Meet IESE Business School’s MBA Class Of 2025

P&Q: Give us your one-minute pitch for your business school. What makes you unique?

Badia: “IESE is a unique mission-driven school that emphasizes the humanistic approach to business, as opposed to a purely transactional approach. Businesses are for people and not the other way around. This is reflected in the service-oriented and inclusive learning community at the school. We have a self-selection of faculty and staff who deeply care about each and every one of our students and their transformational process. All our students have access to a faculty mentor and are encouraged to think about the purpose of companies and their personal lives.

Our teaching quality is second-to-none. We have an experiential learning approach that hinges around the case method. We do not just give content (for that you have online videos and books). We train our students to make decisions by putting them in the shoes of the decision maker. Students discuss the cases in their teams and then in the classroom with other students from more than 60 nationalities and very diverse professional backgrounds. The class is as diverse as you can get (87% of international students).

The strong global footprint of IESE makes it the school of choice for learning international business and being able to bridge the cultural gaps in an increasing fragmented world. IESE has five campuses (Barcelona, Madrid, Munich, Sao Paulo and New York), 15 associated schools in Latam and Africa, six international modules and a strong exchange program in the MBA, and one of the most diverse faculty and student bodies.

Being located in the cosmopolitan Barcelona (Spain), students have the option to learn Spanish through our custom-made Business Spanish Program.”

P&Q: Sustainability has emerged as a major attraction to prospective MBA students. How does your full-time MBA program integrate sustainability and ESG across its curriculum?

Badia: “Since our establishment in 1958, our mission has been to develop leaders who strive to have a deep, positive and lasting impact on people, companies and society through professional excellence, integrity. and spirit of service. The idea of building responsible businesses at the service of society, with solid governance and a strong moral compass has been at the core of our institution.

It is clear that there has never been greater interest and demand for content and training related to Sustainability. At IESE, we address this need with our recently launched Institute for Sustainability Leadership, which takes a comprehensive, multidisciplinary look at how managers can create economic, social, and environmental value for their organizations and society. We also take a holistic approach to the issue on our programs, discussing ESG issues throughout all the different courses we offer, not just those focused explicitly on those topics.

In our MBA program, we have launched a concentration in Sustainability & Responsible Business where students have the option to specialize in this important area and bring their knowledge into their careers, whether they go on to work in an ESG role, or become more socially and environmentally conscious leaders no matter where their professional journey takes them.”

P&Q: What are some key elements in your teaching of leadership? What types of options does your school offer that deepens student experience with leadership and makes them more competitive in the marketplace?

Badia: “Our school has a 100% emphasis on the education of leaders you can trust. Our MBA program help students develop AI-proof capabilities that will set them apart and ready for a leadership positions.

First, leadership is about service. Once you start in the path of leadership, this is not about you and your career anymore. You have decided to live a life for the others, to serve others: clients, teammates, employees, partners… You need to see people behind any decision. We instil in our students a service mindset through the example of faculty and staff, bringing up the ethical dimension in every case-discussion, or courses such as Social Impact Consulting or Club Management (course to train the officers of the student clubs as leaders).

Second, students develop good judgment and critical thinking through case discussions and other experiential learning. This is not about knowledge and analysis that any Large Language Model can do, but about wisdom to make the best decision for everyone involved. The case method trains you in making decisions and improving your common sense by exposing you to hundreds of business situations and interacting with real people that learn from every single situation and are in constant change. When people are involved, every single decision is different from the previous one.

Third, leaders must have strong communication and interpersonal skills. They need to move hearts and minds towards a common goal. Their jobs are not just about designing strategies and processes. Communication starts with listening, which requires humility.  And motivating people requires a profound understanding of human nature. We provide this understanding through insightful courses related to personality, leadership, ethics, power, geopolitics, history of ideas and institutions… In addition, we offer workshops to work on communication, team building, negotiations or stress management.”

P&Q: Two years ago, P&Q asked you to share how you’ve integrated AI, STEM, analytics, and digital disruption into your programming. Since then, what types of enhancements have you made in these areas?

