2023 Best & Brightest MBA: Charline Pommeret, University of Florida (Warrington)

Charline Pommeret

The University of Florida, Warrington College of Business

“Result-driven, diligent, resilient, and unremittingly devoted to succeeding academically, occupationally, and socially.”

Hometown: Paris, France

Fun fact about yourself: I have studied and lived in 3 different countries and 5 different cities over the past 4 years.

Undergraduate School and Degree:

  • University of Paris 12, Bachelor of Science in International Business
  • University of Caen Normandy, Master of Science in International Management and Trade

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school?

  • YUPIX, Project Coordinator

Where did you intern during the summer of 2022? N/A

Where will you be working after graduation? American Airlines, Data Analyst in Customer Insights and Analysis

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School:

  • MBA Association – Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion
  • 2022 Certificate of Outstanding Merit – University of Florida International Center
  • Academic and Leadership Member of Alpha Epsilon Lambda (Prestigious honor society recognizing students who are in the top 35%. No more than 1% of these students are accepted each year.)
  • Academic Member of The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi (The nation’s oldest donor society extending invitations only to top 10% of seniors and graduate students at the University of Florida.)
  • Case Competitions:

– 1st Place at 2023 “Race & Case” of University of Denver

– 1st Place at 2022 “Internal Kickoff”

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? Developing technical skills (programming, databases) in less than a year coming from a non-technical background. When joining the UF MBA program, my main knowledge and skills were related to project management. My goal was to obtain a job in the data analysis field, but I had never been exposed to that area. By choosing a concentration in Business Analytics, I was able to master SQL, R, and Information Systems related concepts that helped me obtain the job of my dreams at American Airlines.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? My biggest achievement was co-organizing and co-convening the very first Southeast Florida Food System Summit Dialogue (SFFSSD) in 2021 when I was a project manager intern and volunteer for the United Nations Association of Miami. This event had huge stakes, as it directly contributed to the 2021 United Nations Summit in New York, an event that gathered over 51,000 people from 193 countries to tackle multi-trillion-dollar challenges, including global hunger and climate change. By co-organizing and co-convening the SFFSSD, I was able to make a meaningful impact, both on communities and on a region that is near and dear to my heart, Southeast Florida.

Why did you choose this business school? I chose the University of Florida Hough Graduate School of Business for its exceptional career services – ranked #1 in the world among top MBA programs across the globe by the Financial Times’ Global MBA Rankings for 2021. When deciding to pursue an MBA, my main goal was to find a job in the U.S., so I wanted to join a school with a dedicated career services team that would guide me through the career search process. The UF MBA Career Services went above-and-beyond my expectations. With the small cohorts, the staff and your dedicated career coach really take the time to get to know you and what you want in your future career, and offer you a personal, tailored, individualized approach to help you achieve your goals. The resources, help, support, and guidance are unmatched and really did make a huge positive impact on my life!

Who was your favorite MBA professor? Carolyn T. Takeda-Brown was my favorite MBA professor. I took her Asset Valuation and Corporate Finance class in Summer B 2022 and learned the most financial knowledge I have ever learned in the shortest amount of time thanks to the wonderful instructor that Professor Takeda was. Her team-based learning approach involved 1) preparing content before the class; 20readiness assurance tests on primary readings; and 3) team-based class activities) was extremely valuable and helpful in acquiring and assimilating concepts.

Professor Takeda was always available for us both inside and outside the classroom to answer any questions we had. She also helped us best prepare for both our upcoming exams and future career by applying the knowledge she was teaching us. Her course was very intense and involved lots of concepts to learn in a short amount of time. Still, Professor Takeda was very well organized and extremely good at explaining tough concepts.

What was your favorite course as an MBA? Professional Writing in Business was my favorite course because of how valuable and helpful all the tools and tips I learned are, even after graduating. Coming from a different country and thus a different culture, I was not familiar with expectations and business norms in the U.S. in terms of written communications. Through this six-week-long course in summer, I was able to immediately learn key guidelines, as well as learn how to write to drive action. This course helped me straight from the beginning to communicate effectively with different stakeholders throughout my year in the UF MBA program.

