Sebastian Esselens

UCLA, Anderson School of Management

“Belgian in California, tech builder, aviation geek—passionate about innovation, storytelling, and helping people thrive.”

Hometown: Antwerp, Belgium

Fun fact about yourself: I got my private pilot’s license before my driver’s license!

Undergraduate School and Degree:

University of Antwerp — B.S. Information Systems Engineering

University of Antwerp — M.S. Information Systems Engineering

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school?

Live Nation Entertainment, Product Manager

Where did you intern during the summer of 2024? Apple, AIML MBA Product Manager Intern — Cupertino, CA

Where will you be working after graduation? Apple, AIML Engineering Program Manager — San Francisco, CA

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School:

Leadership:

• President, Tech Business Association at Anderson (AnderTech)
• VP of Admissions, European Business Association
• Coach, Anderson Career Teams — Technology Industry
• Coach, Product Management Interview Prep Team
• Dean’s Advisory Council

Honors:

• Easton Technology Management Fellowship
• Anderson Student Investment Fund Fellowship
• BAEF Sofina&Boel Fellow
• University of Antwerp Alumni Fund Fellow
• Dean’s Scholar
• Dean’s List

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? In my second year, I had the incredible honor of not only serving as President of AnderTech, the largest professional club at Anderson, but also coaching first-year students through Anderson’s Career Team (ACT) program. It was a lot to take on. Phil Han, the Director of the Parker Career Center, even advised me against doing both to avoid burning out, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to make an impact.

ACT coaching is Anderson’s peer career coaching program, where second-years mentor first-years through the recruiting process. My group focused on the tech industry. While our main goal was to help first years strategize their job search and refine their resumes and interview skills, what made me most proud was the community we built. Tech recruiting is long, unstructured, and stressful, so my coaching partner and I prioritized emotional well-being just as much as strategy. We fostered a strong support system where my ACT group leaned on each other, shared insights, and kept one another motivated. That bond didn’t end when recruiting did. To this day, they still reach out to me for advice and continue to support each other.

Coaching also made me a better AnderTech President. It gave me a direct line to first years and allowed me to quickly adapt our programming. When major tech companies suddenly moved up their interview timelines, I was able to integrate ACT learnings into AnderTech’s events, ensuring students were better prepared. But the most rewarding part? It was the messages from students who landed offers at their dream companies like Google, Apple, and Waymo, thanking me for the support. Knowing I played even a small role in their success made it all worthwhile.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? Leading and launching a massive digital transformation project for Live Nation Belgium’s venue division, be.at venues. It’s the largest venue subsidiary of Live Nation outside the U.S., but we had very limited time and resources. We had to digitize all venue operations, integrating with a mix of new and legacy systems. All with a team of just 5 engineers. I’ve never learned more from working on a product than I did during that project. It forced me to push myself outside my comfort zone, question legacy assumptions, and fight for bigger and better at every step.

What made it even more special was that our customers weren’t external. They were my colleagues at the venues. So, it was a real matter of pride. This experience really taught me the value of working closely with engineers and how important it is to get your hands dirty when things don’t go as planned. Sometimes, there’s no playbook and you just have to figure it out. That’s something I’ve carried with me ever since, and I think it’s one of the most important skills a product manager can have.

Why did you choose this business school? I actually only applied to UCLA Anderson, which says a lot about how much I wanted to be here! Since I was pivoting from entertainment to tech, I needed a school that could bridge both worlds. In my opinion, no place does that better than Anderson.

Los Angeles is the capital of the entertainment industry. And Anderson is just a stone’s throw from my old employer’s HQ in Beverly Hills. At the same time, it’s one of the few MBA programs where technology consistently makes up 25% to 35% of post-MBA placements. That balance was exactly what I was looking for. I wanted to be surrounded by people who understood both industries, who spoke the language of both Hollywood and Silicon Valley. Anderson gave me that, and it has been the perfect place to make my career pivot.