Badia: “IESE is in a constant effort of updating our curriculum to meet the evolving needs of the market and organizations. We have currently two specializations that reflect the integration of AI, STEM, analytics and digital disruption: Data Analytics and Digital Business, and Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

An example of a recent addition to the MBA curriculum includes MarTech: Data, Technology and Business, a set of software tools used by organizations that aims to optimize planning, implementation, and measurement of marketing campaigns, as well as to efficiently manage its customers. Students also are trained in the use of Python for web scraping and  analysis of non-structured data. This tool is instrumental for some of our courses such as Data Science, Machine Learning, Digital Driven Organizations, Social Media Analytics, Cryptonomics and New Technologies and Scenario Planning.”

P&Q: What is your biggest student-run event of the year and what does it reflect about your school?

Badia: “IESE’s Responsible Business Club has been running the largest student-run sustainability conference in Europe, called Doing Good Doing Well (DGDW), for over 20 years now. The annual conference provides opportunity to hear directly from professionals about the challenges and opportunities they experience on a day-to-day basis, and how their jobs and organizations are making a difference in society. The theme for the conference changes every year but follows a similar format that is typically divided into keynote speeches, panel discussions, competitions, and networking events held over 2-days.

IESE has always been very focused on sustainability and ESG, which was recognized in the Financial Times MBA rankings when we were ranked #1 for CSR for 2 consecutive years (2021-22). The school is very purpose driven and given our mission to support leaders to have a positive, lasting impact, responsible business has been a core pillar of the institution before it became more mainstream.”

P&Q: IESE is synonymous with entrepreneurship and innovation. How does IESE incorporate these elements across its programming? Give us an example or two of entrepreneurial thinking and innovation in key courses or activities?

Badia: “IESE Business School fosters an entrepreneurial mindset by providing a well-rounded education, practical experiences, and a supportive ecosystem that encourages students to explore, innovate, and take risks in their entrepreneurial endeavours.

IESE offers a comprehensive MBA curriculum that includes courses in entrepreneurship and innovation. Students can explore related topics such as investment, venture capital, and more. Electives and an Entrepreneurship concentration in the second year allow for tailored learning. For their summer internship, students also have the opportunity to take on the Summer Entrepreneurship Experience (a two-month course where students turn an idea into a business mentored by experienced serial entrepreneurs and investors). Alternatively, IESE MBA students can explore careers in the startup world via an internship and be part of a fast-growing company to develop a marketing plan, solve an operations strategy riddle, or deep dive into an investor’s deck.

IESE is known for its extensive use of case studies, many of which include real-world entrepreneurial scenarios, some of them from IESE alumni. This approach helps students to analyze complex business problems and develop creative solutions.

IESE frequently invites successful entrepreneurs and industry experts to campus for guest lectures and workshops. This exposes students to real stories of entrepreneurship and allows them to learn from those who have gone through the entrepreneurial journey.

The impact of these and many other activities can be summarized in the following points:

• 72,000 jobs have been created by IESE-trained entrepreneurs in five continents
• $11.8 billion of capital has been raised by IESE-founded companies
• 30% of IESE students have started a business within 5 years of graduation
• $70 million has been invested in startups by IESE alumni related mechanisms

 

MBA Student	Hometown	Undergraduate Alma Mater	Last Employer
Sacha Brenninkmeijer	NA	University of London	C&A
Hyelin Oh	Seoul, South Korea	Seoul National University	S-OIL Corporation
Carolina Pascotto	São Paulo, Brazil	Universidade de São Paulo	Nubank
Hugh Phelan	Philadelphia, PA	University of Notre Dame	MarginEdge
Daniel Puentes Revelles	Huescar, Spain	Universidad de Granada	Bouygues UK
Javier Sánchez Peña	Malaga, Spain	University of Edinburgh	OFR Consultants
Jan-Niklas Seiler	Hohenschäftlarn, Bavaria	University of Edinburgh	Ardagh
Satofumi Ushigami	Fukuoka, Japan	University of Tokyo	Japan Bank for International Cooperation
Pakaporn (Mila) Utaobin	Bangkok, Thailand	Chulalongkorn University	SIPA Real Estate
Christa Zacharia	Wagga Wagga, Australia	University of Sydney	Lendlease