Mariano Batalla , 2011, Costa Rica

Batalla Abogados, Managing Director - San Jose, Costa Rica 

How did your Fletcher experience prepare you for your current job?

In my current job, I must excel as a leader, communicator, decision maker and team manager. My experience at Fletcher critically enhanced my competencies to become the high-level strategic decision maker, employee motivator and driver of change the company requires me to be.

On a meaningful relationship with a faculty member: Larry Harrison and I became close since before I had even been accepted to Fletcher. After taking his seminal course, he introduced me to Fernando Reimers who is part of Fletcher's Cultural Change Institute and with whom I ended up teaching at Harvard. The opportunity to have Larry as a professor, thesis advisor and friend profoundly impacted my professional life. His candor and advice pushed me to bring my ideas to life. I will be forever grateful to him.

Favorite book:

Culture Matters (although there are a few more)

Favorite blog:

Harvard Business Voices

Experience when you felt the farthest from home:

Playing a football match against villagers of a Cambodian rural town

Most pressing world issue:

Universal access to clean water

Most interesting person you have met at Fletcher:

Founder of a women's empowerment program in sub-Saharan Africa

Thesis Topic

Advancing Entrepreneurship in Costa Rica: Education as a Conduit for Cultural Change

Fields of Study

  • Strategic Management and International Consultancy
  • Self Designed - Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Activities involved in at Fletcher

  • Net Impact
  • International Business Club
  • Latin America Group
  • Fletcher Futbol

Education before Fletcher

  • JD, Honours, Universidad de Costa Rica
  • BA, Law, Universidad de Costa Rica

Experience before Fletcher

  • Batalla Abogados, Associate - San José, Costa Rica
  • CISV International, Regional Manager and Program Trainer - San José, Costa Rica

Languages

  • Spanish
  • French
  • Portuguese
  • English

Summer Internship

  • Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, Global Engagement Team - Arlington, VA