MBAs Without Borders (MWB)

With rapid growth, planning, organization and communication between different components of the project become a challenge. Clear task division (and more detailed individual task division) and a detailed project plan will be crucial in the near future.

The local culture is very warm and inviting. One aspect that needs to be considered by locals wanting to do business is that you will likely be perceived as being wealthy. People often ask for money or assistance with material goods.

Claudia Castellanos
MBA - ESADE Business School
Nationality - Colombian

Claudia graduated from Universidad Externado de Colombia in Bogota in 1999 with a Degree in Finance and International Relations, and received her MBA from ESADE Business School in 2003, specializing in Marketing. During her MBA, Claudia was the class delegate and also in charge of developing social and cultural events at the ESADE’s students association.

After graduating from the MBA Claudia worked for 3 years in Italy with the Danone Group as an account manager for Tuscany. Prior to that experience, she had the opportunity to work as a consultant in CSR in Colombia, developing a project of creating micro-business units for recyclers in Bogota, and also teaching Business and Entrepreneurship fundamentals to the recyclers, discovering a passion for social development projects. From march 2007 Claudia works for the European School of Economics in the Lucca campus in Italy, first as marketing manager, and since September 2007 as a BA teacher for Marketing and Management.

She travels whenever she has the possibility, and she is passionate about meeting new cultures and people.

Claudia hopes that her knowledge in marketing, her previous experience in development projects, her ability to laugh and her love of teaching will be useful for her new project starting in July, working as a Business Development Associate for Gone Rural in Swaziland, supporting the organization in developing a marketing and sales plan as well as a fundraising strategy, developing co-op’s with rural women, and improving the operations efficiency of Swazi Ceramics.

Rebecca Olson
MBA - UCLA Anderson School of Business
Nationality - American

Rebecca graduated from Stanford University in 2002 with a B.A. in Economics and received her MBA from UCLA Anderson, specializing in Strategy and Entrepreneurship. During Rebecca’s second year at Anderson, she worked with FINCA International to develop a Customer Relationship Management Strategy (sponsored by UCLA Anderson’s Center for International Business and Economic Research, CIBER).

Last summer, Rebecca interned with The Boston Consulting Group in Los Angeles, creating a growth and innovation strategy for a leading packaged foods company and she will be joining The Boston Consulting Group’s New York office full time next fall, focusing on their Consumer and Retail and Healthcare practices.

Prior to attending business school, Rebecca worked for Banc of America Securities in New York, managing the Healthcare Group’s marketing and business development initiatives with financial sponsors. She was also involved in a startup hedge fund conducting due diligence on companies undergoing bankruptcy and developing a training program for new employees. Additionally, she spent two months prior to business school volunteering with in Ecuadorian NGO, teaching English and building sanitation systems in a small fishing village.

Drum roll please…..MWB is honoured to announce that it has been selected by the DeGroote School of Business to co-host the 2008 MBA Games (Canada) to be held January 3rd-5th, 2008 in Hamilton, Ontario. For the first time ever, the MBA Games will focus on the theme of nternational development.

On September 24th, 2007, MWB Canada will officially turn 3 years old. As the time continues to fly by and MWB USA only begins its journey, we are proud of our past successes and are committed moving forward to partner even more MBAs with businesses and NGOs in developing countries.