Pitt Business e-newsletter Issue 11, September 2008
Global Riches
The Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business attracts top talent the world over. The new full-time MBA class is made up of 129 students representing 13 countries, including Canada, China, Germany, India, Japan, Latvia, Lebanon, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United States. Forty-nine percent of the class are international students who have fascinating stories to tell. Ieva Abolina is from Latvia; Afua Gyasi is from Ghana, and Amit Fernandes is from India. Though they hail from different lands, Abolina, Gyasi, and Fernandes now share a common link—the Katz two-year MBA program.
Abolina comes from a small family in the humid and sometimes frigid Baltic region where she learned to speak not only Latvian and English but also Russian. This gave her a competitive edge when seeking a position with RM Group Ltd. She took a jet-setting position as a business development manager and was soon on her way to Amsterdam, Moscow, Copenhagen, Vienna, Berlin, London, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. She met her husband, a Pittsburgh native, while on business in London. The couple settled in Pittsburgh where Abolina decided to pursue her MBA at the Katz School.
Gyasi is one of a family of five that places a high value on education. Her single mother insisted that she and her siblings go abroad to study and earn professional degrees. After raising her children, Gyasi's mother earned her law degree. In 1999, Gyasi left Ghana for an educational opportunity at Concordia College, a small Lutheran school in Moorehead, Minn. There, she studied business in an intimate yet competitive environment. With her degree under her belt and fluency in four languages—Twi, French, Ga, and English—she worked for Chevy Chase Bank in Washington, D.C. She plans to use her Katz MBA to pursue her interest in global finance.
Fernandes is from a family of four. His parents passed away when he was young. As a result, Fernandes was raised primarily by his older siblings. His hometown of Mangalore, has a strong Portuguese influence, and Fernandes claims both Portuguese and Indian for his heritage. He speaks Hindi, Marathi, and English. After earning his undergraduate degree, he went to work for Infosys Technologies Limited as a team leader for four years, one of which he spent in London. Recognizing the advantages of team learning and a superior finance curriculum, Fernandes chose Katz to give him the skills and knowledge necessary to transform himself and help realize his entrepreneurial goal of opening and managing a chain of dessert cafés.
Katz is pleased to welcome these fine students and their diverse classmates who personify the abundance produced from a program based on global thinking.
By: Lauren Gogal, Communication Manager, MBA Programs, and Patricia Hermenault, Director of Special International Programs
