2022 Best & Brightest MBA: Roberto Fiorentino Ferreyros, Babson College (Olin)

Roberto Fiorentino Ferreyros

Babson College, F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business

“I am a persistent, creative, analytical, and loyal person who wants to change the world.”

Hometown: Lima, Peru

Fun fact about yourself: I have 3 nationalities (Peruvian, Ecuadorian, and Italian).

Undergraduate School and Degree: Universidad del Pacifico, Bachelor in Business Administration

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school? General Manager, Datil Technologies (LATAM)

Where did you intern during the summer of 2021? I am in the one-year program, so I did not have the summer internship window. Despite of this, during the fall of 2021 I was involved as a consultant with four different companies (New Majority Capital, Danfoss, Be Bold Foods and Alletess), and since January of 2022 I started an Externship (Meta/ Facebook) and an Internship (Pinkston).

Where will you be working after graduation? I am still evaluating offers to become either COO, Sr. Product Manager or Business Development Consultant in Tech companies based in LATAM.

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School:

– Cohort Rep: Elected by the 2022 peers as the class representative.

– Lewis Institute (Social Entrepreneurship): I worked with a search fund that is focused on helping minorities access funds and have the possibility to buy and manage their own company. I am proud to say that we were a good fit, and I will keep working externally with them after finishing my MBA.

– Participated in the rocket pitch and received excellent reviews in the fast track.

– MCFE project: I worked as a project leader with 5 undergrads. We oversaw doing a valuation for a company and had to be creative because their numbers were hard to process. In the end, we had great results and the customer was very happy with us.

– Soccer Club President.

– Supported the incoming MBA students by being a speaker in introductory talks directed by the Grad School and helped these students in whatever they needed to find housing and start their classes as smoothly as possible

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? This MBA has been an experience that has changed me in a good way. I believe that the most important achievement was being selected to lead the Inventureship program. In this program, one student works with an organization that is having a positive impact on the world. I worked with New Majority Capital, a search fund that is focused on reducing inequalities by helping minorities to access funds, buy, and manage companies. My role was to do research and evaluate how can they improve their go to market strategy and their entrepreneur’s recruitment process (among other interesting tasks).

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? When I was a consultant at ACP Consulting/ Grant Thornton, I was part of the soft-landing and kick-off of more than 100 companies in Peru. Every single review we had was positive and some of these customers even asked me to join their boards, so the achievement I am most proud of is to have been able to positively impact so many people regardless the scope of the project, the industry or the size of the company we worked with.

Why did you choose this business school? Babson College was an easy choice, as I have always had the entrepreneurial mindset. Before making the decision, I read several business reviews and had Zoom meetings with alumni who created their own successful entrepreneurships or exceled working for others. What I learned from this research is that the entrepreneurial mindset can help you create a business or be disruptive inside a well-established company. Babson students think differently. When we approach a problem, we analyze it; we take a step back to understand what the origin of the problem is. We do not jump into a rational solution but rather create at least five impossible to achieve ones and then we get to work. Understanding this before coming to Babson was crucial.

Who was your favorite MBA professor? To be fair, I must choose four:

Keith Rollag: This is the kind of professor who can get you engaged with a 3-hour class. He is charismatic, creative, smart, and totally committed to his students, both inside and outside the classroom. What is more important is that he really cares about leaving a meaningful and lasting impact in our development as young and demanding professionals.

Brigitte Muehlmann: She is one of my role models. After the first accounting classes I had with her, we immediately bonded and became good friends. I have seen different styles among the professors, and the most amazing quality about Brigitte is that to help students learn, she can adapt and evolve into any of those styles. She does not care about giving a grade, but about the students learning meaningful things. She shows her commitment to this with the way she flips the course when people are stuck, our with the amount of office hours (even during the weekends) she gives to be sure that everyone is learning.

Luke Stein: You cannot fake passion, and Luke is a person who maintains the same amount of energy and excitement about teaching regardless of if the class is at 8:00 am or 6:00 pm. He is the type of teacher you see in the movies, a total rockstar that always knows what to do to get the most out of every single student. Beyond being a good teacher, he is a remarkable person.

Lidija Polutnik:  She is the living example that you do not need to stand on a table or raise your voice to get the attention of your audience. During our classes and conversations, she helped me re-connect with the desire to learn new things every single day and to take advantage of the time I have. She has always been open to start a new adventure and to live new experiences.

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? Without any doubt, it’s Founder’s Day. This date celebrates our founder Roger W. Babson, and honors his passion for entrepreneurship, education, and philanthropy. For two days, teachers, alumni, undergrads, and grads play games, connect, and share their stories and experiences about their Babson journeys. At this college we behave as one, and this tradition is a fair image about that: we connect for life.

