Mattia Quaresmini

SDA Bocconi School of Management

“Energetic, rational and charismatic leader with an engineering mindset. Passionate about sports and with a positive thinking.”

Hometown: Torbole Casaglia (Brescia), Italy

Fun fact about yourself: I love entertaining people with magic card tricks

Undergraduate School and Degree: Liceo Scientifico N. Copernico, University of Brescia – Automation Engineer, Universidad de Almeria – Electronic Engineer

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school? Whirlpool – Production Group Leader – Refrigerator factory, Varese (Italy)

Where did you intern during the summer of 2022? ABInbev – Global Procurement Office – Zug, Switzerland

Where will you be working after graduation? ABInbev – Global Talent Sourcing Pool – Global Sourcing Manager – Zug, Switzerland

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School: Class Leader elected by 94% of the class. President of LGBTQ+ Club, Vice President of Industry&Ops Club, Operation Manager of Sailing Club, Organizer of all the main extracurricular events for the MBA47 and other SDA Masters.

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? I’m very proud for our first LGBTQ+ Conference in SDA Bocconi in May 2022, it was the very first one for SDA and big companies like Amazon & Google participated in order to bring a multinational company experience on this topic. I’m also very proud to have organised or collaborated for more than 35 social events during the year. I organised several trip to cities Europe: Brescia, Florence, Sondrio, Rome, Lerici, Bormio, Rimini, and Malaga. I’ve contributed organising also several social party like the following: Carnival Party, Fluo Party, Closing Party, MBA Ceremony, White Party, and Christmas Party. I am also very proud to have brought a big group of MBAs to my hometown and to have shown them my beautiful city, my parents and my grandparents. This gave them a taste of what an Italian real experience looks like.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? In my professional career, I am most proud to have been able to manage two assembly lines when I was working in Whirlpool. The plant director, Manuel Rossi, believed in me and I went beyond my abilities to not dissatisfy him. At that time, I was 25 years old and I had, on average, more than 130 people to manage who ranged from 16-year-olds to people who were close to retirement. It has been the most tough but rewarding period of my life.

Why did you choose this business school? I chose SDA Bocconi mainly because it is considered one of the best business schools in the world from many recognised institutions (confirmed with FT Rankings 2023). In particular, I chose SDA Bocconi because it’s able to deliver immense value to the students thanks to the fact that the cohort counts only 100 people. Everything looks like if it was tailor-made on your needs and ambitions.

Who was your favorite MBA professor? All the professors were great and personally I always prefer a hands-on approach. That’s why I will always remember Giuseppe Stabilini and his Procurement & Supply Management course that was delivered through a Beer Business game. This is a one-week Business Game that put us in the shoes of Head of functions in different companies, competing against each other. It was really realistic and challenging.

What was your favorite course as an MBA? I have always been very analytical.  Coming from Operations, I really loved the course called Operation Strategy. It gave me the right analytical skills to be able to understand complex processes and their implementation from an operational perspective. Who knows, maybe one day I will put this knowledge into practice managing an entire production plant.

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? If I should start again my MBA from zero, I would love to expand the impact I had, not only within the MBA class and other SDA Masters, but also outside of SDA Bocconi. I would love to generate an impact in the community of Millan, economic capital of Italy. I would organize public events or connecting with the major of the city and empowering even more the opportunity that SDA Bocconi has standing in the heart of the industrialized side of Italy.

What is the biggest myth about your school? Coming from Brescia, a city 80 km far from Milan, I’ve always experienced a huge myth related to SDA Bocconi. People used to say that school was focused more on the brand recognition than the actual courses. This thought was probably driven by the fact that SDA Bocconi is private and one of the oldest in Italy, perceived sometimes like an elite school. This myth is totally wrong. I’ve met so many bright people with no more resources than their great minds and huge abilities, people who contracted loans to fuel their ambitions. Those are the people that contributed to bring SDA Bocconi where is today, representing one of the biggest and most recognized Business School across the world.

What did you love most about your business school’s town? Milan is a magic city. Milan is where everything is, the perfect mix between enjoying life and working hard. I love to see how people meet for an aperitivo after their daily job, how they disconnect and, how multicultural Milano is. It is where diversity plays such a big role, the result is guaranteed.

What surprised you the most about business school? Sometimes, I had the impression that the courses were tailor-made for me. The staff and the director, Stefano Pogutz, were always present to listen to our minor issues and they were doing everything to address those as fast as possible.  I mean, I was not expecting to have 1-to-1 meetings with the director so often, or to have a shared lunch with the Dean Giuseppe Soda once a week. This was something that really surprised me. I am very concerned about details. Details are what make you step out of the crowd and SDA Bocconi really addressed every single detail.

What is one thing you did during the application process that gave you an edge at the school you chose? Application process was made by several steps and one of them was an online interview. Immediately after the beginning of that interview, I realized I was able to express 100% of myself. My honest curiosity, simplicity, and transparency were driving the interview and the person in front of me asked me to speak about what was my final goal in life.

My answer?

“Change the world for the people I love.”

I was in my house in Brescia, I went off the camera for five seconds and I grab a picture of my family. I put it in front of the camera and I demonstrated that what you do, defines who you are, but what you dream about, defines who you will become.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? This is an incredible tough question for me. During the MBA in SDA Bocconi, I met so many talented people that I should write one page for each of them.

Among 100 of incredibly smart and passionate classmates, there is one person who surprised me the most with his magic talent of being SIMPLE. It was Mattia Mela, coming from Imperia, a small town in the North of Italy.

We spent three months living together, sharing one apartment in Chicago during our exchange in Chicago Booth and I learnt so many things from him. I could spend hours writing good words, saying how great he is both professionally and personally. But this won’t be enough. Mattia is that kind of person who you call when you have a problem to solve. He is always bringing bright ideas, disruptive point of views and great solutions. He is always very structured and innovative at the same time; his mind is just processing things at a higher speed rate. I love to be inspired by people and so many times, speaking with Mattia, I understood I was exposed to an extraordinary mentality, filled with values and solid principles.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list? In my professional list there are two critical items, one in the short term, and the second one for the long term.

I would love to manage an entire production plant, guaranteeing the best quality for the customers and the best work conditions for the people working there. My second and most ambition item is related to the opportunity to have an impact in the political field and be able to improve people’s life thanks to few, big, intelligent choices.

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

“My first interaction with Mattia was on LinkedIn: before the program, he reached out to introduce himself and I could already sense his vitality and openness. Then I met him live, I met his smile, his sparkling eyes: the first thing you notice about Mattia is how human and warm he is. And when you pair this with great intelligence, unparalleled networking skills, and the will to generate value for the community you can get the full picture of who Mattia is.

Mattia is passionate about DE&I and as a true ally he became president of our LGBTQ+ club putting together a conference sponsored by Amazon with speakers from Google and Bain among the others. While organizing the conference he reached out to the larger Bocconi community involving not only MBA Students, but also peers from the other masters as well as our graduate students. Mattia is great at bringing people together and motivating them.

His efforts were also focused on securing an internship at AbInbev which was then converted to a full-time position in their GMBA program.

While doing all this he went on exchange to Chicago Booth and was elected class president by his fellow classmates, becoming the point of contact between SDA Bocconi and his cohort.

Mattia is a joy to work with and I can honestly say that even if I’m older I was able to learn from him and was inspired by his intense energy.

It’s people like Mattia that make it worth working in a Business School.”

Simone Consonni
Student Relarions Manager
SDA Bocconi

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