Since I was six, my family has volunteered to help the desperately poor and medically underserved in the remote village Boucan Carre, Haiti. Until my sisters and I were old enough to volunteer in Haiti ourselves, we would help from home, picking up donations, organizing annual benefits, and leading fundraisers. When I was fourteen, my parents fostered a Haitian boy, who was seeking medical treatment for growth hormone deficiency and malnutrition. Due to his condition, at the age of twelve, [he] stood three feet tall, weighed 45 pounds, and wore a 5T size in clothing. He was sweet and playful, but at times struggled to overcome anger, sorrow, and self-harm, resulting in violent and often public outbursts. We loved [him] despite the challenges, and our family adapted. My parents were, rightly, consumed with [him] and his well-being, so I embraced the role of mediator within our large family. I took on a parent role to my younger sister, who felt neglected, and I supported my parents to ease their burden. Though fostering [him] was difficult, we grew stronger as a family and in our relationships to both Diego and each other. I had expected to take on the role of older sister to Diego, but I never anticipated that my role with my younger sister, or my parents, would change as well. Interpersonal relationships are complex and dynamic, and through the experience, I learned that a significant change to an established system, like my family, can create a ripple effect that can be difficult to predict.  

 

In my professional experience, I have seen how targeted investments can have a similar unforeseen ripple effect on communities, positive or negative. For example, recent infrastructure investments by telecommunications companies have improved access to the internet in Africa, which has earned these companies’ higher subscriber growth, their intended outcome. The unintentional, although positive, ripple effect was that it paved the way for growth in digital finance in the region, giving millions of people access to credit and financial accounts who would not otherwise have them. Similarly, private equity has a place in the global economy as a stimulus for growth, innovation, and productivity, and also as a means to connect excess capital to companies seeking it. In my time at [Private Equity Firm], my team has invested in large companies based in South Korea, Germany, and the Netherlands. The investments have resulted in net job growth and productivity gains in their respective locations. However, the economic value of global investment activity and its ripple effect is not going far enough to affect villages like Boucan Carre or people like Diego. My hope is that with a deeper understanding of local cultural dynamics, international private equity investment can improve its impact and reach.  

 

As a Lebanese-American growing up in a small Tennessee town, I learned to navigate the juxtaposed perspectives of my family in Lebanon and my environment in Knoxville and bridged the gap between the two cultures. Professionally, I have found that connecting across cultural divides is important for effective communication. For example, I work closely with a company based in Seoul, and through interacting with colleagues there, I observed that professional culture in Korea is far more formal than in America. Drawing on my experience connecting my Lebanese and southern cultures, I trained my own mannerisms to improve our communication, even in minor ways such as referring to familiar colleagues as “Mr.” or Ms.” By improving my awareness of cultural nuances and adapting my communication habits, our interactions became more effective and, eventually, more frequent, which helped information flow across the two groups. 

 

I want to invest in international markets, where I can apply my skills in finance and my perspectives on relationships and working across cultures to make an impact on the poorest communities. Upon graduation, I want to join an operations-focused private equity firm with international reach, because investing in developing markets will be at a smaller scale than my work thus far at [Private Equity Firm] and will require more operations improvements to create value for individual communities.  

 

To be successful in my goal, I need a broader business base. My education and career have been narrowly focused in finance and at arms’ length. At my firm, we talk about the complexities of integrating acquisitions, but I have never integrated disparate IT systems myself or seen the work that goes into it. We tell our investors about operational improvements we can make, but I have never run manufacturing equipment or improved output. The next step to fill these gaps is to gain greater understanding in new areas of business. Based on my discussions with current students (e.g., [HBS Alumni ’19) and alumni (e.g., [HBS Alumni] ’16) who are colleagues, I know that HBS is the best program to attain this broader business base and to engage myself in a campus community. I will take advantage of courses such as Managing International Trade and Investment to understand the landscape of foreign investment, and TOM to deepen my understanding of operations, an area in which I am weak today. I will learn from section mates from diverse backgrounds who view problems and approach solutions differently. I can apply my experiences to real life scenarios in cases and group assignments. I hope to pursue a FIELD immersion program where, for example, my group could implement a new product in a developing community, execute a marketing strategy at a small scale in a foreign country, and confront real, localized problems in the process. I plan to join the Investing Club to learn from peers from other asset class backgrounds, like start-ups or international growth equity. There, I can leverage my experience leading Notre Dame’s Wall Street Club by organizing speaker series around broader investment strategies, including social impact and emerging markets, which will develop my understanding of localized investing in international markets.  

 

Private equity investment has the potential to positively impact communities like [my brother’s]. By transcending cultural divides, investments can create opportunities that are mutually beneficial to local populations and businesses, creating jobs and new industries that improve quality of life for low-income communities, while being economically attractive for companies. I know HBS can deliver an MBA experience that provides me with the broad business foundation I need to be effective in targeted investing in developing markets.