Gonzalo Vásquez Neyra

University of California-Berkeley, Haas School of Business

“Builder of products and communities, leading without attitude and a beyond yourself mindset.”

Hometown: Lima, Perú

Fun fact about yourself: At 15, I was scouted while playing soccer on a beach in Lima and spent three years competing professionally with Club de Regatas Lima, one of Perú’s most prestigious sports clubs, facing off against U-18 squads from Perú’s first division.

Undergraduate School and Degree: Universidad del Pacífico (Lima, Perú), Licentiatura in Economics

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school? Senior Product Manager at Rappi (LatAm’s leading food/CPG delivery tech company), working on the advertising B2B space.

Where did you intern during the summer of 2025? I was a Fintech PM with Intuit in their Mountain View office. I defined the product strategy for “one-click” activation in merchant onboarding and executed on Intuit’s first vendor-powered onboarding prefill MVP.

Where will you be working after graduation? Undecided. I’m pursuing product management roles at tech/AI companies, while continuing to build Goplai, my AI-powered sports tech startup.

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School:

• Co-president, Haas Tech Club; Organizer of the largest Tech & AI Summit at Haas
• Peer Advisor; Support 100+ students pursuing product management roles
• Dean’s Speaker Series Board Member; Responsibilities included interviewing Aravind Srinivas (CEO, Perplexity AI)
• VP of Conference, Latin American and Hispanic Business Association (LAHBA); Revived the LatAm Business Forum 2026
• Founder of Goplai; Haas Seed Fund Recipient; Participant in Lean Launchpad and eHub Build
• International Student Representative for the LatAm community

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? When I co-led the Haas Tech Club, my first instinct was to make it more social. Instead of traditional lecture-style programming, we prioritized interactive, builder-focused dialogue around AI and product. That philosophy eventually led us to make a bold call: partner with the AI Club and run a two-day joint summit for the first time in UC Berkeley Haas history. Two clubs, two leadership teams, double the logistics. It worked. Three hundred people showed up across 12+ panels and keynotes. But what I’m most proud of isn’t the head count; it’s that we turned a club that people had stopped showing up to into one they actually wanted to be part of.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? The achievement I’m most proud of is the decision to pivot into product and prove to myself that I could build. I studied economics with no engineering background, but chose to step into high-velocity tech environments where outcomes mattered more than credentials. At Rappi, I joined an early Ads team operating under real ambiguity and helped scale Rappi Ads nearly 10x in monthly revenue within a year. Somewhere along the way, I stopped asking whether I belonged in tech. I just knew.

What stayed with me wasn’t the number, but the confidence that came from building something real and measurable. That experience clarified the kind of problems I want to solve and the environments where I thrive: fast-paced, execution-driven teams where performance speaks louder than titles. That conviction is what I carried into Haas.

Why did you choose this business school? I chose UC Berkeley Haas because this is where the actual builders are: hands-on leaders who are curious and humble enough to learn every day yet do extraordinary things. The UC Berkeley ecosystem and Bay Area access made it the obvious place, but what made it real was Days at Haas. Second-year students hosted me and immediately invited me into their plans. Amy Bartel from Admissions, whom I had first met in Perú, greeted me by name the moment I arrived. In that instant, I understood Haas doesn’t just admit students; it genuinely cares about them. That feeling of belonging has proven right every day since.

What was your favorite course as an MBA? Lean LaunchPad, without a doubt. Speaking with over 150 customers, forming a team, and pitching a real startup idea made it the most hands-on experience of my MBA. Our mentor was Erik Blachford, Expedia’s first CEO. And Ralph Guggenheim, one of the producers of Toy Story — my favorite movie as a kid — taught us about storytelling and reviewed our pitches. I didn’t expect to learn how Pixar thinks about narrative in a business school class. That’s Haas.

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? Story Salon. It created a rare, safe space where classmates shared deeply personal stories, reflecting Haas’ emphasis on vulnerability, trust, and leading as a whole person and not just a professional. What was shared in the room stayed in the room and was deeply respected by everyone.

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? If I could do something differently, I would have been more deliberate about choosing fewer arenas to lead in. At UC Berkeley Haas, I naturally stepped into roles whenever I saw an unmet need – spanning clubs, conferences, and advising structures – because I genuinely care about building systems that elevate others. I’m proud of the impact my work had on hundreds of classmates. However, I’ve learned over time that leadership isn’t just about stepping up, it’s about having clarity on where to direct my bias to action.

