From Buenos Aires to Yale: How San Andrés is Building Latin America´s Global Bridge

Q. Universidad de San Andrés has built a distinctive reputation in Latin American business education over a sustained period. What do you consider to be the most significant opportunity for the School right now? 

The most exciting opportunity we have right now is the intersection of global credentialing and local relevance. Executives across Latin America are increasingly seeking programmes that carry international weight while being deeply rooted in the realities of our markets. We are uniquely positioned to offer both in Latin America. 

This year, we have two milestones that illustrate this point well. First, we launched our Blended MBA, a format that offers weekly online classes, complemented by a Saturday on-campus session every three weeks. The response has been outstanding, and we have a full cohort starting in June, indicating genuine unmet demand for a rigorous, blended programme. Second, we have formalised a Double Degree partnership with Yale School of Management, giving our MBA students and alumni access to the Master of Advanced Management (MAM). When a San Andrés graduate can continue their journey at Yale, it is a statement about where we stand globally. 

But perhaps the most meaningful recognition has come from a different direction: we are the only business school in Argentina to receive a Positive Impact Rating, a student-led assessment that evaluates business schools on their contribution to social and environmental impact, not just to the market. It reflects a genuine institutional commitment to educating leaders who care about the world in which they operate.

Q. Argentina's economic environment is unlike almost any other context in which a business school operates. How does this shape the way in which you prepare students for leadership, and does it give your graduates an advantage that schools in more stable markets are unable to replicate? 

It does indeed, and I say that without any hesitation. There is a kind of leadership muscle you can only build by operating in genuine uncertainty, and Argentina has never been short of that. Our students manage teams, negotiate deals, and make strategic decisions while navigating inflation, currency volatility, and regulatory shifts that would be considered extreme almost anywhere else in the world. That is not an obstacle to their education; it is a core part of it, and sometimes the reason why they decide to do an MBA. 

What we have consistently found is that our graduates arrive in international roles and bring adaptability and a tolerance for ambiguity that their peers simply do not. They have been stress-tested in ways that cannot be simulated in a classroom in other countries.

Our curriculum deliberately channels this. Our case discussions are grounded mainly in Argentine and Latin American business realities. When we teach financial decision-making or crisis leadership, we are not speaking in hypotheticals. Our students have lived versions of those situations. That firsthand experience, combined with a rigorous analytical framework, produces a particular kind of executive, one who is calm under pressure and creative when the rules keep changing. For example, we offer a non-market strategy course in the Executive MBA that specifically addresses how to engage with stakeholders, which is uncommon in MBA curriculums abroad. 

Graduate Pathways 

Q. While many schools have been rushing to implement artificial intelligence (AI), whether through tools, courses, or frameworks, AI has been part of your graduate offering for some time. What does this say about the School’s identity and the learning experience students can expect? 

It says something we are proud of: that we try to anticipate rather than react. We did not add AI to our curriculum because it became fashionable; we added it because we believed, years ago, that understanding AI as a business force was non-negotiable for anyone who wanted to lead in the coming decade. Our students have been working with AI concepts in courses on data science, business intelligence, and neuroscience, well before it became the conversation topic it is today. At the same time, we know that the learning experience students are looking for needs moments of ‘No AI’, and that’s also something we have implemented.

Q. With AI narrowing traditional graduate pathways like strategy, analysis, consulting, and research, what does graduate trajectory look like at San Andrés today?

AI has not so much closed pathways as it has raised the bar for what you need to bring to them. Strategy, analysis, and consulting are not disappearing, but the parts of those roles that involved assembling information and producing structured outputs are being automated. What remains, and what is becoming more valuable, is critical thinking, contextual intelligence, and the ability to lead people through change.

That is precisely where our MBA portfolio puts its energy. Our Professional Development and Leadership Track, which includes certified coaching, peer-to-peer mentoring and 360-degree feedback exercises, is designed to build the human capabilities that AI cannot replicate. The same is true for our New Business Launchpad, where students learn and incorporate innovation and entrepreneurial capabilities. Our graduates are not competing with algorithms; they are the people who decide what the algorithms should be doing and take responsibility for the outcomes.

In terms of post-programme trajectories, we see a growing share of our alumni moving into entrepreneurial roles, launching ventures or joining family businesses in more strategic capacities. The Yale MAM pathway we have opened adds a new option for those who want to deepen their academic profile while maintaining their professional momentum.

Q. Given the boom in graduate startup activity, with no-code and low-code innovation driving down the cost of MVPs, have you seen a shift in your applicant pool (e.g., more solopreneurs), and, if so, is this reflected in your programme design?

We have definitely seen it. Executive MBA and traditional MBA applicant profiles have been shifting for several years, but the acceleration in low-code and no-code tools has made entrepreneurship a realistic option for a much wider group of executives. Five years ago, the dominant applicant profile was someone on a corporate leadership track who wanted to accelerate their career. Today, a meaningful number of our applicants are already running something, or are very close to launching. And for those who were not considering starting their own venture or becoming an intrapreneur, they finish the MBA with a foundation they didn’t expect. 

