Nathaniel Fernandes

“Representing the UK in Seattle – I love cooking, playing electric guitar, and DJing too!”

Hometown: Reading, England, UK

Fun Fact About Yourself: I once played guitar on stage at a charity concert, to an audience of 600 people, including 80s popstar Rick Astley. I’ve lived in 3 countries, and they all start with ‘United’! (UK, UAE, USA).

Undergraduate School and Major: University of Southampton, England, UK, Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Siemens, Systems Engineer

What makes Seattle such a great place to earn an MBA?

I was drawn to Seattle initially by its reputation as the home of global technology leaders Amazon and Microsoft, alongside Boeing, Costco, Starbucks, and Expedia, who have put the city on the map for innovation and enterprise. After arriving here in August 2025, visiting the striking natural landscapes of Mount Rainier and Olympic National Parks, and learning about the birth of music legends such as Nirvana and Jimi Hendrix, I realized that the city offers a uniquely enriching environment that extends well beyond the classroom.

Foster’s MBA program offers opportunities to not just visit the iconic cornerstone American firms that call Seattle home, but to be mentored by their experts and work with them on applied strategy projects, solving real business problems, and gaining real-world experience.

Aside from your location and classmates, what was the one key part of Washington Foster’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you?

The small class size was a strong factor in my decision to join Foster, as I have always felt the strongest sense of belonging in communities where I have the chance to get to connect with everyone. Foster’s class is close to 100 people, which has allowed me to easily build rapport with members of new teams each quarter (since I’ve likely spent time with them in some way since starting the program), enabling me to form lasting friendships with my classmates.

What course, club or activity have you enjoyed the most so far at Washington Foster?

I’ve really enjoyed being part of the MBA Huddle society for sports enthusiasts. Being from the U.K., I had no prior exposure to many American sports and I’ve really enjoyed attending every event and learning about the culture surrounding them, which has been an amazing way to meet new people in the business school but to also support the University of Washington Huskies and see them play in our jaw-droppingly huge stadium, and form some school pride outside of just academia! Go Dawgs!

Some other memorable society events include the annual “Sail-Gate” boat party, in which I performed a DJ set, as well as our après on the ski trip to Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, which was a much-needed vacation following the end of our first quarter.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far:

My biggest accomplishment was when I was chosen to lead a project funded by the UK Government to develop a new form of events lighting technology, which featured in 20 visually spectacular lightshow events at the most iconic UK national parks, and on national television.

The technology, called Geolights, was part of the nationwide Unboxed Festival, celebrating science, technology, and innovation. It was my first major leadership position and involved overseeing a 2-year, high-budget R&D project with cross-functional stakeholders from industries such as creative arts, electronics manufacturing, and wireless network infrastructure.

The project wasn’t without challenges, namely around the limitations of the technology at the time, COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, and their implications for the component supply chain, but it was a success overall and was attended by over 20,000 people throughout all the events. The project’s successful outcome significantly increased my confidence and was one of the main driving factors behind my decision to pursue an MBA.

Describe your biggest achievement in the MBA program so far:

Running for an academic representative position as Section Rep, which involved submitting a statement of purpose, delivering a short speech to my cohort, and receiving the news the next day that I had won. This was my first time being elected to a role, and over the last few months I have really enjoyed the experience of serving my class alongside Taylor, the other section rep, as the people that our classmates can rely on to represent them, listen to their feedback and present it to our program director and professors to bring about change and continuously improve the program.

What has been your best memory as an MBA so far?

At the end of Autumn Quarter, our whole cohort took part in an Integrated Case Competition, where 19 teams of 6 competed against each other to deliver the best pitch, choosing an acquiring company to convince the Yelp board to sell to. There were 2 rounds, the first was to a small audience of judges, and the second was for the final 4 teams to present to our whole cohort and a guest judge from Microsoft.

In the week leading up to the presentation, we really bonded as a team and had a lot of fun working on our project idea (selling Yelp to Airbnb) but didn’t expect to make it past the first round after our presentation. When we got the news later that evening that we were in the finals, it was a huge surprise, but we gave it our best shot the next day and won 3rd place. Debriefing after the final and reflecting on how far we came as a team in just 10 weeks has been the best memory as an MBA so far, and one that I will remember fondly for the rest of my life.

DON’T MISS MEET THE WASHINGTON FOSTER MBA CLASS OF 2027

© Copyright 2026 Poets & Quants. All rights reserved. This article may not be republished, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written permission. To reprint or license this article or any content from Poets & Quants, please submit your request HERE.