The Global Entrepreneurial Leadership Forum is also a great opportunity to learn about different cultures and trends from entrepreneurs that are leading change from outstanding companies.

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? I think I took life too seriously. Even though I am an extrovert and outgoing person, during the first months of the program, I was almost entirely focused on my classes. I got a 3.96 GPA during the first semester. After this, I began to be more involved with Grad Clubs and extracurricular activities, which shaped my path and opened my mind to several new experiences. Maybe I could have started the MBA with a different mindset in terms of how to divide my time.

What is the biggest myth about your school? “Babson is a college for people with family businesses or entrepreneurs who want to start their own company”

Even though some people think this way, day-by-day, more companies are realizing the value of having the entrepreneurial mindset inside their organizations as a creative, analytical, and innovative force. I have validated this after the experiences I had with companies during my MBA and after talking with people in both big and small organizations.

What is one thing you did during the application process that gave you an edge at the school you chose? Being curious, which is something that comes natural to me. Since I was a child, I was always trying to gather all the information I could before deciding. With Babson, it wasn’t different. I believe this helped me because by the day I decided to apply I had already talked with at least 10 professors of different programs and institutes within Babson, so faculty and part of the staff already knew me, and I already knew a lot about Babson, which was useful during the interviews.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? Pablo Fernandez, of course.

Pablo is an amazing student, professional, and person. During these last months, I have gotten to know him both academically and personally, and I can confidently say that he is the classmate I admire the most. My journey at Babson started with him as a peer of my Beta X project, which was when I learned that he represents all the values and principles that are taught at Babson College. He is a true leader, the type of leader that stands up for the team when needed, but at the same time knows when to sit back and support his teammates, motivating and trying to get the most out of them. Besides this experience, he is the president of the LATAM club, a club that has helped students gather and generate strong personal relations thanks to the amazing and periodic events Pablo organizes. He is also the TA of Luke Stein (finance), a professor with whom both of us have a great relationship, and Luke is always saying good things about how working with Pablo is. Furthermore, Pablo is doing an impressive work with the GEL forum (focused on LATAM), organizing working sessions and talks with managers of unicorn companies and several industry leaders.

Who most influenced your decision to pursue business in college? This is an easy answer, my parents. My father didn’t finish his economics career because he had to work to take care of my brother and me. He even left his friends and family in Ecuador to start a new life in Peru only because he wanted to give our family all the things he never had growing up. Even though he had to start a new life, he had a remarkable career working more than 25 years for the same company (Peru) getting excellent results and becoming the CEO. Now he is the Ecuadorian Consul in Miami.

My mother did not even start college when she was young. To support our family, she had to start working as a salesperson for a company that after some years promoted her to Chief Sales Officer. After my brother and I graduated from school, she decided it was time to follow her dreams, so she pursued her degree in psychology (now she also has a coaching degree and a master in neuroscience).

They are examples of persistence, loyalty, ethics, and resilience, the DNA of and entrepreneur.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list? Have a meaningful and successful career working and learning in a company in the United States while positively impacting everyone who works with me.

How has the pandemic changed your view of a career? I have always valued the importance of my employees, peers, and bosses. However, during COVID I began to give even more importance to people as a factor of success. As an extension of this, I understood that entrepreneurs and businesses are created to serve and help the world, which is what I will try to do for the rest of my life.

What made Roberto such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2022?

“He has been a terrific MBA student and community-builder here at Babson College.  Roberto was born in Peru, and played semi-professional soccer while pursuing a career in consulting and finance. He worked at Grant Thorton and a private equity firm before becoming CEO of an e-commerce and electronic billing platform in Peru. He co-founded “Abrigate que Tengo Frio,” a social project focused on solving child nutrition and freeze deaths in the Peruvian Andes.

Upon his arrival at Babson College, he has been a top contributor in classroom discussions, and a leader across campus. As one of the cohort’s class representatives, I saw him in action soliciting input and ideas from classmates, and representing their interests and concerns to academic services and administration. Very diplomatic and thoughtful, able to balance the whims of demanding students with the realities of program delivery.

He has also served as the Babson Soccer Club president and has been an exam proctor. He has also been active in our entrepreneurship community, participating in our rocket pitch competitions.  More importantly, he has been a part of the “social glue” that has made our Class of 2022 cohort such a tight-knit, supportive group. He has my highest praise!”

Keith Rollag, Ph. D
Professor of Management, former Dean of the Franklin W. Olin Graduate School of Business

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