Leonardo Hernandez Sanchez

Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business

“Lord of the nerds, I love SCIFI, amateur Mexican cook I love a good run in the morning.”

Hometown: Mexico City, Mexico

Fun Fact About Yourself: I have a superpower; I am always hungry.

Undergraduate School and Major: Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mechanical Engineer

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Becton Dickinson Company, LATAM Technical Services Manager| Engineering sales|.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of Carnegie Mellon’s MBA curriculum and programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? The global pandemic and other disruptive forces have exposed the inability of the health care supply system to react to sudden disruptions, which presents an opportunity for the Latin America region to transform into the future medical technology manufacturing and logistics hub.

Through the operation management concentration and the business analytics track, I hope to grow skills and techniques for making intelligent decisions within the supply chain supported by quantitative methods and data analysis. Becoming part of the intelligent future of business.

What course, club or activity excites you the most at Carnegie Mellon? I can’t wait to join the Culinary Club. The best way to know a culture is through its cuisine. My family comes from one of the poorest states in the country, however, in our poverty we found our most valuable treasure, food. I will love to share that whit, my classmates.

I hope to join the health care club and the health care initiative to continue my life’s mission to provide accessible medical treatments to patients around the world.

The Tepper MBA is known for intensive one-on-one coaching and personal development. What area do you hope to strengthen during your two years in business school and why? Through my engineering background, I feel confident in my technical skills. However, I feel limited in my business acumen. I hope to develop the confidence and leadership that will allow me to step up for future challenges in the health care industry. I wish to acquire the strength needed to influence in a positive manner those who work with me to achieve our common goals.

The Tepper MBA is also known for being highly data-driven Why does the program’s focus on quantitative analysis and decision-making appeal to you? How have been able to leverage this approach in your career so far? My first full-time position at BD was as a data analyst, which exposed me to the world of data. Data by itself is useless, but with the proper arrangement and right interpretation becomes a powerful tool.

While working on the commercial team, we sought opportunities through data analysis that would allow us to acquire sales opportunities. While looking through the database, we noticed an increase in the demand for a product called double chamber – a syringe able to carry two fluids without mixing. With this new information, we were able to develop a device that we could offer in the market to take part in the increasing demand. Our effort paid off when the biggest distributor in the region showed interest in the new solution.

The new partnership will become our biggest account in Latin America, casting a revenue increase of 300% in 2025.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: During the peak of the pandemic in February 2020, BD’s main sterilization contractor –STERIS– dramatically decreased sterilization capacity, creating a backorder of USD 20M and costly stock fees, disrupting the supply of medical devices for the treatment of chronic diseases. I stepped up and volunteered to solve the problem, encouraged by my manager, who witnessed my previous success in developing sustainable supply chains.

The project began at a disadvantage; there was no budget, a time frame of six months (compared with traditional validation that requires 12 months for completion), a USD 200K budget, and a few human resources – three engineers located in different time zones. The complexity of this project exceeded my previous managerial experience. I felt overwhelmed.

It is during times of adversity that you can show the best results. I encouraged my team to step forward and led them to develop a strategy that consisted in consisted of performing a technological comparison between two existing sterilization chambers –the new chamber versus the legacy chamber at STERIS. This reduced validation time by 66% and the traditional budget by 90%.

During the following four months, I encountered situations that took me out of my comfort zone. These activities like developing commercial contracts, conducting price negotiations, and redaction of non-disclosure agreements compelled me to seek additional support and feedback. My openness to show vulnerability allowed me to engage with the procurement and legal departments that assigned resources to a project that a few weeks before had almost none.

In May 2020, my team and I were able to declare completed the project, setting an unparallel precedent for the company. Within four months, we reduced the critical backorders by 100% using less than 90% of the forecasted budget. Regardless of the result, I treasure this experience for what I learned about myself. I am a leader capable of managing talent without being afraid of showing vulnerability and who can be both creative and methodical in my quest to achieve a goal.

What is one thing you have recently read, watched, or listened to that you would highly recommend to prospective MBAs? Why? During my preparation for the MBA, I read the book The Lexus and The Olive Tree. It helps readers to understand the effects of globalization. There is a section titled the democratization of information and the powerful tool that data can become for good and wrong. It is a lecture for future MBAs

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into Carnegie Mellon’s MBA program? Do not be afraid to ask for help. It is ok not to know it all, or not always have a brilliant answer. There are always people willing to help you during your journey. We’ve all been there, missing out on things to fulfil our dreams, so we know how it feels.

DON’T MISS: MEET CARNEGIE MELLON TEPPER’S MBA CLASS OF 2024