Arman Hassan

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

“Proud husband, cat dad, and investor looking to build winning companies through diverse teams.”

Hometown: A combination of Boston (MA), the suburbs of Philadelphia (PA), and New Orleans (LA).

Fun Fact About Yourself: As a kid, I would stream myself playing video games on YouTube and one of my videos got nearly one million views.

Undergraduate School and Major: Harvard College, Major in Economics

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Senior Associate at Audax Private Equity

What has been your first impression of the Wharton MBA students and alumni you’ve met so far. Tell us your best Wharton story so far. I’ve found that the classmates I have met are very intelligent and accomplished but are also humble and down-to-earth people. The mentors in my life who are Wharton alumni also share these traits.

My most memorable experience so far has been MGMT 6100, a course in teamwork and leadership that all first-year students take. I got to bond extensively with my cohort, a group of ~80 students who take fixed core curriculum classes together in the fall. We worked in 6-person teams in a simulation where we run a company for ten years and track financial and operational performance. At the end of the class, there is a leadership cup where the top-performing teams across the incoming class compete for the best performing team. One of the teams in our cohort qualified and competed in the final round held over Zoom, with the entire class dialed in. I went to a watch party with my cohort-mates and the environment was electric. The amount of camaraderie, cheering, and energy we had for our cohort-mates was incredible. Our cohort-mates ended up winning the entire competition! That experience gets me truly excited about the strength of the community here and the additional bonds to be made in the next two years.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of the Wharton School’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? Wharton is a thought leader in the world of people analytics and general organizational effectiveness. So much of a business’s success comes from having the right talent in the right spots and ensuring that an organization is functioning cohesively across all levels and teams. I hope to learn the latest thinking in these fields while I am at Wharton to grow as an investor. I will seek to apply the latest strategies for talent, teamwork, and general leadership as I pursue new deal opportunities as well as support existing portfolio companies.

What course, club, or activity excites you the most at the Wharton School? From an academic perspective, I want to engage with the management department to explore how to run an organization and partner with management teams more effectively. Through the same department, I will gain critical insight into how I carry myself personally as a leader. I hope to supplement the leadership lessons through some of the short-form leadership intensives offered by the McNulty Leadership Program.

From a club perspective, the Partners Club will help me and my wife, Sera, find a community of other couples to share this experience with. The PE/VC club will be a great way to connect with peers in the industry, which is going through profound change.

When you think of the Wharton School, what is the first word that comes to mind? Why? Driven. I know that word often can be associated with the negative connotation of competition, but in my experience so far with my classmates this is much more closely associated with passion for something in life. There are so many classmates pursuing entrepreneurship while they are students; some of these efforts focus on humanitarian causes like education, economic empowerment, and climate change. Even outside of the realm of entrepreneurship, there are people who are very dedicated to their organizations, hobbies, or something else entirely. It is amazing to see what some of my classmates have accomplished and it’s inspiring to see the great ambitions they hope to achieve in the future.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: While each individual transaction carries its own excitement and sense of pride, I would say one of my biggest accomplishments was helping to plan a roundtable discussion at my firm for AAPI Heritage Month that centered around the AAPI experience in our careers. Along with several others at the firm, I helped lead the discussion. Admittedly, it was nerve-wracking at first to open myself up and share vulnerability with my whole firm. However, afterwards, it felt so rewarding to be able to bring light to some of the experiences and challenges those of AAPI heritage face. The amount of support and allyship I saw from my colleagues afterwards was truly moving.

What do you hope to do after graduation (at this point)? After graduation I will be re-joining Audax with a focus on investments in industrial services and technologies. I will also support our existing investments in the space with a particular focus on people and organization.

What is one thing you have recently read, watched, or listened to that you would highly recommend to prospective MBAs? Why?  Monster’s University – it is so much more than just a kid’s movie. There are a lot of parallels with the “business world,” and many lessons embedded throughout around effort and teamwork. Ultimately the movie sends the message to maintain grit, as success is rarely a linear path.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? I applied to several programs, all of which would help me become a better investor. Ultimately, I chose Wharton because of its people-focus.

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into the Wharton School’s MBA program? Reflect on what has mattered the most to you throughout your life and career and try to be authentic to that in the written application. For the group interview, just act how you normally participate in group settings and don’t typecast yourself into a role because it seems like the exercise may call for it.

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