MBA grad returned to Concordia for professional and personal development
Santiago Molano, who graduated June 19 from the MBA program at Concordia’s John Molson School of Business (JMSB), was thinking about continuous improvement well before anybody paid him to do so. In fact, Molano has always looked for opportunities to enhance his skills, as well as his character.
Molano grew up in Bogota, Colombia, where he completed his high school studies. He came to Montreal to study French and stayed to complete a bachelor of industrial engineering at Concordia. He also joined the Concordia Institute of Aerospace Design and Innovation.
“Doing my undergrad work at Concordia was a great experience,” he says. “I was given the opportunity to do two engineering internships, which led to my getting a full-time position at Pratt & Whitney Canada after graduation.”
As a project coordinator, he managed a cross-functional team responsible for developing the company’s supply base and to look for cost-reduction opportunities. During his five years at Pratt & Whitney, he was given the parallel mandate to implement a continuous improvement program at the firm.
The idea of continuous improvement always resonated with Molano, who knew well before accepting his position at the company that he wished to eventually pursue an MBA. “I wanted to complement my engineering degree and experience with management skills,” he says.
“JMSB seemed like the logical choice because of the amazing number of extracurricular opportunities it offers its students,” he adds. “It was important to me to choose a business school that would enable me to go beyond the standard course offerings.
“The fact that the MBA program at JMSB takes two years to complete was also an important factor for me,” he explains. “I wanted to be better suited for making important decisions. A one-year program just doesn’t seem to allow for enough time to try new things, make mistakes, and digest and learn from one’s experiences. Grad school is just as much about personal development as it is professional development.”
Molano took full advantage of the opportunities available to him at JMSB. He completed an MBA Community Service Initiative internship, which enables business students to provide consulting services to community and not-for-profit organizations. Molano gave advice to the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital.
He also completed an internship at the engineering construction firm, SNC Lavalin, where he was assigned to the global procurement department. He provided strategic input on how the company could make the best use of economies of scale.
Molano was also part a JMSB student team whose report on a family-owned company was selected for the Best Student Paper Award by the Montreal-based accounting firm Fuller-Landau LLP and JMSB. The report was prepared for the team’s Entrepreneurial Family Business course. It involved an indepth analysis of Groupe HMH, one of the largest independent publishing houses in Quebec, and made, in the judges’ view, excellent recommendations for the company’s succession planning.
Molano also took on a key organizational position with the John Molson MBA International Case Competition, one of JMSB’s signature annual events. He looked after logistics, coordinated volunteers, and dealt with the hotel where the competition activities were taking place.
“My involvement with the case competition provided me with my best grad-school memories,” he says. “The privilege of being selected to the organizing committee enables one to immediately put to use the leadership skills taught in the classroom. It is so rare to have the opportunity to implement your own strategies! The learning experience was unparalleled.”
Plenty more learning is likely on the horizon for Molano, who has just been hired as the director of operations at Ywire Technologies, a lighting manufacturer and building-systems technology firm based in Montreal.
Related links:
• Read about more 2012 Great Grads in the John Molson School of Business
• John Molson School of Business
• 2012 Fuller Landau Family Business Awards
• John Molson MBA International Case Competition