Luis Martin Hernandez Lovera

Alliance Manchester Business School

“Perseverant in the face of challenges, committed to learning for life.”

Hometown: Lima, Peru

Fun fact about yourself: I was a magician for 12 years and then provided e-learning courses, a business I started during the pandemic.

Undergraduate School and Degree: Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas, Civil engineer

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school? I was working in Orkunia, which is a Peruvian company focused on offering office implementation with a team of architects and engineers. I had the position of Operational Management Manager, with the responsibility to identify and implement process improvement solutions for internal and external customers.

Where did you intern during the summer of 2021? I did my internship at RPS group. They are a leading global professional services firm working across six sectors including property, energy, transport, water, resources, defence and government services. I was based specifically in the Manchester office. I was part of the Global PMO participating in the implementation of business intelligence and good practices of project management for energy renewable projects.

Where will you be working after graduation? I haven’t defined my future job yet, but I would like to work in Project Management or in a Consulting firm. I have strong capabilities to participate in a company that is managing different projects from different sectors.

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School: I am VP of Academics and the voice of the class to provide feedback to the business school about the quality of teaching. I was the connection with the director of the business school who receives proactively the feedback that I provide on behalf of the class. Moreover, I organised a series of events as part of Manchester Matters, where students can share with the cohort any relevant topic to them. This was an initiative from previous classes, and I am continuing with the tradition.

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? The organisation of Manchester Matters during the pandemic following the distance restriction. After being in lockdown for many months, students really enjoyed this face-to-face event which was an important milestone for us. Students were really comfortable with this event and we had the opportunity to get to know each other more.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? Taking the risk to come to a different country to study for an MBA. It is not easy but also not impossible. It has been the biggest challenge for me and I am so proud of this. I am learning many things in the university and in this country which helped me to have a wider view of what is happening in a globalised business world.

One of the biggest challenges was when I set up my goal was to study in a non-Spanish speaking developed country. Before finishing my career at university, I travel to the USA, where I had some courses about civil engineering at Florida International University. I realised that this trip changed my way of planning my career path. I was so fascinated with the technology that companies in the USA had. I remembered that there was a professor in the class that encouraged us to study for a Master’s in any developed country to get more professional opportunities and increase our context in perceiving the world. Since then, I decided to define a path to achieve that and it involved practising English constantly and doing all the application processes to apply to any foreign program. It took me some time to do so and be familiarised with English as a secondary language. In my whole journey, I was so firm in my decision to reach my dream. Now, coming to my present, I am so proud of being in a prestigious university finishing my MBA which allowed me to learn many things, not only academic but also personal life lessons. The path was not easy but it is worthwhile and I am happy where I am now.

Why did you choose this business school? I picked Manchester because of their method of learning-by-doing. I believe that a professional learn more by doing rather than just reading. The university offers consultancy projects with real clients across the whole program where we needed to contribute with the solution of their business problem. It helped me to have the first experience in what I would like to work in post MBA. I really enjoyed working on research based on secondary and primary research to provide business solutions to companies and help them to generate a significant impact in their businesses.

Who was your favorite MBA professor? Reza Salehnejad because of his enthusiasm in teaching us the course of Strategy and Competition. He connected very well with the students with stories and jokes. Moreover, he taught us many strategic schemes that big companies implemented in their structure. He gave us even extra hours of lessons with important information that would be relevant for our future. He is a remarkable professor on the MBA program.

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? I think that the most important tradition that we had was Manchester Matters. As I said before, it was an initiative from the previous class, and I led the continuity of this event in my cohort and it definitely helped to get to know more people from my class.

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? Some months ago, I was thinking that I should have taken the MBA in a normal time without covid to enjoy it as it should be. However, I think that things happen for a reason, and I really enjoyed it because I learned a lot of interesting courses that I haven’t learned before and I met many interesting people from different parts of the world. The university helped us in having more social meetings after the lift of restrictions and it contributed to creating a connection with people from my class. I think that we are living the MBA in an accurate time where companies are looking for professionals to reach their strategic goals due to the economic reactivation after a period of uncertainty.

What is the biggest myth about your school? The university is located in a place that rains a lot. Let me say that it is true but it doesn’t mean that Manchester is boring, you will get used to it and it will take less than a month to get in love with the city. Manchester has many places that you can go by walking or public transport. You will find many social events where you can expand your horizons, and The City centre is near the university. If you work in Manchester after the MBA, you will still have the chance to go to the Uni anytime.

What surprised you the most about business school? The infrastructure that facilitated us to learn properly. I couldn’t enjoy it too much at the beginning due to COVID. As soon as we came back, we realized that the university has a really good building where we can find spaces to study, do networking events, eat and even to prepare food! I was so surprised by the study centre, and I really like it.

What is one thing you did during the application process that gave you an edge at the school you chose? Explain my learning style which matched exactly with the Manchester Method. I prefer to learn by doing and understand my mistakes with continuous guidance. I learned many things during my professional career taking challenges that push me to something new and I adapted to it quite well, I understood that I wanted to keep learning with that style and the university offered that method to me.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? Cecilia Monferrari is a really smart girl who is so proactive and open to helping students with case studies. She led the practice to these cases in the consulting club and I really admire her dedication and openness to teaching what she knows. She had a lot of experience in consulting, and she was so emphatic giving us some guidance to develop good cases studies.

Who most influenced your decision to pursue business in college? When I started to work in the corporate world, I was dreaming to have my own business in the future, but I didn’t have the knowledge or skills that I needed. So I started to talk with heads of organisations that I have been working with before in order to learn more about their mindset and I discovered that everyone studied an MBA. They said that it helped them to understand more about business and gave them tools to build their own business. For that reason, I decided to earn some years of experience working and then take the MBA.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list? Work and follow a career path in a UK company, I want to implement everything that I learned in the MBA. The second item in my bucket list would be running my own company in a further stage of my life, for that reason I would like to have more experience.

How has the pandemic changed your view of a career? It taught me that I must learn how should I adapt to uncertain situations. I learnt many different ways to solve the problems that I faced during the lockdown.

What made Luis such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2022?

“Luis usually has a smile on his face; he is driven, lively, professional and proactive. Luis is not afraid to speak up and use his voice to good effect, but is he also conscious of others around him and building strong relationships – very much a people-person.

Elected by his class to the student council role of Vice President (VP) for Academics, Luis has used this platform to good effect, advocating for his classmates and looking for ways to improve the programme. He has shown that he will happily listen to the thoughts and feelings of his peers, before clearly articulating potential ideas and solutions to the programme team. Part of the role has also been to co-lead the ‘Manchester Matters’ series of TED-Talk style events, where he has proven to be organised and a skilled public speaker. His constructive approach to the VP role has been to the benefit of his class. Luis has made the most out of his MBA experience; completing an internship, participating in group projects, joining a study tour and networking with his cohort and other MBAs.”

Naomi Blackwell
Assistant MBA Director

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