Lorenzo Montanari

Brigham Young University, Marriott School of Business

“Resilient global leader, husband, and father building technology-driven organizations that elevate people and create lasting impact.”

Hometown: Brescia, Italy

Fun fact about yourself: At age 20, I was temporarily paralyzed by Guillain-Barré syndrome and had to relearn how to walk. That experience profoundly shaped how I think about resilience, gratitude, and leadership.

Undergraduate School and Degree:
Bachelor’s Degree in Business & Economics — Università degli Studi di Brescia (Italy)

First Level International Master’s in Marketing Management, Omnichannel & Consumer Analytics — Politecnico di Milano (Italy)

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school? Microsoft — Enterprise Microsoft 365 Copilot Specialist

Where did you intern during the summer of 2025? Google — Strategy & Operations Intern, San Francisco, California

Where will you be working after graduation? Google — Strategy & Operations Senior Associate

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School:

Leadership:
Executive Vice President — MBA Marketing Association
Vice President & Consultant — Kaizen MBA Internal Consulting
Consultant — BYU Marketing Lab
Teaching Assistant — MBA Career Services
International Mentor — BYU Marriott MBA Program
Marketing Mentor — BYU Marriott MBA Program
MBA Recruitment Representative

Awards & Recognition:
Eccles Scholar Award Recipient
Presidential Scholarship Recipient
Director’s Award Recipient
Top Marketer Case Competition — 2nd Place

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? The achievement I am most proud of during my MBA is helping lead a Kaizen strategy consulting project to build the first structured international recruiting infrastructure for BYU Marriott students.

As an international student from Italy, I did not experience recruiting as a simple, linear process. I experienced the uncertainty that comes with visa questions, limited employer familiarity with international hiring, and the feeling that there is rarely a clear map for international students. That is why this project felt personal from the beginning. I was not just solving an institutional problem; I was helping build the kind of resource I wish had existed when I first started navigating recruiting myself.

Together with my teammates, Anela and Alessio, I partnered with the BYU Marriott Business Career Center and Global Business Center to design something that could outlast our cohort. We developed 16 country-level recruiting playbooks, mapped more than 100 alumni, and helped organize a broader alumni repository of more than 3,000 contacts that can eventually support students across BYU Marriott. Before this work, international recruiting support was fragmented and largely informal. We wanted to leave behind something more durable, practical, and scalable.

What makes me especially proud is that this project removes barriers for students who come after us. For me, the most meaningful leadership is not the kind that draws attention to itself, but the kind that creates clarity, access, and opportunity for others. This project allowed me to take one of the hardest parts of my own journey and turn it into something that can make someone else’s path a little less uncertain.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? One of the professional achievements I am most proud of was my work at Microsoft, where I served as a Microsoft 365 Copilot Specialist for the Italian enterprise market and contributed to $5 million in net-new revenue during the early wave of enterprise generative AI adoption.

What made that experience so meaningful was that I had a front-row seat to a major transformation in how organizations think about work. Many leaders were hearing bold promises about AI, but they still needed someone who could make those promises tangible for their business. My role was to bridge that gap. I worked with some of Italy’s leading enterprise clients, especially in fashion and luxury, and helped drive 90% license utilization while accelerating adoption through more than 20 tailored training and enablement sessions. As a result, user engagement increased by 25% and adoption speed improved by 40%.

What stayed with me the most, however, is that the hardest part was rarely the technology itself. It was building alignment and trust. Clients were not just evaluating software; they were trying to understand how a new technology would influence how people worked, made decisions, and embraced change. To help make that transition possible, I coordinated closely with sellers, change managers, partners, and distributors. In the process, I helped reach 30 new customers; and improved cross-functional efficiency by 30%. Being recognized internally as an excellent cross-team collaborator meant a great deal to me because it affirmed not only the results I helped deliver, but also the way I approached the work: pragmatically, collaboratively, and with people at the center.

