Rara Ratri Ridzky, Indonesia
Full-Time MBA Class of 2020
LinkedIn

Academic Roles, Achievements and Activities

Professional Career:
In my 7 years career as a banker, I was awarded as best employee in 2014 (my company has around 70 thousands employees at that time). I was also recognized as High Potential Employee for five consecutive years (2012 – 2017) and managed to reach middle-level management position faster than the average track. In 2018, I was awarded with a full scholarship from my company to take MBA Program at ESADE.

Other Achievements/Activities:
1. Represent Indonesia in Gastrofest and win as favorite food/team in 2018. At the event, I made Indonesia’s traditional food called “nasi kuning” or yellow rice.
2. In less than 15 months of my MBA, I already travelled to more than 25 countries and more than 30 cities. Yes! Travelling is one of my passions! My goal is to reach at least 40 countries before finishing my MBA (*fingercrossed*).

What is invisible but essential about YOU? or ESADE? or Barcelona?

As a proud Indonesian, I am used to living in diversity. Indonesia has significant cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity. Here, we treat diversity as part of the nation’s ideology. We have mutual respect and tolerance for everyone. I see diversity as an opportunity to discover different perspectives, which can broaden my way of thinking and promote respect for others. I believe every person is unique and we are born into this world with each specific role and purpose. That’s why, in my short MBA time, I always try to do something simple but meaningful to bring happiness and create the best memories for my friends at ESADE, so that they will always remember me.

I have two biggest passions in life: cooking and traveling. I am a big believer in “food bring you happiness”. Therefore, when I have free time, I like to cook Indonesian food and invite my friends to come and eat together at my house. I use this opportunity not only to introduce the richness of Indonesia’s culture and food but also to be able to listen to their stories from all over the world so that I can learn their culture and their perspective. It also gave me the opportunity to meet, interact and cook with friends from other sections and get to know them beyond academic activities. From this small activity, I can really feel the beauty of diversity at ESADE.

I also like to travel in my free time. I like to explore new places, meet new people, and taste new foods. Travelling makes me realize that the world is so big and reminds me that there are lots of things to learn and experience, therefore we must keep challenging ourselves to move from our comfort zone. I like to share my travel journey with my friends through my social media, not to brag about myself but to share with them the experience. After travel, I also like to share the story with my friends, give them suggestions and motivation to explore more.

Maybe these two things that I do in my MBA are not something special and impactful. But I hope that these simple things, although maybe invisible for some people, can bring in essentially meaningful flavors and colors to the lives of my friends around me. And eventually, these activities will create memories that will enable my friends to always remember me as a nice friend from Indonesia who always shares happiness through food and travel.

Megumi Takemoto, Japan
Full-Time MBA 2020
LinkedIn

Academic Roles, Achievements and Activities

Finalist in ESADE and elBullifoundation Creativity for Business Innovation Case Competition
Founded a startup and participated in ESADE Accelerator Program as one of the selected teams/ideas

What is invisible but essential about YOU? or ESADE? or Barcelona?

Just after I graduated from Tokyo University in Japan, I started traveling around the world by motorcycle by myself for three years. It was my second time going abroad after a graduation trip to Turkey months before. I went around Australia first, then flew back to Japan once, and started again from Los Angeles, United States, went down to Central, South America then went to Europe and West Africa through the Sahara Desert.

Not exactly ‘around the world’ as I had originally planned. Nonetheless, it was an eye-opening experience to see things and to talk to people that I would not have known, otherwise. Every day, I encountered new things and met people who helped me broaden my horizons. However, this journey brought one of the life-changing challenges I have ever faced.

One day, as I drove up to the famous Ruta 40 in Patagonia, Southern Argentina, I fell from motorcycle and almost broke my right knee. It was my first time to see how fat in my body looks like that scared me a lot. To make things worse, I was literally in the middle of nowhere. The closest village with 40 people was around 100km away. Luckily, the motorcycle was not damaged. I managed to get to the village, and a nurse put stitches on the wound.

At that time, it took me five minutes just to walk one meter. I had no choice but to leave the motorcycle there and to go to Buenos Aires, in order to go to the proper hospital and to recover in a safe environment. There was no public transportation available at the village, so I waited and asked a tour bus coming through once a week to take me to the bigger town, then spent three days transferring bus lines to get to Buenos Aires. Fortunately, I had known a hostel owned by a Japanese there.

After all of these, it took me half a year to start traveling again. Besides my knee injury, I had almost everything stolen in a hostel in Mexico, I was stricken with malaria while going down through the Sahara Desert, and I had many other minor troubles.

