Rebekah Paul is in the final year of the part time MBA program. She currently works for PPG Industries as a Customer Quality Engineer, managing projects for the BMW, Mercedes and Nissan accounts. Her responsibilities include leading problem solving investigations and facilitating Six Sigma projects. She received her B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh in 2012 and has been in the Cleveland area since graduation. Outside of work, Rebekah likes to cook, try new foods, explore the outdoors and travel.
Rebekah has traveled internationally for work and with family and is excited for the opportunity to explore a new country. While on this trip, she hopes to learn about Argentinian businesses and of course, try the great food and wine!
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Giancarlo DiFranco is currently in his second year of the part-time MBA Program. He works at ENPAC, LLC as the Customer Service Manager and Marketing Coordinator as well as performing multiple tasks for a recent start-up called Black Diamond ECO Solutions. Giancarlo’s main roles are support to sales and the top performing customers, maintaining company websites, catalogs and images as well as managing the Customer Service teams. Outside of work, Giancarlo enjoys the outdoors including hiking, biking, gardening and much more. In the home, Giancarlo loves to cook and explore various wines.
As a dual Italian-American citizen, Giancarlo is looking forward to exploring Argentina as a South American country with strong Italian influence. He is interested in learning how business is conducted in an area of the world he had not yet been as well as exploring the Argentinian wines. Anthony Manna is a 2017 MBA Candidate at Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. Prior to coming to Weatherhead, he received his Bachelor's degree in English at The Ohio State University, and spent several years as an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is where Anthony's passion truly lies, as evidenced by the fact that he is currently co-founding his 4th startup company. He also has experience working in financial services, private equity, real estate development, and management consulting.
On this trip to Argentina, Anthony is most excited to explore the differences in culture between the United States and Argentina, and how that affects perception towards entrepreneurship. On top of sightseeing and exploring Buenos Aires, he is very much looking forward to speaking with entrepreneurs in Argentina and learning about the availability of resources and advisory services for them. Finally, it must be mentioned that one thing he is very excited about is trying the great food that Argentina has to offer! Alec Janda is an entrepreneurial minded student in the Part Time MBA program at Case and works full time for ENPAC, LLC. This mid-size environmental protection company in Eastlake, OH manufacturers secondary spill containment products to contain hazardous chemicals while helping customers maintain regulatory compliance. As International Sales Manager, Alec is involved with distributors across the globe, as well as all of ENPAC's marketing efforts. His involvement with other startup companies has also allowed him to pursue his passion for rainwater harvesting products.
As an undergraduate student, Janda received his BSBA with a specialization in marketing from The Ohio State University where he was heavily involved with the entrepreneurship program. He has been fortunate enough to travel the world from a young age, providing perspectives on a variety of cultures, ideas, and attitudes. While these experiences have helped him thus far in his career, he recognizes there is still much to learn, and knows that this class can provide that opportunity. His participation and valuable experience gained through the Perspectives in European Management course last fall in Strasbourg, France was the impetus for joining this class in Argentina. He is excited to gain a better understanding of how South American business and management differ from the American system he has grown accustomed to. Most importantly, he is grateful for the opportunity to spend time meeting new individuals from a variety of backgrounds to enrich his own education, career, and life in general. Claire Holzheimer is in her final year of the part-time MBA program. She currently works in The Center for Child Health and Policy at Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital contributing to various research projects ranging from treating childhood obesity to expanding physician outreach in Ohio's Medicaid population. She received her BA in English from The Ohio State University before coming back home to Cleveland. In her free time she enjoys to travel, try new restaurants and explore the outdoors.
Claire is extremely excited for her first trip to South America to learn about Argentina and how it differs in its culture and business atmosphere. James Tanner is in his second year of the part-time MBA program at the Weatherhead School of Management. He completed his Bachelors of Science in Management during his active duty service in the United States Coast Guard from the University of Phoenix.