I am proud of that experience because it taught me that innovation matters only when people are ready to use it. It continues to shape how I lead today: Start by listening, build trust, and help people move toward change in a way that feels practical, clear, and empowering.

Why did you choose this business school? I chose the BYU Marriott MBA program because I wanted a business education that would stretch both my professional ambitions and my character.
By the time I applied, I had already lived and worked across different countries and had built a career in enterprise technology. I knew an MBA could open doors, but I did not want a program that only sharpened my résumé. I wanted a place that would shape the kind of leader and person I would become.

That is what made BYU Marriott stand out to me. Its vision of using business as a force for good and its emphasis on Christlike leadership felt deeply aligned with who I wanted to be. I was drawn to a community where integrity, humility, service, and excellence were not slogans, but expectations.

Looking back, that is exactly what I found here. BYU Marriott has challenged me to grow professionally while also reminding me that leadership is ultimately about how we treat people and how we elevate them. That combination is the main reason this school mattered so much to me.

Who was your favorite MBA professor? One of the most impactful professors during my MBA experience was Dan Snow, the MBA Program Director and Operations Management Professor.
Professor Snow has a rare ability to combine academic rigor with genuine belief in his students. His classes were intellectually demanding but they were also deeply motivating because he constantly challenged us to think more clearly, work more deliberately, and rise to a higher standard.

What made his teaching especially influential for me was the framework he gave us for approaching complexity. He taught me that even the biggest and most intimidating problems can be broken down into smaller parts, examined carefully, and solved step-by-step. That lesson stayed with me far beyond the classroom. It changed the way I think about leadership, decision-making, and even life itself. When something feels overwhelming, I now look for the structure inside it.

Professor Snow reinforced a lesson I will carry with me for a long time: Strong leaders do not simply make good decisions; they build systems, clarity, and confidence for the people around them.

What was your favorite course as an MBA? My favorite course during the MBA was Power, Influence & Negotiation with Professor Kristen DeTienne.

Before taking the class, I tended to think of negotiation as a process of claiming value. The course challenged that assumption. Through simulations and case exercises, we were often placed in situations where disagreement was built into the problem. That forced me to move beyond surface positions and understand the interests, fears, and motivations underneath them.

What I loved most about the course was that it made tension productive. It taught me that strong negotiators are not the loudest people in the room; they are the ones who prepare deeply, stay curious, listen carefully, and keep searching for a solution even when the starting positions feel far apart.

That perspective has shaped how I approach leadership and decision-making today. Whether I am working through conflict, building alignment, or helping a team move forward, I now see negotiation less as winning an argument and more as creating the conditions for a better outcome.

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? One of my favorite BYU Marriott traditions is Talkapalooza, a student-led event where classmates share personal stories in a TED-style format.

What made Talkapalooza so meaningful to me is that it reminded me that business school is full of people whose lives did not begin when they arrived on campus. In a high-performing environment, it is easy to know people by their internships, titles, and achievements. Talkapalooza changed that for me. It gave me the chance to see behind the polished résumé and better understand the adversity, faith, family, identity, insecurities, and growth that shaped my classmates long before we sat in the same classroom.

There is something powerful about being in one room together and realizing that, for a brief moment, all of our different storylines have met in the same place. We all came from somewhere different. We are all in different seasons of life, and we will all go on to very different futures. Talkapalooza made me appreciate that more deeply.

To me, the event reflects one of the defining strengths of the BYU MBA community: We care about excellence, but we also care deeply about people.

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why?
At the beginning of the program, Director Dan Snow shared a piece of advice that stayed with me: The best way to experience the MBA is to get as involved as possible.

I followed that advice and said “yes” to leadership roles, consulting work, mentoring opportunities, and recruiting initiatives—often before knowing if I was fully prepared. Those experiences stretched me, accelerated my growth, and became some of the most meaningful parts of my MBA.