What I learned from these experiences is that the hardest moments would always make me feel that it is almost impossible to face or go through them. Surviving these incidents made me realize that going through a very tough challenge is not the end of the world. These almost impossible to handle challenges will always be a part of the process of creating something new – a new product, a new journey and a better version of myself. Eventually, everything is going to be okay. All I need is patience and a strong will to go on. Also, there will always be that someone who could help me, if needed. Now, I am a single parent with two children, quit a decent job, doing the MBA, and going to start my company. I may need to overcome many challenges that are waiting for me, but I believe I can do it, and I can make my dreams real.

Shehryar Azhar, Canada & UAE
Full-Time MBA Class of 2020
LinkedIn

Academic Roles, Achievements and Activities

1. VP of ESADE Finance Club
2. Turned around my family business (management consulting) post financial crisis
3. Oversaw the development and implementation of new strategies and internal structures for my family business
4. Managed and executed several trade transactions as a Corporate Banker

What is invisible but essential about YOU? or ESADE? or Barcelona?

I consider myself to be a Global Citizen, as I have Indian and Pakistani roots, have lived most of my life in the Middle East, and am a Canadian citizen. I have lived in two of the most culturally diverse cities in the world: Dubai and Toronto. As a result, I am fortunate to have interacted, befriended, and leaned from people of various backgrounds over the years. Being in Barcelona for my MBA has been able to further enrich my experience with people from around the world. During the MBA I have also lived in Bangalore (India) and Berlin (Germany) for my internships.

Academically speaking, I am a Professional CMA (Certified Management Accountant), have a Masters degree in Islamic Banking and Insurance and am currently pursuing a Full-Time MBA at Esade Business School in Barcelona. I completed my undergrad degree at Western University, studying Management & Organizational Studies, in 2008.

I have spent most of my career as an Entrepreneur and in Financial Services. What I am most proud of is when I joined my family business in 2010 and oversaw the turnaround of the business which had been adversely affected by the Global Financial Crisis. Following that I was involved in Financial Services for a period of six years, namely in Risk Management, Corporate Banking and Private Banking. I have also operated as an independent (part-time) consultant for various small to medium sized firms as a business adviser / consultant.

I am a proud husband and father of two daughters. My second daughter, in fact, was born in Barcelona during my MBA, which was quite a unique experience. Finally, I am a cancer survivor. I was diagnosed with a form of stage-1 cancer in 2015, however I had a great set of doctors and strong support from my family that helped me get through the ordeal. Today, I can say that I am 100% healthy and living a happy, healthy, fulfilling life.

Sarthak Sethi, India
Full-Time MBA Class of 2021
LinkedIn

Professional Roles, Achievements and Activities

I am most proud of my successful work against extreme odds at Zomato, Dubai.

To elaborate further, when Zomato wanted to expand operations into UAE, the firm looked towards entrepreneurial individuals. Given my outstanding track record in sales and business development along with my ownership and leadership spirit, I was the only and the youngest one among 45 peers to be selected for the opportunity.

In my capacity as sales manager, I initially worked with the firm’s senior executives to expand the venture’s operations in Sharjah followed by Ajman emirates (cities). In a multicultural and diverse environment, I quickly adapted to enroll 80 high net worth clients within the first 3 months of operations. Overcoming significant cultural, language, and business barriers, I led a team of 10 individuals through multiple crisis situations and created an inspiring work environment for entrepreneurial leadership. Apart from sales, I even managed the operations, marketing and partnerships in these new areas.

Acknowledging my success, I was even given the responsibility to start international markets – Lebanon and Qatar.

I won several awards and appreciation and was even invited to HQ office to discuss growth plans along with other heads and founder of the company.

My success in the three-years stint at Zomato established the venture’s presence and growth in GCC region. Reflecting on the impact of my work makes me really proud.

What is invisible but essential about YOU?

“What have you done in life to make someone else’s life better?” My father asked when I wanted to buy a new pair of shoes? That very moment, that very question changed my perspective of life.

Coming from a desert state of India where basic needs were minimal, at a very early age I was exposed to the fact that personal wealth is not measured in terms of money or cars or house but rather to the fact that how able are you in making lives of less fortunate ones better.

With that family values instilled, I donated a fair share of my first income towards sponsoring the education of a child in a small village school. The satisfaction, joy, pride, and euphoria I felt thinking that one day that very child will grow up to be a responsible individual of the society. He/she will be able to provide a roof, food, and education for his/her children. It made me realize that I am not just helping one individual rather I am creating a positive impact on generations to come.

