Sam Fortuño

University of Virginia, Darden School of Business

“Compassionate leader motivated to find common ground and build enduring solutions.”

Hometown: Dorado, Puerto Rico

Fun Fact About Yourself: Twelve-year-old me washed an endless stream of espresso cups at the World Barista Championships in London in 2010. It sparked a lifelong love for the food and beverage world. 

Undergraduate School and Major: Princeton University, Politics

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Fannie Mae, Multifamily Operations Associate

What makes the case method so attractive as a means to learn and become a better manager?

In class, our goal is to have a single conversation. When you walk into the room you have no idea where that conversation will start and how you’ll eventually arrive at a managerial decision. Some of our cases will lead with an introduction followed by an initial vote on what the protagonist’s decision should be. As the discussion continues, you may be presented with new information by a peer who has firsthand experience in the field, or the professor may incorporate a new data point to consider. It encourages you to be a responsive manager, and not just a champion of a viewpoint. You must weigh the new qualitative and quantitative information against your preconceived understanding of the case and not be afraid to change your mind. Sometimes, a single anecdote told by the person sitting next to you can influence the way everyone sees the case and flip the vote.

Aside from cases and classmates, what was the key part of Virginia Darden’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? Student Run Clubs. There is a lot of trust placed in students at Darden and that’s really evident with the club culture. Clubs are student-run and play a crucial role both in preparing students for career opportunities as well as building community. Before the first week of school, the second years of the Darden Outdoors Club organized a camping trip for us all to get to know each other before academics and recruiting picked up in intensity. It was a great opportunity to meet people across sections in a completely unique environment. Various clubs organize similar events throughout the year to help build relationships outside the classroom.

Students also have great flexibility over the direction and programming of clubs. At the Club Fair, I met a second year from the Entertainment, Media and Sports Club who was passionate about the space and growing the membership and activity level of the club. There was a lot of activity around the table from people who had interest in the space and were grateful to find others with whom to chart a path forward. There is room to create that structure and make people aware of career outcomes they hadn’t seriously considered.

What course, club, or activity excites you the most at Virginia Darden? The Darden Cup. During my first week at Darden, I was curious about why we kept being broken up into different groups like our sections, learning teams, and launch week pods. As time went on, it became clear that Darden is focused on what can be accomplished as a collective, and it takes practice to understand how to best individually contribute. We are with our sections (groups of roughly 70) for the first year, doing everything from analyzing cost allocation pools to deliberating on a hiring decision. Throughout the course of the year, the sections compete in a series of events such as Lawn Games, Trivia, and the Ultimate Relay Race where in the end Section B (Go Birds!) will inevitably be named champion. Not only is it a great time, but it really brings your section together (professors included) and helps build relationships in a way that directly translates back to the classroom. The next time you get up to speak in front of your peers, you might be more willing to take a risk or disagree with one of your peers because you have built that level of comfort with each other. We are still very new to Darden but are already seeing the benefits of the Darden Cup.

Looking at your recruitment, what was the moment when you realized Darden was the right program for you? Why? I lived in DC before moving to Charlottesville and was fortunate to have visited campus a few times. I remember driving home on one of those occasions and feeling a strong sense of peace with my decision to attend Darden. First of all, Charlottesville is a magical place with friendly and interesting people surrounded by jaw-dropping scenery. At Darden, I felt that ambition was encouraged and supported but still grounded in reality. The faculty is here to challenge you, but not without giving you the tools to succeed. The students will support you as friends and push you to be the best version of yourself as peers. Darden felt like a place I really wanted to call home.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Before Fannie Mae, I worked on the institutional Operations team at a digital asset lender. I joined at a period of rapid growth in the institutional space and the Operations team had to quickly adapt to the changes of scale and demand for products. I drove the institutional interest collection process, an important project for the company. Together with our teammates in Singapore, we scaled the process from a simple tracker to a fully automated analysis and client communication tool. I was proud of our efforts to drive continual improvement in support of our clients.

What is your unique quality that will enable you to make a big contribution to the Class of 2026? Why? I was born and raised in Puerto Rico with a local dad and a mom from upstate New York. Growing up on an island made me very curious about what was out in the world, and I try to carry that curiosity with me and learn as much as I can about my classmates and their cultures. Darden is truly a global school. There are so many great people here from all over the world and I look forward to building lifelong relationships.  

 What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into Virginia Darden’s MBA program? Take the time to get to know the Darden community. The students, staff and faculty are incredibly approachable and love to discuss their experiences. Find out why students chose Darden and why faculty and staff come back year-after-year. Darden’s success as a collective can be attributed to the buy-in of each individual. Darden really likes to see a high level of engagement throughout the application process because it helps students get to know Darden beyond the website and the pamphlet. Every business school is different, so go to as many coffee chats or virtual events as you can and try to get a sense of what community you’d like to be a part of. Finally, at these events, don’t feel pressured to present yourself as what you’d imagine a “typical business school candidate” looks like. While the experiences you bring with you may seem unrelated, they are a crucial part of the learning experience for you and your peers.

DON’T MISS: MEET VIRGINIA DARDEN’S MBA CLASS OF 2026