James has a wide range of professional experience from Automotive Sales, Military, Financial Advising, and retail banking. During his military service he was able to explore many countries in the Caribbean and Central America. He most recently worked for Tesla Motors where he learned more about how to strategically move to more sustainable energy and how that market segment is growing. Currently, James is in the beginning stage of building his own company that will focus on technologies that will enhance our everyday life. He is currently in the process of building a prototype to bring to market and pitch to early stage investors. He is growing in knowledge and understanding of the entrepreneurship landscape through collaboration with the Case Western Reserve University LaunchNet. While on this trip, James is interested in learning which factors entrepreneurs feel will ultimately lead to a successful entrance into the market. This will be his first time in Argentina and is looking forward to seeing how political and economic factors are effecting the entrepreneur community in Buenos Aires. The last thing he hopes to do during his visit is to really explore and find the food culture that makes up Buenos Aires. He feels that food acts as a driver towards an understanding of culture. Alexster Callahan is in his second year of the part-time MBA program at the Weatherhead School of Management. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Information Systems from Cleveland State University in Cleveland, Ohio.
Alexster has a vast range of experience developing and managing IT infrastructures. He has made a career of innovating within industries such as Healthcare Systems at the Cleveland Clinic and public governmental agencies, including NASA. Alexster's focus is in DevOps within cloud compute in support of IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS such as those used for Research and Development, Big Data and the biomedical engineering industry. Currently, Alexster is the founder and operator of a consulting and contracting firm, Open Veil Technologies. The purpose of the firm is to assist startups and small businesses in leveraging cloud compute to enable a global footprint while planning for future growth, reliability and sustainability. While on this trip, Alexster is interested in learning what factors entrepreneurs feel will ultimately lead to a successful entrance into the market. Additional interest includes what political, government and economic drivers shape what the company does and how they provide their services or products. Beth is completing her final semester as a student in Case’s part-time MBA program. She has more than 10 years of professional work experience in sales and marketing in the
for-profit and non-profit sectors. Currently, she is a member of the management team for a large, privately held company. She leads a department that streamlines the sales and payment experiences by maintaining and updating customer data. As part of her role, she identifies and implements process improvements that align with larger company goals. She also works with a team of exceptionally talented individuals who contribute to advancing a culture of excellence and professionalism. Beth earned her Bachelor of Arts in English from Kenyon College. As a student, she spent a year living and studying in England, which fostered a love for travel. She is looking forward to making her first trip to South America and gaining some exposure to Argentinian culture and the country's business climate. Neha Desai is in her final year of a dual Masters degree in Medical Physiology and Business Administration program through Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Medicine and the Weatherhead School of Management. She also received a degree in Biochemistry at CWRU for her undergraduate studies.
Currently, she works as a part-time sales associate for a medical devices company. In the future, she wishes to pursue a career in hospital administration. Prior to this year, she has interned at a medical clinic and conducted research at the Cleveland Clinic Learner Research Institute. While she currently volunteers at the Central American Medical Outreach, she has previously volunteered at University Hospitals and the Free Clinic of Greater Cleveland. Because of her previous experience in the healthcare industry and her career aspirations to become a Hospital Administrator, in Argentina, she hopes to learn about the healthcare system of the country and how it differs from the United States. Additionally, she hopes to learn how Argentinian medical businesses, such as a medical devices company, collaborate with hospitals to provide proper patient care. Jaime Buitrago is a 2017 MBA candidate at Weatherhead School of Management. Born in Bogota, Colombia. He received his undergraduate degree in Law from La Universidad de Los Andes in Bogota, Colombia, and have a graduate specialization degree in Negotiation Strategies from the same university. He worked in his startup project in real estate and in his family business in health and construction, especially managing the developing projects of commercial and office spaces in Bogota and Cartagena, Colombia.
In this trip, Jaime is interested in learning which are the difficulties that startups have to deal with in Argentina and how the government and the private sector is working to help in the success of the startups. Additionally, Jaime has the interest to know how entrepreneurs are helping to their country to overcome the economic deceleration that had suffered Latin America during the past years. |
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