Jorge Arechavaleta Zambrano

University of Texas at Austin, McCombs School of Business

“Blending purpose and profit to shape spaces where people truly want to live.”

Hometown: Monterrey, Nuevo León, México

Fun Fact About Yourself: I create storytelling content about cities and urban design on Instagram and TikTok, reaching thousands of followers who share my interest in how we shape the places we live.

Undergraduate School and Major: Instituto Tecnologico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Law Degree

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Aceleradora de Ciudades, Government Consultant

What makes Austin such a great place to earn an MBA? Austin is the perfect place to earn an MBA because it’s a living example of growth, innovation, and experimentation. It’s a city where ideas scale fast, whether in tech, real estate, or sustainability, and you can see the challenges and opportunities of urban growth unfolding in real time.

For me, that’s what makes the experience unique. You don’t just study markets or organizations in theory; you live in a city that’s constantly redefining both. Austin’s mix of entrepreneurial energy, creative culture, and community-minded values reflects exactly the kind of leadership I want to develop, one that is practical, forward-thinking, and deeply connected to its people.

Aside from your classmates and location, what was the key part of Texas McCombs’ MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? What drew me most to Texas McCombs was its practicality. There is no illusion about what an MBA is meant to do here. The program is designed to prepare you for the real world, to help you build the skills, network, and perspective to succeed in it. What I value is that McCombs does not romanticize change; it focuses on competence first. It is about learning how business actually works before trying to reinvent it. That honesty and focus on real outcomes is what made the program stand out to me.

What course, club or activity excites you the most at Texas McCombs? What excites me most is the Real Estate Center at McCombs and the ecosystem that surrounds it. The combination of specialized courses, hands-on competitions, and direct access to industry professionals creates an environment where you do not just study real estate, you actively practice it. I am particularly interested in courses like Real Estate Investment and Real Estate Finance, which will strengthen my analytical and financial foundations. I’m also looking forward to opportunities to apply that knowledge through case competitions and projects with local developers and REITs. McCombs offers the perfect mix of academic rigor and real-world exposure to understand how capital, design, and community intersect in today’s built environment.

When you think of the University of Texas, what word comes to mind? Why? The word that comes to mind is execution. The University of Texas has a culture of getting things done. It is not just about ideas or ambition, but about taking real action, building something tangible, and making progress even when it is hard. That sense of determination and practicality is what drew me here; it is exactly the mindset I want to carry into my career.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: My biggest accomplishment has been the opportunity to work with mayors from cities across Mexico to improve their public spaces and make city life better for their residents. Through these collaborations, I’ve helped local governments design and implement projects that made streets safer, parks more accessible, and communities more connected. Seeing how small urban interventions could restore pride and quality of life in entire neighborhoods has been the most meaningful and impactful part of my career so far.

Looking ahead two years, what would make your MBA experience at McCombs successful? Two years from now, success for me would mean having developed the financial, managerial, and quantitative skills to lead real estate projects that create both economic and social value. I want to work on developments that strengthen communities, projects that are profitable but also become part of the fabric of a neighborhood, improving life not only for those who live there but for everyone who interacts with and surrounds it. If my time at McCombs gives me the tools to turn that vision into a sustainable business reality, I will consider it a success.

DON’T MISS: MEET THE TEXAS MCCOMBS 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.