Matthieu, who is French by citizenship and Swiss-Italian by upbringing, began looking for a highly ranked school “where I could have the opportunity to get to know all my fellow classmates.” He also focused his search on the South, which has become a hub for the automotive industry and would also allow him to experience a section of the United States that was unfamiliar to him. He never had the opportunity to visit Vanderbilt, but the people he met at an MBA convention in Los Angeles helped him conclude that Owen was the right choice for him. 

His first-year experience only validated his decision. At Owen, he says, “you can set your goals as high as you want and learn through trial and error how to achieve those goals. [During the recruiting process] the community supported me through both failure and success, and what makes this place so great is that we all help each other to be the best we can.” 

After a summer internship with MHP-Americas- A Porsche Company in Atlanta, Matthieu is poised to make the career leap he dreamed of. Meanwhile, the classroom isn’t the only place where his colleagues might listen to him supportively. In his downtime, he likes to DJ (sometimes playing gigs around town), and he has his own show on WRVU, the campus radio station.