João Pedro Vieira (MBA ’19) earned both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Economics from Pontifícia Universidade Católica in Brazil. While studying. he interned with Dell in Brazil and Phytobiotics Futterzusatzstoffe GmbH in Germany. After completing both degrees, João started his own business, a soccer-themed bar/restaurant called The Soccer Point. Within two years, the restaurant expanded to three locations around Porto Alegre, Brazil and a larger chain made an offer to purchase the business from João. After some consideration, he decided to sell and pivot his career by getting an MBA.

Choosing Chapman

João decided he’d stick to schools in California, so he could move closer to his sister. Sticking with his mathematical roots, João, created a list of grad schools in California and measured them based on rankings and appeal. After narrowing it down to just 11 schools, João applied and was admitted to ten. He carefully toured each campus and ultimately chose to earn his MBA at Chapman’s Argyros School of Business and Economics.

Chapman stood out from the other schools for João, especially through the thoughtful and personalized attention he received from our Assistant Director, Graduate Business Programs, Dawn Brewer. For International students, the application and moving process can be complex, but “Dawn was great throughout the admission process and really made things feel easy,” João recalls.

Getting Involved on Campus

Early on João got involved at Chapman by joining the Investment club and working as a Grad Assistant in the Graduate Business Office. This connection turned into an economics tutoring role for Executive MBA students. In his second year, João started looking for post-graduation opportunities. He partnered with Stacey Moynahan in Argyros Career Services to find internship and job opportunities. Over the summer of 2018 Stacey connected João with Channel Bakers. Channel Bakers is a advertising and marketing agency that specializes in helping brands develop channel marketing and merchandising strategies leveraging data and analytics.

Internship Turned Job Offer

They originally hired João as an intern in August 2018. Since he has been doing such an amazing job working directly with clients to build their Amazon advertising strategies, Channel Bakers already offered him a full-time role upon graduation. They will also be sponsoring him for his H1-B Visa so he can stay on after his student Visa expires.

João was one of the 46 highest achieving Argyros School students who was celebrated at the April 10 Honors Award Ceremony where he was inducted into the prestigious business honors society, Beta Gamma Sigma.

Congratulations, on this amazing opportunity, João! Your hard work and commitment to excellence will continue to take you far.