MBA Alumni Profile: Dato Sandroshvili, Brandeis

Dato Sandroshvili completed his MBA at Brandeis in the USA. The Georgian looks back at his time there and the benefits that he gained from taking an MBA.

Completing an MBA in the United States was one of my long-standing ambitions. After having worked in Economic Development for almost five years, I started researching alternative career opportunities. I wanted to do something different, something radical that would not only change my career, but would also change my life.

Leaving, Georgia, (that's the former Soviet Union, not Atlanta!), moving overseas and starting a career in international finance was an obvious choice. It was also obvious that I would not be able to make this move without an MBA.

MBA scholarship

Like many other young men and women in my position, I began researching schools and submitting applications. At the same time, I applied for a Muskie Scholarship. (Muskie Scholarships are extremely competitive and are awarded to students from the former Soviet Union). I was awarded the scholarship, and through the Muskie Foundation learned of the Graduate School of International Economics and Finance (GSIEF) of Brandeis University.

After doing my research on GSIEF, the choice became very clear. GSIEF had a number of unbeatable advantages: strong competence in international finance, small class size, location in the most important academic and financial centers of the US, and importantly for me, an extraordinarily high percentage of international students.

I enrolled at GSIEF in 1999 and have never looked back at my decision. GSIEF has given me everything that I wanted. It helped me realize that investment banking was the field that I wanted to focus on within international finance. It gave me the tools that I use every day in my job as an Investment Banking Associate in Schroder Salomon Smith Barney (working in financial statement analysis, valuation methodologies and the like) and most importantly, with its unique international profile, GSIEF prepared me for a life within a global institution with global clients.

Post-MBA

Upon graduation, I joined SSSB's Energy group in London. Among the 24 professionals in my group, there are 13 nationalities. The clients that we cover from London include large global oil and gas companies from Western Europe (for example: Royal Dutch Shell, BP, TotalFinaElf, ENI) as well as oil and gas companies from Eastern Europe, Russia, Africa, Middle East and Asia. The diversity is tremendous, which is fascinating. However, managing communications and getting the right message across to the clients can be tricky.

My experiences at GSIEF helped me deal with this challenge with ease. If I recall it correctly, in the class of 2001 we had 40 countries represented and I could have not wished for a better training.

I have never looked back at my choice to enroll at GSIEF. This decision has given my career a tremendous boost and has changed my life. I am confident that everybody who is looking for the same experiences that I was, will find it at GSIEF.