Our programme was purposely designed with this in mind. The New Business Launchpad, our SparkLab incubator, and our partnership with Babson College, including the Babson Build week in Boston, give entrepreneurially minded students a structured space to develop and test real ventures alongside their studies. It is not a side activity; it is a core offering.

Impact

Q. The School ranks number one in Latin America for both Network Power and Return on Investment, two metrics that speak directly to what students experience after the programme rather than during it. Can you talk about the building blocks behind this success and what is required of the School beyond the classroom?

Those rankings matter to us precisely because they measure what happens after graduation, not what we tell people will happen. Network Power and Return on Investment reflect whether the relationships built during the programme translate into real professional value, and whether alumni earn more and advance faster as a result of their degree.

 In my view, there are three building blocks. First, the quality of the cohort itself. We are selective, not just about academic credentials, but about professional experience and personal character. Our average student has 14 years of working experience and is 37 years old. When you put between 40 and 60 people like that in a room or a virtual space together, the peer learning is extraordinary. The network forms naturally because the people in it are genuinely interesting and capable.

Second, we invest heavily in keeping that network alive after graduation. Our Lifelong Learning offer means alumni continue accessing content, events, and each other long after graduation. Many return as guest lecturers, mentors, or advisers. The relationship with Endeavor Argentina, whose executive director is an Executive MBA alumnus, is a good example of what that continuity can produce.

Third, and perhaps least visible from the outside, is the programme's intensity. The mandatory courses, electives, study trips, intensive weeks, coaching, international exchange opportunities, double-degree opportunities, and Deep Dive Destinations produce experiences that create lasting bonds between classmates. People go through something meaningful together, and that is the foundation of a network that actually works.

Q. You have built robust connections in the entrepreneurial ecosystem through SparkLab, the Babson partnership, and relationships like Endeavor Argentina. What role do you see the School playing in Latin America's entrepreneurial economy over the next decade?

I think the role we want to play, and are beginning to play, is that of a genuine ecosystem connector. Not just a place where entrepreneurs come to study, but an institution that actively links capital, talent, mentorship, and ideas across the region.

SparkLab has been an important step in that direction. When we incubate a student's venture, we are not just helping one person; we are creating a company that might employ dozens of people, attract investment, and become part of Latin America’s entrepreneurial fabric. That multiplier effect is what excites us most.

Looking ahead to the next decade, I see San Andrés playing a stronger role in convening the ecosystem, bringing together investors, operators, policymakers, and the next generation of founders. Our Yale MAM pathway adds an international dimension to that: a San Andrés graduate who continues at Yale does not just gain a credential; they join a global network of innovators. The bridge between Latin American talent and global opportunity is something we are uniquely positioned to build.

Q. What does success look like for a San Andrés graduate ten years out, not in terms of title or salary, but in regard to the kind of leader they have become?

The image I carry in my mind is of someone who leads from values as much as from strategy. Ten years out, a San Andrés MBA graduate should be someone who knows who they are, including blind spots and aspirations, not just what they know.

Beyond that, I hope they are someone who has brought other people along with them. Leadership is ultimately relational, and the high-impact leaders we try to develop are those who create cultures where people can do their best work, not those who simply produce results at any cost. 

And I hope they are still curious. One of the things we emphasise throughout the programme - through Lifelong Learning, our alumni community, and our relationships with visiting professors and global partners - is that the MBA is not a destination; it is a starting point. The leaders who remain relevant ten years, twenty years out are the ones who never stopped asking questions. That disposition is something we try very hard to cultivate, and it is the reason our community is so strong and thriving.

Final Thoughts

Q. If you could change one thing about how business education operates globally, what would it be and why?

If I could change one thing, it would be the way business schools talk about failure. Globally, we celebrate the case study: the turnaround, the breakthrough, the billion-dollar pivot. But we rarely sit with failure honestly, as a pedagogical tool. We sanitise it, or we frame it retrospectively as a stepping stone to success. And in doing so, we send graduates into leadership roles with a distorted picture of what the work actually looks like.

In Argentina, we do not have that luxury. Our context forces honesty. Our students have watched well-run companies collapse due to macroeconomic conditions beyond their control. They have seen talented people make sound decisions that still produced bad outcomes. That teaches a kind of epistemic humility: an understanding that leadership is not about being right, but about making the best possible call with incomplete information and then adapting when circumstances change. 

If I could export one thing from how we educate here to how business schools operate globally, it would be that humility. The willingness to say good leadership does not guarantee good outcomes, and learning to live with that without becoming paralysed by it is one of the most important things we can teach. The schools that figure out how to make that transferable will produce genuinely different leaders.