I never looked back since then. As my salary cheque grew, so did my contribution. I got more involved in social welfare and started motivating others to do so.

I’m not sure where will I go in life. I have my professional and personal goals, yet I am searching for my calling. However, I know with every growth I see in life I will never stop to payback the society and make this world a better place.

Carla Almaguer, Mexico
Full-Time MBA Class of 2021

Academic Roles, Achievements and Activities

I would say that obtaining the results that I did on my first job after getting my bachelor degree is one of my proudest achievements. When I graduated from college, I started working in a manufacturing company in Mexico and my first job was as a production supervisor. Since the first day, I was in charge of 40 women at the production plant, but had no prior supervisor experience. It was not easy to obtain the trust of all of these women, since I had to ask them for higher productivity and results when most of them were twice my age, worked many hours at repetitive operations, and had children and necessities that would sometimes interfere with their work.

Given these factors, the first three months of working with them was very tough. It was very difficult to gain their respect, as well as good performance. As the production attainment and order fulfillment started to decrease, I started getting pressure from management to improve my results.

Finally, by connecting with the operators on a personal level, I proved to them my interest in their daily and personal situation and obtained their trust. For the ones that were still having a low performance on purpose, I learned that I needed to be firmer, though this was personally difficult for me. I learned the importance of being empathetic and modest, that I can overcome big challenges by trying different alternatives without giving up, and being patient, especially when stepping out of my comfort zone.

What is invisible but essential about YOU?

What is invisible but essential about me is my commitment and resolve to grow up to follow my father´s footsteps. Since I was very young, I have always looked up to my father and saw how hard he worked for his family and for his company. Thanks to him and to his success in directing operations, I lived the transition of moving to a first world country, and travelling to many other countries after having lived that experience. He is my role model given how passionate he is about his work, how he became a trustworthy HR director, and worked hard to achieve the best outcome for the company and its employees.

Given this positive influence from him, I started recreating his steps and growing in a similar direction. I got a scholarship for a good high school and for a degree at the same university where he studied. And eventually, I initiated my career as an engineer. I can say today that I am proud of the achievements that I have achieved so far in my career while pursuing positive and sustainable results for the companies that I have worked for, such as Daimler and Schneider Electric. The MBA at ESADE is an important step for me now, as I desire to keep growing and learning, and hopefully, to, one day, be as successful and honorable as I consider my father to be.

Luis Alberto Davila Barberena, Mexico
Full-Time MBA Class of 2021
LinkedIn

Academic Roles, Achievements and Activities 

I was the class treasurer for two years that allowed me to help gather funds needed to build the state of renewable energy symposium at my university. I am proud of having studied my degree, which has allowed me to create valuable impact to all the organizations that I worked with.

What is invisible but essential about YOU? or ESADE? or Barcelona?

There always comes a time when every action we take dictates our future momentum. In this moment of my life, all I am looking for is to be able to connect with as many people as possible and reboot my individual persona. We spend many years working and getting stressed-out on things that keep us busy but make us lose sight of our long-term goals, objectives and most importantly, the meaning of our existence. It is important to take a break from everyday life to have the golden opportunity to catch-up with ourselves and reinvent our essence.

As a Mexican coming to an international city, where every conceivable idea will be shared, is just as important as taking an MBA. This is why Barcelona is one of the best options to take a break from life and become a cosmopolitan student who does not only learn from books, but also from the wisdom, stories and imagination of others.

Barcelona offers a breeding ground for creativity that is unparalleled in any other parts of the world. Its air filled with imagination-driven innovation is the invisible but essential component that enables us to grow as distinct individuals. The cultural diversity is the hidden hand that keeps Barcelona colorfully active and constantly in motion. As a city of 2 million residents and over 20 million tourists and students, it provides a breathing space and brewing ground for doing everything nice and having a new start.

Indeed, Barcelona is a place where hyperactive people will only be limited by their imagination. This Catalonian capital is full of life that offers great food, vibrant ambiance, spaces for walk and venues for all kinds of sports activities. Although I decided to live in the center of Barcelona, my commute to ESADE is easy and allows me to get my much needed morning energy.

As part of the ESADE community, I will cherish this golden opportunity to push and grow my individual persona. I know that coming to ESADE was the best decision I have ever made. Meeting, collaborating and building relationships with the broad selection of individuals is the true representation of the spirit of an ESADEAN. The people of ESADE are continuously looking to improve their own personas with the hopes of uplifting others and everything around them. To me this is aligned with the values that I look for in individuals who will go out to make an impact.

