Paul L. Grech    

Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business

“I am passionate about family, food, soccer, and protecting the ocean.”

Hometown: Beacon, NY

Fun Fact About Yourself: I have cliff jumped in 3 different continent.s

Undergraduate School and Major: Marist College. Double Major: Business Administration, concentration in Finance; Spanish

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Bloomberg LP, User Experience Project Manager

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 Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship was a key factor on why I chose CMU, the opportunities to connect with the broader CMU student body and entrepreneurship community will be vital in helping me reach my goals.

What course, club or activity excites you the most at Carnegie Mellon? The 99 Tartans angel syndicate is particularly exciting for me and it has been a great experience so far participating as a summer MBA Partner. I look forward to getting even more involved and learning all that I can from this unique experience.

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? I am looking forward to build upon the skills I have developed at Bloomberg such as project and relationship management and complement them with the quantitative analysis approach

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?  During my time in product sales, I witnessed the power of data analytics and how it can be a difference maker in selling a product. I am excited for the opportunity to have dedicated time to develop my own competency further and see how it will impact my future work.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: During the midst of COVID, I moved departments, fully remote, and within one month of being in the role my manager left the firm. I challenged myself to take ownership of my own onboarding and forged deep relationships with internal and client stakeholders. This led to creating task forces of experts who would be best suited to work together in workshops necessary to closing the deal and ultimately led exceeding my sales target for the year by over 10%.

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into Carnegie Mellon’s MBA program? Take the time to research what aspects CMU offers that will help you achieve your dreams. This can be through admissions calls or searching the website. Then ask admissions to help connect you with students of similar interests. The first connection may not be 100% in line with the same interests. However, they can connect you with others who do and the conversations with them will be the best way to know how CMU is the right place for you and will help tremendously in the essays and interviews.