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? Nothing! When I received my acceptance letter from the UF MBA program, I immediately noted down some goals I wanted to achieve: academic-wise, extracurricular-wise, and professional-wise. I have been able to achieve almost everything I wanted to achieve and I have no regrets. I am extremely happy about my MBA experience and would not trade it for the world!

What did you love most about your business school’s town? The beautiful trails and parks (especially Payne’s Prairie Preserve State Park), and seeing some alligators while biking near Lake Alice!

What surprised you the most about business school? The amount of support you get from your peers, professors, UF MBA staff, and even from students from different programs. It truly is amazing!

What is one thing you did during the application process that gave you an edge at the school you chose? I contacted current students and alumni of the program to set up some coffee chats and learn about their experience within the UF MBA program. It was extremely helpful to get familiar with the program and see how my goals aligned with what the UF MBA offered.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? I admire all my MBA classmates, but one I most admire would probably be Luke Vescovi. I admire how he has been able to successfully launch his own business, at such a young age. On the professional aspect, he has a remarkable work ethic, is dedicated to his goals, and is extremely reliable. On the human being aspect, he is one of the most authentic, genuine, supportive, and humble people I have ever met.

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

  1. Make a meaningful impact at American Airlines
  2. Continually educate myself – master a 4th language (Russian), enhance my programming skills, get the Six Sigma Belts certifications.

What made Charline such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2023?

“As the Director of the Graduate Business Career Services office at the University of Florida, I am writing to provide a letter of recommendation for Charline M. Pommeret for the P&Q Best and Brightest distinction. As Charline’s graduate Career Coach, I’ve worked closely with her since she started her MBA program last summer in the Warrington College of Business.

In this recommendation, I aim to describe Charline’s specific leadership accomplishments, as well as her ability to develop creative solutions to global problems.

Leadership

Over the last year, Charline demonstrated her ability to lead her MBA classmates in two main capacities. First, Charline went-above-and-beyond many of her classmates in terms of dedicating herself to the career search process. Since the very beginning of her program, she worked tirelessly to research companies, practice her interview skills, and perfect her resume with her MBA Onboarding Mentor. She dedicated herself to extremely thorough investigation of companies sponsoring international students so that she could set herself up for success upon graduation, as she sought to gain employment in the United States. In this effort, she also reached out to Warrington alumni in her target companies, many of whom expressed their admiration for her level of research and proactivity and offered referrals at their firms. Without a doubt, Charline’s work ethic positioned her as a great example and informal leader among her full-time MBA classmates enrolled in our One Year Business Majors program. This work ethic also eventually led to her acceptance of a full-time position with American Airlines in Dallas, TX upon her graduation.

The second leadership capacity is related to Charline’s election to the following student leadership position: Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion on the MBA Association Board. Selection for this position involved interviewing with other MBA student leaders. Within this role, Charline made an extremely positive impact on our MBA program.

Ability to develop creative solutions to global problems

Upon reading her resume, I am confident that members of the selection committee for this distinction will be quite intrigued by how successful Charline has been within such a wide range of experiences. Specifically, her creative efforts to solve the global problem of women’s safety are seen within her current nonprofit position as Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of “She Safe.” In this organization, Charline developed a mobile application which communicates safest walking routes for individuals, based on historical data on crimes committed within specific locations. Formerly, Charline presented her idea to 50+ bank and education representatives, and she won a $150K investment which allowed her to carry the project forward. I am excited by the progress she has already made in developing this creative, tech-based solution, and I am confident that as a future Warrington alumna, she will continue to make an even greater impact on global problems like this one.”

Carly Escue
Director of Graduate Business Career Services
Business Career Services
UF Warrington College of Business

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