I am looking forward to surf this life changing-experience that will help me make good future decisions and propel me to my desired direction in life. I have come to Barcelona to be student, but by the time I come out of my degree, I will be an ESADEAN. The personal growth and community that I will personally build will definitely outclass any experience I had in my life. I am grateful that I took this opportunity to meet Barcelona, ESADE and my future self.

Aman Kedia, India
Full-Time MBA Class of 2021

Academic Roles, Achievements and Activities

Bachelor in Business Administration – Financial Management Associate Chartered Accountant – Indian Institute of Chartered Accountants

Started E-Commerce division of business to independently formulate company launch strategy for online marketplace and generated $100k sales revenue in first 12 months.
Led a team of more than 30, promoted equal opportunity for all by training and employing down syndrome effected people at work.
Developed a product portfolio of 70+ unique SKUs, developed branding and advertising strategy to achieve 20% QoQ growth over a year.
Co-ordinated with >100 international developers to test cross-blockchain software.

What is invisible but essential about YOU? or ESADE? or Barcelona?

Having been diagnosed with vertigo in early childhood, I had to overcome many challenges and avoid activities which were normal for others. Having to stop activities midway due to sudden sensation of dizziness and loss of balance, I could never take part in any adventurous activities and gradually developed a fear of heights. Even after being cured of vertigo, I never had the courage to do anything that involved extreme heights or speed.

However, in early 2017, I came across a technology cum digital currency – Bitcoin on the internet that changed me as a person. Fascinated by its concept, I bought a small quantity of Bitcoin. Being risk averse, it was a huge plunge for me to put my money on something so volatile and open source. With the meteoric rise and fall in the cryptocurrency valuation, my investments in Bitcoin have battered me for the better part of 2018. The investments might change and re-change my portfolio, but it left an indelible mark on my mind. It made me let go of my comfort zone. It wasn’t so much about winning big or losing small, as much as a change in my mindset which made me more acceptable to new age techniques, ideas and experiences. I realized that as long as we don’t break the status quo, we cant really disrupt the platform. For all the cliches, I got the courage to break myself from the self-imposed constraints. It also gave me the courage to land up in Costa Brava and sky dive from a height of 13000 ft.

That moment for me was a life-changer and also my sweet taste of success. All along success for me was about creating a big company, making it big in life, attaining a certain position, but these two moments also brought about a change in those definitions. I still want to earn a lot, ring the opening bell of my stock at NIFTY, but success now is also something more personal. It is about a continuous growth-personal, emotional, physical and financial. It is about living our life in an evolutionary sense and not as a reactionary process.

Ana Elena Perez, Venezuela
Full-Time MBA Class of 2021

Professional Roles, Achievements and Activities

Led an alcoholic beverage Consumer Tracking System (CTS) reengineering, adjusting it to market changes and attaining representativeness in every city.

Designed and executed beer company leader, Cervecería Polar’s, two main events of 2018, “Oktoberfest Polar” and “Polar Beer Garden”, with a joint venue of 8,000 people.

Developed an innovative experiential marketing event, introducing a new product of leading premium beer brand, Solera IPA; a beer festival in a town centre with a venue of 3,000 people.

Created an event segmentation model, used for conceptualising 400 events within brand strategy. Elaborated an econometric model for estimating the beer market, defining a quarterly operational volume plan.

Coordinated a consumer study for leading beer brand, Polar Pilsen, essential for conceptualising its 2018 campaign with the highest effective visibility over three years (increase of six percentage points).

Implemented a promotional programme for Modern Trade top clients, increasing market share by more than three percentage points.

What is invisible but essential about YOU?

While living in Venezuela most of my life, I have seen how a country can experience a decay in almost every economic aspect. This experience has led me to reflect about society and our role as businessmen. During the last 5 to 6 years, the crisis has intensified in an exponential way, where the most affected are those in the lower socio-economic levels of society. As a consequence, deteriorating the general level of education, and corrupting our principles and values as a society.

Empresas Polar, the company that I used to work for, is an example of an organization that is aware of its role in society, therefore it has made a great effort to inculcate coexistence rules among its employees. These principles and values have been so well implemented that their impact has transcended to the company’s stakeholders, its employee’s families, and even to the general market, becoming a reference in the industry. Experiencing this up close, and evidencing its impact on the whole industry, has led me to acknowledge my responsibility as a businesswoman in the cultural transformation of a society, thus in the generation of welfare.

Likewise, apart from the corporate world, I have been dedicating some of my spare time to achieving personal goals related to different kinds of sports, like mountaineering and hiking. Nevertheless, the most challenging activity I have experienced is skydiving, where you have to train your mind to assimilate that you will be jumping from a plane at 13,000 ft.

