight for her dreams, and willing to help others achieve theirs.

Hobbies?

• Go horse riding
• Do long walks with my dog
• Attend wine tastings and visit wineries
• Read to keep myself up to date about innovative E-Health Applications and engineering solutions applied to the healthcare industry

What made Carlotta such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2020?

“Carlotta’s enthusiasm and warmth are contagious: she just knows how to talk to you, she just knows how to make things easy; working with her is a breeze. And I’ve worked with her quite a lot, since she is the president of our Healthcare Club, one of our most active student clubs. With strong leadership skills, she coordinated her team to organize two major events involving several guest speakers: “Find your place in Healthcare and “Healthcare and Innovation in the Start-up Era” both tackling the hottest topics in the healthcare Industry.

But she also contributed to the b-school community by helping her classmates with mock interviews and crack the case sessions. She is always available in case anybody asks for her support.

And she also broke the ice when we launched the “Park Corner speeches”: students have around ten minutes to talk about any topic they are very passionate about and Carlotta gave us a concise and thorough presentation about wines.

Last, but not least her stamina also shows in her horse riding at a competitive level in show jumping, dressage, and endurance.”

Simone Consonni
Student Relations Manager

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