What was the most impactful case study you had in business school and what was the biggest lesson you learned from it? The Dell and IBM case from Professor Ned Augenblick’s Strategy course reframed how I think about building companies. Dell didn’t win by being better than IBM across the board. It won by identifying a small, underserved segment of knowledgeable corporate buyers who didn’t need hand-holding, then building an entirely different value chain designed specifically for them. I learned that the internally coherent strategy, the one with a deep fit between what you offer and who you serve, is almost always more durable than the broad one.

What business leader do you admire most? (and why?) Simon Borrero, CEO & Co-Founder of Rappi. I worked with him at Rappi and watched firsthand how the company he built didn’t just become Latin America’s second unicorn, it created an entire generation of founders. The “Rappi mafia” has seeded dozens of startups across the region, proving that one bold company can reshape an ecosystem’s ambitions. What I admire most is that he made entrepreneurship feel possible and normal in a region where it wasn’t. That’s the kind of builder I want to be: not just someone who creates a successful product, but someone whose work expands what others believe is achievable.

What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What insights did you gain from using AI? Haas wove AI into coursework in ways that forced me to actually build, not just theorize. In Managing the New Product Development Process with Professional Faculty Member Vince Law, I used AI to generate synthetic customer personas and prototype with Lovable, compressing weeks of discovery into days. Courses like Harnessing AI for Business Success & SQL Programming with Professional Faculty Member Roopesh Varier and Intro to Coding with Joe Wadcan of the professional faculty made me technically fluent in ways I didn’t expect as an MBA. Professional Faculty Member Gregory LaBlanc’s AI Strategy course connected the dots between GenAI applications and real business model decisions. Haas also just launched its AI for Business Certificate, spanning technology, management, strategy, and impact, which I’m pursuing as one of its first cohorts.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? Reynaldo Yruegas. I lived with Rey for a year, seeing his character up close every single day, and he never wavered. He shows up as a student the way few people do: curious, prepared, hand always raised, and ideas always ready. Our conversations ranged from the future of work to the shifting dynamics of tech, and watching those same ideas come to life when he led the Digital Media and Entertainment Club or stepped up to lead discussions at the Dean’s Speaker Series Board, confirmed what I already suspected. When Haasies needed a place to land in Mexico, he opened his own home. It’s just who Rey is, a quiet, principled example of Beyond Yourself.

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

1. Build and scale a product from zero to global impact. I want to demonstrate that disciplined execution and principled leadership can scale globally. Goplai is where that starts, and becoming a founder is as much a part of the goal for me as the product itself.

2. Bridge Latin America and Silicon Valley through entrepreneurship. There is no shortage of talent or grit in Perú. I grew up watching people build extraordinary things with almost nothing. What’s often missing is access: the right information, the right connections, and the belief that it’s actually possible. I want to work with government and private sector partners to bring mentorship and funding from world-class operators to the next generation of LatAm founders.

What made Gonzalo such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2026?

“As director of the Full-time MBA Program at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, I work closely with the student leaders who shape each class. Gonzalo Vásquez is one of the most consequential leaders in the Class of 2026. As the class prepares to graduate this May, it is clear that it is stronger, more connected, and better supported because of him.

What makes Gonzalo invaluable is not just what he does, but what he builds. He consistently focuses on systems that serve hundreds of classmates rather than short-term wins. He leads with confidence and humility, pairing a founder’s mindset with disciplined execution. That combination has made him a trusted partner across students, faculty, and administration.

As co-leader of the Haas Tech Club, Gonzalo organized the largest Tech and AI Summit in Haas history, championing a hands-on, builder-oriented approach that moved students from theory to application. On the Dean’s Speaker Series Board, he represented Haas in high-visibility external engagements, including interviewing Aravind Srinivas, co-founder and CEO of Perplexity AI, representing the school with credibility and poise.

His most meaningful impact has been on his peers. Gonzalo has advised more than 100 students pursuing product management roles, with particular dedication to international students and career switchers navigating complex recruiting processes. He built a comprehensive Notion-based recruiting system now used by both the Class of 2026 and Class of 2027. Gonzalo also strengthens belonging. As one of only two Peruvians in the full-time MBA class, he has taken seriously the responsibility of representation: He revived the LatAm Business Forum, creating renewed energy and engagement within the community, hosted a Perú Culture Capsule, and organized a fall break Perú trek, bringing leadership opportunities as international student representative for the LatAm community.

Gonzalo is not simply participating in the Class of 2026; he is shaping it. As they approach graduation, his impact is visible in the systems, culture, and support structures that will endure beyond this May. For these reasons, he is an invaluable addition to the class, and I recommend him with full confidence.”

Sumayyah Alsabri
M.S.Ed, Director, Full-time MBA Program
Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley

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