Renzo Viale Paiva

University of California-Berkeley, Haas School of Business

“I am passionate about helping others believe in themselves and their dreams.”

Hometown: Lima, Peru

Fun Fact About Yourself: I recently accomplished my first 5,000-meter summit and Ironman 70.3, both in the same month.

Undergraduate School and Major: Universidad del Pacífico; Economics major, Finance minor.

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Brein’s Center for Advanced Analytics, Data & Analytics Business Lead

Berkeley Haas is founded on four Defining Leadership Principles: Question the Status Quo, Confidence Without Attitude, Students Always, and Beyond Yourself. Which principle resonates most with you and why? Question the Status Quo. Things are the way they are because of past or present conditions and circumstances. To continue growing, we need to improve or disrupt our paradigms entirely. I deeply believe that if we are not growing, we are dying.

When you think of UC Berkeley, what is the first word that comes to mind? Why? Purpose. I like how I can feel Haas alums’ purpose in every interaction. There is no pretension, only a true sense of leaving a mark on what they feel matters.

Aside from classmates and the Defining Leadership Principles, what was the key part of Berkeley Haas’ MBA curriculum programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? Berkeley Haas’ focus on innovation was a critical part of my decision. A leader who aims to solve complex problems should know how to empathize with people who hold diverse perspectives—as we explore different scenarios, experiment, and align in order to make things happen and create lasting solutions.

What course, club or activity excites you the most at Berkeley Haas? I look forward to participating in the Redwoods Club and all of California’s outdoor activities, such as hiking, skiing, surfing, and cycling. A balanced life and connecting with nature are essential to gaining perspective and unlocking creativity.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: It was creating a new investment asset class in the Peruvian capital market. It allows small and medium-sized companies to borrow capital through bonds for the first time, dramatically improving their financing conditions.

At this point, what do you hope to do after graduation? I aim to immerse myself in the venture studio model in the US and propel it in Latin America to develop a new wave of purpose-driven companies.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Tuck, Sloan, and Stanford GSB.

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into Berkeley Haas’ MBA program? Applying to an MBA program is a challenging and an overwhelming process. In my experience, there were two critical factors: The first was discovering and effectively communicating my voice and position about what is important to me. The second is identifying and gaining guidance from a support system of family, friends, and colleagues to navigate the process’s ups and downs.

DON’T MISS: MEET THE BERKELEY HAAS MBA CLASS OF 2025