Mauricio Barrios

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania & The Lauder Institute

“Rigorous yet adaptable learner who values thoughtful solutions, structure, and good company.”

Hometown: Lima, Peru

Fun Fact About Yourself: I am a bit of a pop neuroscience geek. I like understanding the brain chemistry behind why we like what we like, right down to why I crave a good espresso.

Undergraduate School and Major: Universidad del Pacifico, Finance

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: International Finance Corporation, Investment Analyst

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of the Wharton School’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? The Lauder Institute sealed it for me. I care about finance, but I also wanted to see the bigger picture behind the markets, and to work in more than one language. I am focused on energy, where the politics behind the markets matter as much as the numbers, and Lauder lets me build that while picking up Portuguese along the way. Honestly, no other MBA offered that mix.

What course, club, or activity excites you the most at the Wharton School (and why)? The Wharton Energy Club is the one I am most excited about. The timing could not be more interesting; energy is being reshaped by things like AI-driven demand and the geopolitical shocks of recent conflicts. Figuring out how to diversify the energy mix around all that is a fascinating challenge. Through the club’s conference and speakers, I get to dig into those questions with people who are living them.

When you think of the Wharton School, what is the first word that comes to mind? Why? Relationships. As the world’s first collegiate business school, Wharton brings together an incredibly driven and accomplished crowd, especially strong in its hands-on, analytical approach to real-world business. That is what draws me here.

What makes Philadelphia a great place to earn an MBA? Philadelphia just makes financial sense for two years without a paycheck. It is roughly fifty percent cheaper than New York and about a third less than Boston, so you get all the perks of a major East Coast city without burning through your savings. Plus, it is a two-hour train ride from Wall Street when you need it. And the cheesesteaks are a nice bonus.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: At the IFC, I helped lead our financing of Origo, the firm’s first distributed generation deal in Latin America, a forty-million-dollar facility across twenty-two solar projects. What made it hard was that we were figuring out a brand-new subsector as we went, from the regulation to how you actually recover the debt if a client defaults. What makes me proud is the bigger picture; this kind of on-site solar is how you bring power to places where running the grid just does not make sense, like remote parts of Africa. It felt like working on the future.

What is your biggest passion – and how has it helped you make an impact? Energy is one of my passions. It sits close to the real economy, which makes the work feel useful, and it rewards people who like technical problems. There is huge range in it too, including established utilities working near startups chasing new technology. At the same time, many of the breakthroughs are physical, like the next generation of batteries. Away from energy, I am into specialty coffee and hunting down great cafes, I am a big football fan, the recent World Cup had all of my attention, and I love good standup comedy.

What do you hope to do after graduation (at this point)? I want to work at the intersection of finance and energy.

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into the Wharton School’s MBA program? Remember that admissions are holistic. It is not about having the highest GMAT or the most impressive job; it is about presenting the best version of every part of your profile, the test, the experience, the essays, the interview, the extracurriculars – all of it. And if some of those pieces are not where you want them yet, do not rush it. Take the extra time and apply when you can put your whole story forward.

© 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.