The greatest thing about skydiving is that it takes you out of your comfort zone every time you jump. Once you get used to that feeling, you are no longer resistant to it in other aspects of your life, reaching a point where you even start enjoying it. Furthermore, you have to have discipline, mainly during the initial learning process, but also prior to every jump, where you have to review the possible complications and how to solve them without hesitation.

Finally, in skydiving you have to develop forward planning and flexibility. Once you open the parachute, you have to spend every second planning the next steps for a proper landing, and to be able to recalculate your plan with every deviation of the relevant variables. All things considered, I think skydiving, apart from being fun, it also trains your mind and it can help you develop competences that are useful for every aspect of your life.

Eduardo Soibelmann Sztrajtman, Brazil
Full-Time MBA Class of 2021
LinkedIn

Academic Roles, Achievements and Activities

Student Athlete with academic merit-based and athletic scholarship at Purdue University, former professional tennis player, travelled more than 65 countries, volunteered helping people with disabilities to find joy on playing sports and worked in the construction of hospitals, hotels and malls.

What is invisible but essential about YOU? or ESADE? or Barcelona?

Sometimes people are labeled by their job, their university name or the field they choose to study. In my opinion, people are a lot more than where they work, where they study or what they decide to do professionally in their lives. My life has been very different from all my friends around me. As a teenager, I decided to start playing competitive tennis and begun travelling by myself around the world playing tennis. Travelling by myself at such young age in the junior and professional tennis circuit made me grow up as a human being. I had the opportunity to go to different countries, learn new languages, and meet people from different cultures. After my professional athletic life, I decided to go study engineering in another country as a student-athlete. At that point I left my country, my family and my friends to live with people from other countries in a place that had a hard winter season.

Coming from a country that has no snow, I found that some situations during winter can be hard, such as having to stay in the house for three days because snow covered the door from the outside. Leaving my own country and the culture that is usual to me is very important for my personal growth. Sometimes people are stuck with what they learned from their parents, friends and society around them and forget that there are billions of people on other parts of the world that live and think in a different way.

During all those years of playing tennis and studying at university, I decided that every year I will travel to different countries to see how is life in other parts of the world. All these travels and going abroad to live, made me a more patient and respectful person that can handle life and work situations better, respecting everyone’s culture and opinion. My life and the experiences I lived have shaped me into a better person and is something that might be invisible if people just consider where I come from, where I used to work or the field I decided to study in college.

Nikita Bazko, United Kingdom
Full-Time MBA Class of 2021
LinkedIn

Academic Roles, Achievements and Activities

ESADE MBA Scholarship, Undergraduate International Exchange Ambassador and Peer Group Leader, Mentor to the current student at Newcastle University and the regional start-ups, Co-captain of a Tennis team in doubles matches in Newcastle and a runner-up in 2013 and 2018 End of Season Championships.

What is invisible but essential about YOU?

I am an ordinary young man from a small ordinary Eastern European country, albeit some say I am very persistent when it gets to personal and professional aims.☺

Joking aside, there are qualities that make me who I am that I am really proud of:

1. Believe in true friendship and always come to help a friend in need.

As the old saying goes, it is much harder to build a true relationship than to break one. I left my home country many years ago, but still keep close ties with some of my best friends from school, tennis club and the neighborhood. Our relationship extends beyond occasional catch-ups to business projects, vacation trips, professional exam preparation, etc.

2. Remember and be proud of my country, its history and culture.

I really like visiting Latvia; the country where I grew up, and that gave me good education, provided a broad choice of sports, recreation and cultural activities. Reading a book at the sandy shores by the Baltic sea, listening to local folk music or exploring nature and wild life, brings back old memories, relaxes my mind and body and helps analyse performance and set up personal and professional plans.

3. Respect and learn from my parents and older people. I enjoy helping parents and grandparents with various jobs in the garden or around the house. I feel good solving technical problems related to computers or other devices. I also enjoy taking part in family holidays. These trips bring us closer and leave a lot of warm memories.

I learn a lot from parents. My Grandfather, among the other family members, remains instrumental in my development. He became a friend to me early on in life and taught me basics of swimming, painting, driving a car and other activities.

He had an exciting and very challenging career, managing large pools of people across 3 continents. Hence even now as an ESADE MBA, I could rely on him for advice on my career and personal life and be sure to obtain a top class viewpoint.

These three values that one can probably not see from the outset, bring a sense of fulfillment to me, since my efforts and knowledge are used in a good way to benefit my continued personal development and support the people around me.