If I could change one thing, it would simply be to pause more often and appreciate the experience while it was happening. I was so focused on doing, building, and contributing that I did not always stop to fully take in how special those moments were. The two years passed incredibly quickly. Looking back, I would have made more space to reflect, celebrate, and be fully present in a season of life that has meant so much to me.

What was the most impactful case study you had in business school and what was the biggest lesson you learned from it? One of the most impactful case studies for me was the Toyota Production System.

At first glance, the case focuses on operational efficiency and manufacturing design, but the deeper lesson is about leadership philosophy.

Toyota’s system is built on two principles: continuous improvement and respect for people. Rather than relying solely on top-down control, the system empowers every employee to identify problems and improve processes.

The most powerful insight I took from the case is that sustainable excellence rarely comes from one breakthrough idea. Instead, it emerges from thousands of small improvements made consistently over time.

That perspective has shaped how I think about leadership. The role of a leader is not simply to define strategy, but to build systems and cultures that allow people to continuously improve it.

What did you love most about your business school’s town? What I loved most about Provo was the proximity to the mountains.

As someone who loves skiing, being outdoors, and finding perspective in nature, having the Wasatch Range just minutes away gave my MBA experience a kind of balance I did not fully appreciate until I lived it. Some of my favorite moments in Provo were not in a classroom, but outside with classmates, recharging, reflecting, and building friendships in the middle of such an intense and demanding season.
There is something grounding about being close to mountains. Whenever life feels busy or overwhelming, the mountains remind me of how small I am in the best possible way. Provo gave me not only a great MBA experience but also a place that helped me stay centered throughout it.

What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What insights did you gain from using AI? AI has been integrated into several courses at BYU Marriott through projects that encouraged us to use it as a strategic thinking tool rather than simply an automation tool.

In consulting and analytics assignments, we used AI to synthesize information, explore market insights, and pressure-test strategic ideas.

The biggest lesson I learned is that AI becomes most powerful when paired with human judgment. While it can generate options quickly, it still requires thoughtful interpretation and responsible decision-making.

Given my background in enterprise technology, this reinforced an important insight: The leaders of the future will not necessarily be those who know the most, but those who know how to ask better questions.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? One MBA classmate I deeply admire is Alessio Giolitto.

Alessio represents a style of leadership that is quiet but profoundly impactful. Much of what he does happens behind the scenes, yet the positive influence he has on the community is unmistakable.

As Culture Vice President within the MBA Association, he helped organize initiatives, such as Talkapalooza, that strengthened connection and belonging within the program.

More importantly, he consistently supports others—whether helping classmates prepare for recruiting, offering thoughtful advice, or simply making time when someone needs support.

Alessio reminds me that leadership is not always about visibility. Often the most powerful leaders are the ones who quietly make everyone around them better.

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

1. Lead strategy for a global technology organization and help shape how companies use technology to improve how people work.

2. Build or acquire a business of my own where I can combine entrepreneurship, leadership, and community impact.

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

“Lorenzo Montanari is one of the most exceptional MBA students I have worked with in my career. He combines rare intellectual rigor with deep humility and a genuine commitment to serving others. Lorenzo is not only analytically sharp and strategically sophisticated but also consistently generous with his time, insight, and energy. What distinguishes him most is not simply how smart he is, but how he elevates those around him. He has an unusual ability to bring out the best in peers, strengthen teams and raise performance without ego or self-promotion. I have personally learned from his example.

As a leader in the BYU MBA Marketing Association, which I advise, Lorenzo has demonstrated mature, principled leadership. He leads with service, clarity, and quiet confidence. His influence is visible not only in outcomes, but in culture—he builds environments where others feel capable, valued, and motivated to contribute at a higher level. Lorenzo is truly distinctive. It has been an honor to teach him and to watch him develop as a leader. He represents the very best of what an MBA program hopes to cultivate.”

John Howell
Association Professor of Marketing

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