What was your favorite course as an MBA? Managing Disruptive Technologies and Business Models, taught by Brian Farrell, has easily been my favorite course at Anderson. As a future tech leader, I think it’s critical to see beyond the hype and really understand what makes a technology truly disruptive. This class helped me think more strategically about innovation: what sticks, what fades, and what actually changes the game.

The class is case-based, so there’s a lot of prep work, but the discussions make it all worth it. Brian Farrell brings so much real-world experience into the room. He was the CEO of one of my favorite gaming companies growing up, so hearing him share stories, like negotiating with Steve Jobs, made it even better. It’s one of those classes where you walk in excited and leave with your brain buzzing. I looked forward to it every single week.

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? Andernoons is our weekly Thursday happy hour where Full-Time, Fully-Employed, and Executive MBA students come together to unwind, catch up, and build connections outside the classroom. Each week, a different club hosts, bringing their own mix of great food, drinks, and sometimes entertainment, so no two weeks are the same. But what really makes it special is the people—it’s a chance to reconnect with classmates you haven’t seen in a while or meet someone new. To me, it perfectly reflects how much Anderson values community.

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? I would have taken more classes. Time flies way faster than I expected. Looking back, I wish I had pushed myself to explore even more. In my first year, I was cautious about overloading since I was juggling recruiting, social life, and academics. But by Winter Quarter of my second year, I started taking more courses and realized this is probably the last time I’ll ever be in a classroom. I also wish I had branched out beyond my tech focus sooner. Taking Paul Habibi’s real estate class and Jeff Moorad’s sports management class opened my eyes to how much I could learn outside my core interests. Anderson brings in incredible industry professionals to teach across so many fields. It’s something I wish I had taken even more advantage of.

What is the biggest myth about your school? Before coming to Anderson, I thought Sharing Success was just something the school said to sound collaborative. Every MBA program claims to have a supportive culture. In the end, recruiting and academics are competitive, so I assumed people would mostly look out for themselves. I could not have been more wrong!

I realized pretty quickly that Sharing Success at Anderson isn’t just our motto. It is how things actually work here. During recruiting, second years in Tech ACT spent hours helping first-years prepare for interviews, even when they had nothing to gain from it. As AnderTech President, I saw students openly share insights and job leads instead of keeping them to themselves. And when I interned at Apple, I met MBA interns from other top programs who told me their classmates were cutthroat and backstabbing. That just wasn’t my experience at Anderson.

What makes this culture different is that people here genuinely want to see each other succeed. Not because they have to, but because someone once helped them, and now they want to pay it forward. It’s the kind of environment that pushes you to do better, not just for yourself, but for the people around you.

What did you love most about your business school’s town? When you move to LA, you quickly learn that distance isn’t measured in miles (or kilometers) but in minutes. That’s what makes Westwood such a great place to live. It is relatively centrally located to all the places you want to go to (except Downtown, but no one’s in a rush to go there anyway). The beach is 15 minutes away, LAX is about 30 to 40 minutes, and Beverly Hills is just 10 minutes down the road.

But beyond the convenience, Westwood itself is a great place to spend two years. It’s a generally safe, walkable neighborhood surrounded by some of LA’s most beautiful areas, like Bel Air, Brentwood, and Beverly Hills. There are plenty of great restaurants, cafes, and theaters, and campus itself is stunning. I couldn’t have picked a better place to call home during my MBA.

What movie or television show (e.g. The Big Short, The Founder, Mad Men, House of Lies)  best reflects the realities of business and what did you learn from it?  This is a tough question, but I’m going with a Belgian cult classic: Het Eiland. Most people reading this have probably never heard of it, but if you speak Dutch, it’s absolutely worth watching!

On the surface, Het Eiland is a comedy about a painfully dull office, but beneath that, it’s a sharp (and all too real) take on corporate bureaucracy, inefficiency, and questionable leadership. It perfectly captures the absurdity of rigid hierarchies, nonsensical corporate jargon, and managers who act like they’re leading a Fortune 500 company when they’re really just running a small department. But what stood out to me the most is how humor serves as a coping mechanism in dysfunctional workplaces.

