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As the son of diplomats, Sandro Azzam, MFin ‘23, enjoyed a global childhood: Italy, Lebanon, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, and South Korea. As a future corporate financier, he found an intellectual home at MIT. At Sloan, he’s involved with the Student Senate and is vice president of the Management Consulting Club.This summer, it’s off to the Midwest for an internship at Boston Consulting Group in Chicago. Someday, he hopes to combine his love of politics and finance to drive change through a role in the public sector.
Sandro arrived in Kendall Square directly from Università Bocconi in Milan, eager to sharpen his financial acumen right away.
“My motto is: First, you learn; then; you earn; finally, you return,” he says.
Why choose MIT? Sandro says, “MIT is the only master of finance program in the United States that’s truly a master of finance and not a master of financial engineering. It lets you explore all the topics of finance, not just quantitative finance. There’s also a special emphasis on what MIT calls Action Learning: learning by doing. We’re paired with real-life companies, and I think that’s unbeatable.”
See what a typical day for for Sandro looks like in the photo gallery below!
A Day with Sandro
8:30 a.m.
My day starts bright and early with Mergers Acquisitions and Private Equity with Professor Nat Gregory. He’s the perfect mix of industry practitioner and academic: He used to be a partner at Lazard Freres & Co, worked in private equity, and was the CEO of an oil and gas company — and then decided to swap in academia! We get his real-world and academic perspective, which I think is really awesome.
8:45 a.m.
Love it or hate it, Professor Gregory cold calls. He’ll ask questions about a specific case that he’s designed. You can’t get away with slacking off! It’s definitely a good way to keep us on our toes.
9:45 a.m.
After class, I run into Alex Kitsberg, MFin ‘23, and Chris Pusterla, MFin‘22. Alex is also concentrating in corporate finance, and we chat.
10:00 a.m.
On the way to my next class, I catch up with Clemens Martin, MBA ‘23, and Garrett Maples, MBA ’22, about ongoing Sloan Senate bylaws revisions. We’re revamping them for the next academic year, and I’m going to lead that effort. I’ve loved student government ever since high school.
10:15 a.m.
It’s time for Global Economic Challenges and Opportunities with Professor Kristin Forbes. This is a really interesting, high-level international economics class. It teaches us: How do we evaluate countries? How do we evaluate risk? And how do we evaluate policy response? I’m always happy when I’m in an econ class.
10:30 a.m.
Professor Forbes is a phenomenal lecturer. She also has a lot of industry experience as an external member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee. She was also on the White House Council of Economic Advisers — the youngest person ever!
11:15 a.m.
I walk to the MIT Sloan Senate meeting with Patrick Campbell, MBA ’22, and Vlad Kondratiuk, MBA ‘22. I’m excited: I’m about to be appointed co-chair of the Senate Admin Committee. I hope to make sure that we work together as a team properly. We’re also going to be very heavily involved in working on club funding for student life. This is really the glue that keeps the rest of the committees together. I also hope to improve the international student experience. The MFin program is extremely international. That priority hits very close to home for me.
11:30 a.m.
Our meeting is at the Muddy Charles, our on-campus pub. It’s going to be a long day for me, so I don’t drink any beer!
12:45 p.m.
I walk back from the Muddy Charles with Vlad Kondratiuk, MBA '22. He’s from Ukraine. I'm half-American, half-Lebanese. We had an interesting conversation about how it’s our duty to return home at some point in our careers to be an active part of the change that we’d like to see on the political, economic, and financial levels.
12:55 p.m.
Before my next class, I answer a quick message from an incoming MFin about classes. I recommend Applied Macro and International Economics. I’m a total econ geek.
1:00 p.m.
It’s time for Analytics of Finance with Professor Alexis Montecinos. He’s an absolutely hilarious professor. He makes a really big effort to make the real world applicable to whatever he’s teaching in class. I definitely appreciate that.
2:30 p.m.
I’m delving into a group assignment for my M&A and Private Equity class with some Italian classmates. It’s a great opportunity to for me to practice. I’ve been told that my Italian has actually improved since I moved, which I find absolutely hilarious.
2:45 p.m.
I take a break for a call with a friend from high school, Antonio Chelala. We often bounce start-up ideas off each other.
3:00 p.m.
I run into Betty Zhang, MFin ‘23, and Haiyi Zhang, MFin ‘23, two of the MFin senators. I give them a quick update about our Senate meeting earlier.
3:30 p.m.
Time for a quick meeting with William Høiness, MFin ‘23, Alex Kitsberg, MFin '23, and Emil Syrén, MFin ‘23, in the MFin Lounge. We have a chat about our internships and give one another advice on how to perform well over the summer. It’s going to be an intense few months for us. We’re working in different industries: consulting and investment banking.
4:00 p.m.
My last class of the day is Central Banks, Monetary Policy, and Global Financial Markets with Professor Athanasios Orphanides. He was the former governor of the Central Bank of Cyprus and on the governing council of the European Central Bank. If anyone’s going to teach about central banking, it’s him. I’m definitely a big fan.
5:30 p.m.
Class is over. It’s off to meet some visiting high school friends for dinner before playing soccer with the MFin soccer team!
