Hugo Wehe Ramirez

Columbia Business School

“A creative mind and grounded soul seeking purpose, connection, and adventure.”

Hometown: Queens, New York

Fun Fact About Yourself: I associate produced a short documentary that premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in June 2025.

Undergraduate School and Major: Columbia College, Columbia University with a B.A. in Psychology and Linguistics

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Special Assistant to the President and CEO, 5000 Broadway Productions

What makes New York City such a great place to earn an MBA? I may be a bit biased as a native New Yorker, but the city truly is a melting pot of all cultures, backgrounds, and industries. There’s never a shortage of new things to try, new people to meet, and new places to go. That abundance of opportunity enriches and informs the classroom experience.

Aside from your classmates and location, what was the key part of Columbia Business School’s MBA curriculum programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? Coming from a “non-traditional” background, I gravitated heavily toward the first semester’s core curriculum. My professional experience prior to CBS didn’t expose me to things like valuation, accounting, or marketing, so I never considered exploring – intellectually or professionally – roles in those capacities until now that I’m offered the opportunity to learn more about them.

What course, club or activity excites you the most at Columbia Business School? I’m most excited to join the Gourmet Club, where students, alumni and members of the local community connect through a shared passion for food. Growing up in a Hispanic household, sharing or having food together was central to our identity and bond with one another, and the value of sharing a meal with new friends or people I consider family is something I cherish and carry with me everywhere I go.

What is your unique quality that will enable you to make a big contribution to the Class of 2027? Why? If there’s one skill I’ve homed in my professional experience, it’s the ability to act as a unifier and help build coalitions. I love meeting new people and connecting them with others.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: My career so far is characterized by a medley of entertainment, philanthropy, and advocacy work. To that extent, I am most proud of the work I’ve helped support philanthropically, such as overseeing community engagement events surrounding the 2021 releases of Encanto, Vivo and Tick, Tick, Boom!, which allowed for thousands of Washington Heights residents the ability to see screenings for free.

What do you hope to do after graduation? I hope to either be furthering my career as a documentary producer or working in a content strategy and development role at a major production studio.

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into Columbia Business School’s MBA program? Give yourself the permission to allot plenty of time for every step of the application preparation process. Every part of the application deserves thoughtful and intentional consideration because CBS wants to help you succeed and achieve your goals. You should take the time to really reflect on the journey you’ve had up until now, where you want to go in your life, what you want to get out of business school and why CBS specifically is the place where you think you can bridge that gap.

DON’T MISS: MEET COLUMBIA BUSINESS SCHOOL’S MBA CLASS OF 2027

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