Veronica Durando

IMD Business School

“Fueled by passion, grounded in values. High-volume ideas per minute. Adventure seeker. People first, always.”

Hometown: New Jersey, US

Fun Fact About Yourself: Avid rock climber – I especially love lead climbing!

Undergraduate School and Major: Washington & Lee University, US, Sociology and Anthropology

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Audacity Health, Senior Brand Strategist

What has been the best part of being in a small class with this group of classmates? Having a smaller class presents an opportunity to build stronger relationships with more people. However, the real benefit is having more robust, diverse support along each of our respective journeys at IMD. We care about each other and thus are willing to invest in one another. This could be through direct feedback, reflective conversations, providing industry or functional insights, and more. My peers have been an integral part of a better understanding of myself and my potential.

Aside from classmates, what part of IMD’s MBA programming led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? The personal and leadership development opportunities. Whether through working with a psychoanalyst or honing skills in multi-day workshops, this program is designed to empower you to address growth areas. You gain the necessary skills and perspective to not only succeed professionally but to do so from a place of intention and confidence.

IMD is known for its academic rigor. What is one strategy you used that would help a future IMD MBA better adapt to the workload early on? Take time for yourself! It can be incredibly difficult to prioritize ‘me time’ while trying to build a community, manage classes, and adjust to life in Lausanne. I found that taking care of myself – through workouts, walks & audiobooks, journaling – was essential for me to show up as my best self and manage through all the rest.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Driving the strategy behind five concurrent digital media campaigns for a Fortune 500 healthcare company. I led this team effort during my most recent role as Senior Brand Strategist at Audacity Health. It required robust stakeholder and industry insights, strong digital and strategic marketing skills, and exceptional project management. Digital media was one of my key growth areas and my former company provided this stretch assignments to support my development. This was a highly visible client that I knew quite well, having previously partnered with them on several other projects. Working on these campaigns enabled me to leverage my marketing acumen and industry knowledge to level up my digital media capabilities while navigating through more significant business complexities than ever before. I learned a ton and felt accomplished when my team’s work led to future partnership opportunities with this client.

Describe your biggest accomplishment at IMD so far: It was a specific day – 13 June. I pitched my HealthTech start-up for the IMD Venture Award in the morning, had a Business and Society final exam in the afternoon, and put on an LGBTQ+ Pride Picnic for the DE&I Committee in the evening. I was so proud of myself. After years of believing I was trying to do too much or I had too many interests, I finally learned how to balance and succeed across my various priorities.

Where is your favorite hang-out in Lausanne? Why do you (and your classmates) gravitate there? It’s a toss-up between Jetée (a lakeside bar) and Bellerive Plage (a lake shoreline and pool)! For our class, lake views are everything – we’re always finding a reason to make our way to Lac Léman. Both of these spots have versatile, low-key outdoor spaces to enjoy impeccable views with small or big groups. They’re also quite close to campus, which makes them perfectly walkable options for post-class chilling!

What has been your best memory at IMD thus far? I’ve benefited immensely from all of the boot camps, workshops, one-to-ones, and classes to date – this program has been a holistically enriching experience. However, one recent boot camp stands out among the rest. It focused on presence and leadership coaching in addition to structured case cracking to help us prepare for interviews and our future leadership opportunities. The boot camp was led by an IMD alumnus, Arjen Iwema, in collaboration with the Blackbelt Presence team. What differentiated it was how I could practically apply all of my learnings to date and get real-time, productive feedback on where and how to improve.  I was supported by a group of around 15 of my peers who were truly invested in my growth and offered encouragement and insights along the way. I’ve received quite a bit of feedback that I speak too quickly, and I end up diminishing the impact of what I’m trying to say in doing so. This boot camp equipped me with the skills and practices I needed to refine my vocal presence. It was both an excellent tie-up to the last six months as well as a focused, motivating jumping-off point for the remainder of the program.

What do you hope to do after graduation? Landing a commercial Pharma role in Europe – preferably Switzerland. I look forward to building on my MedTech expertise to explore a critical piece of the care continuum: therapeutics. I’m also eager to learn how non-US systems and businesses approach the challenge of healthcare. Longer-term, I aim to apply this multi-segment, international perspective to pursue impactful opportunities that truly enhance human health.

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