No matter how frustrating or ridiculous things get, the characters rely on camaraderie and shared laughter to get through it all. That’s something I’ve seen play out in real life. Workplace culture is about the people you surround yourself with. The show also explores the challenge of balancing professional ambition with personal relationships, something I’ve thought a lot about during my MBA. At the end of the day, it’s not just the job that matters, but the people who make it worthwhile.

What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What insights did you gain from using AI? At Anderson, many professors actively encourage us to experiment with AI, and the school has embraced it in some really practical ways. As an Easton Fellow, I worked closely with the Easton Technology Management Center to explore how AI could improve its operations. One of the most exciting initiatives Anderson recently launched is a syllabus chatbot—an LLM trained on all class syllabi. It makes finding and comparing courses so much easier and helps students quickly identify the best classes for their goals.

Beyond that, I’ve found AI to be a powerful tool for enhancing critical thinking. I often use LLMs as a conversation partner when analyzing cases for class, helping me refine arguments and explore different perspectives. Rather than just generating answers, AI can challenge assumptions and push deeper thinking—something I believe will become even more valuable in business education going forward.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? Joaquin Mirenna. I met him in my learning team during my first year at Anderson. From day one, I knew he was someone special. He’s one of the hardest workers I’ve ever met, but what really sets him apart is his efficiency. He gets things done faster and better than anyone I know, and I’ve often found myself wishing I could work as effectively as he does.

Our bond grew even stronger when we went through the Tech ACT coaching experience together. I think we made each other better partners: I provided structure, and he made sure our ACTees felt a sense of belonging. No matter how stressful things got, Joaquin had a way of making everything feel manageable. And it wasn’t just ACT. Throughout my AnderTech presidency, he supported me in ways I never had to ask for. It just came naturally to him.

But what truly makes Joaquin stand out is his positivity and generosity. For him, the sun is always shining, and he brings that energy into everything he does. He’s always there to help, to encourage, and to lift people up. To me, he embodies everything Anderson is about, and I feel incredibly lucky to call him a friend.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list?

1. I’ve always been an AvGeek at heart. While my career is currently focused on AI & consumer technology, I would love to find a way to merge my passion for aviation with my expertise building products in tech. Whether that means working on next-generation in-flight experiences, improving airport technology, or something entirely new, I know that at some point in the future I’ll find a way to bring these two worlds together.

2. I want to write a book or screenplay and sell it to Hollywood. Storytelling has always been something I’ve been drawn to, and spending two years in LA has only fueled that ambition.

What made Sebastian Esselens such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2025?

“Beyond his personal career achievements, Sebastian has been an exceptional leader and invaluable partner to the Parker Career Management Center. As President of AnderTech, he came into his role with a clear vision, setting strategic goals early to ensure students were well-prepared given the increasingly accelerated tech recruiting timeline. He was instrumental in expanding resources and support for students, differentiating the tech recruiting process, and broadening the scope of career paths available. One of his most significant contributions was the creation of the first-ever “Tech Playbook,” a comprehensive guide for AnderTech members that outlined the tech recruiting process and provided structured guidance to help students succeed. This initiative has had a lasting impact, offering a vital resource for future classes navigating tech recruiting. I also observed how his direct and firm but approachable communication and leadership style garnered much respect from his fellow board members. Lastly, he was always open to feedback and approached the club’s partnership with our office with a positive and constructive mindset.

In addition, Sebastian also served as a Tech Coach for Parker’s Anderson Career Team (ACT) program, where he co-led a group of first-year students in navigating their recruiting journey in Tech industry. He has also made meaningful contributions to the broader Anderson community, dedicating his time to various volunteer initiatives across career services, admissions, and international programming. He is an incredible, thoughtful, and principled leader who embodies the essence of a transformative leader at Anderson. His commitment to supporting his peers and enhancing the Anderson experience has left a lasting legacy, and we are confident that he will continue to make an impact in his future endeavors.”

Mef Shebi – Director of Career Advising
Phil Han – Assistant Dean
Parker Career Management Center
UCLA Anderson School of Management

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