After working for almost 10 years in technology development and engineering, Fabian Serradell knew it was time to take his business skills to the next level. So he quit his job and moved his young family more than 5,000 miles to a foreign country to join the MBA program at the BYU Marriott School of Business.
After graduating from the Universidad de Chile with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, Serradell enjoyed the problem-solving that came with his career. But as he worked on projects, he noticed that many of the people he considered successful could create buy-in and improve the profitability of a business, skills that he felt he lacked. He decided an MBA would be the best way to raise his ceiling, and he was impressed by the fast-moving nature of Utah’s business scene and wanted to experience business in another country. “I loved what BYU Marriott had to offer,” he says.
However, he knew that moving to the United States would require uprooting his small family, adjusting to a new country and culture, and returning to Chile only two years later. But he and his wife decided the potential benefits for their family outweighed the sacrifice, and Serradell began the MBA program in 2022.
Serradell explains how his support network played a critical role throughout his journey. “I probably wouldn’t have done it if my wife hadn’t pushed me,” he says. Being a recipient of the Wilford A. Cardon International Sponsorship from the Whitmore Global Business Center also made graduate education a financial reality. “I’m grateful for those that are willing to give so others can experience things they never thought possible,” Serradell explains.
The generosity of others extended into the MBA program, notes Serradell. “The professors cared about ‘the one’ in many aspects.” Serradell specifically remembers how, as he took an extra finance course, his finance professor, Karl Diether, always took the time to work through his questions: “I’m thankful for those ‘leader professors’ that mobilized me to learn in a deeper way.”
And the principles he learned during his MBA stretched beyond just traditional business concepts. In a class on leadership taught by Kim Clark, the National Advisory Council Professor of Business, he learned principles he says he still thinks about every day. Unlike learning about technical concepts like semiconductors in engineering, where Serradell says that “if you don’t use it, you’re going to forget it,” he says that many of the principles he learned at BYU Marriott are evergreen. “The more time I spend outside of BYU Marriott, the more I recognize that my professors had a real impact.”
Pursuing an MBA at BYU Marriott also allowed Serradell to connect with people from around the world. After being named a recipient of the Eccles Scholars Award as an MBA student, Serradell attended the European Hydrogen Week conference in Belgium and visited several businesses. By the end of his MBA program, he had experienced cultures on three different continents. “Getting to know people with a different background and culture and being willing to try to understand them better was truly a gift,” he explains. “Even with all the opportunities I had in my home country, I can now see many more.”
Serradell wasn’t the only one who left the United States with new skills and connections. His two young children were able to learn English and gain exposure to another culture during their time in Provo, something that Serradell hopes will open doors for them in the future. He’s also grateful for the support his family felt from his classmates and their families, especially for his wife, who had left a career behind, and for his kids, who had left friends. “The experience was for all of us,” he says. “Even now, we reach out to my classmates regularly, even though we’re not in the same country, because they were really impactful for us.”
Now back in Chile after graduating in 2024, Serradell credits the networking insights he gained from the MBA program with helping him find more mentors and land his current position as a senior consultant in supply chain at Deloitte. In his role, he enjoys helping companies across a variety of countries and industries solve technical problems. While Serradell used to second-guess his contributions, he says that his MBA experience gives him confidence in himself and the worth of his skills and perspectives in international business discussions. “Taking risks is really powerful,” he says. “Getting out of my personal bubble and taking risks has changed the way I see life, others, and myself.”
