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Adam believes in the power of education to transform lives. Adam has worked in the education industry since 1995 as a corporate English trainer in Japan, as a program marketer at the University of California Berkeley and Kaplan, and since 2001 as a graduate admissions consultant, where he works with clients worldwide. Adam joined AIGAC shortly after founding his own business in 2007. He has been writing a blog on graduate admissions since 2007.
Adam graduated from INSEAD’s Executive Masters in Consulting and Coaching for Change program in 2016. His Master’s thesis focused on MBA admissions interviews. He has a BA from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an MA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Originally from Los Angeles, Adam has been based in Japan since 2001.
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Founder of LaBalle Admissions (previously mbaSpain, founded in 2005), Candy is an expert in the educational admissions consulting industry. In addition to her current term on the Board, Candy served as a Board Member in 2012 and 2013. She has chaired or co-chaired several AIGAC conferences, including those taking place at Harvard, MIT, Columbia, Cornell, Yale SOM, NYU Stern, Kellogg, Chicago Booth, London Business School, INSEAD, HEC Paris, and IESE. Candy is regularly featured in publications about the MBA application process and was voted in 2022 as the number one admissions consultant in the world by Poets&Quants. Candy has a degree in Anthropology and has worked as a researcher and travel writer for years. She lives in Madrid.
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With 20+ years of experience in admissions consulting, career coaching, education, and recruitment, Eric Lucrezia has supported candidates worldwide to make the next leap in their education and careers. Beginning with his first role in undergraduate admissions in the US in 2000, up until his most recent role as the Director of Recruitment for MBA Programs at ESSEC Business School in Paris and Singapore, Eric has developed a global and multi-level perspective on what gives MBA applicants a competitive profile in the eyes of admissions committees.
The various professional experiences throughout Eric’s career that have been formative in becoming an MBA Admissions Consultant include teaching English in several countries, including at the prestigious French Ecole de Guerre, working in sales and marketing as a real estate agent in New York, and participating in conference or events where he presents numerous topics, including Interviewing in English, Personal Branding, Using LinkedIn like a Pro, and Networking with Class.
You can find Eric every week, streaming live as the host of weekly vidcast, MBA Waves, every Tuesday on LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube, where you can get loads of brilliant free tips from the guests he hosts, including many other fantastic coaches and consultants from the AIGAC community.
He is also the author of the growing DIY guidebook series “Getting into an MBA.” These are country-specific DIY admissions playbooks, like the Lonely Planet Travel Guides, but for business schools, that take you on the admissions journey from A to Z.
Since 2010, Eric has lived in Paris, France.
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Paulo Cesar is currently Partner and Managing Director at Philadelphia Consulting, located in São Paulo, Brazil. He obtained his Master’s and Doctor’s degrees in Education Administration at BJU, Greenville, SC, and returned to Brazil, having founded and operated Philadelphia Consulting for the past 28 years, offering GMAT and TOEFL Preparatory Programs and Admissions Advising to Brazilian customers. Life Motto: “Destiny is not a matter of chance, but a matter of choice”.
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Thomas began his university studies as an aspiring Chemical Engineer, eventually switching to Business Studies, culminating in his MBA from Seattle University (1996). Professionally, Thomas enjoyed a successful corporate career as Regional Sales manager, in the USA and Greece. His
meanderings took him across Latin America, most of Europe, and the Middle East, managing the distribution network of various medical equipment companies.
In 2012, together with his spouse, Dia Gerontoudi, he co-founded the Dia Gerontoudi Prep Center in Athens, a GMAT/GRE prep school, where he took on the role of Head of Admissions Consulting. With scores of successful applicants in the top European and American universities, both in Master and MBA programs, Thomas has established himself as the go-to person for bespoke application consulting and expert interview coaching.
In his spare time, Thomas continues his involvement in sports and fitness, always looking for opportunities to enjoy his definition of heaven: basking in the sun at some forgotten beach on a Greek island.
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Preeti Wadekar is a global higher education consultant and holds an MBA from Columbia Business School. She is also a certified Career, Executive & Life Coach. She brings over 17 years of corporate and international business experience, working with brands such as EY,
Siemens and KPMG in business areas of governance, enterprise risk management, statutory audit, accounting, human resources, project management, behavioural change management & communications, talent management and leadership development.
She also leads the MBA Admissions Consulting team at The Red Pen working with high potential entry-level executives around the world for admissions to competitive global business schools. As a Board member of the Association of Graduate Admissions Consultants, she has unique insights to enable students to make informed choices about global education opportunities, while providing holistic guidance to navigate complex admissions processes.
She has studied and lived in the USA for over 9 years as well as travelled to, worked in and led teams across 25 countries including the UK, Germany, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, France, South Africa, Chile, Brazil and more, enabling her to work seamlessly with culturally diverse clientele and global organisations.
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Amit is a veteran of Wall Street, large-cap technology companies, and 10+ years at Sparrey Consulting coaching next-generation business leaders into business school, Amit joined SCG full-time in 2018. In his role, Amit is expanding coaching programs, managing alumni relationships, and helping launch new products to supplement SCG’s coaching services. In the meantime, Amit still coaches a cross-section of clients directly, provides a sounding board for other coaches, and celebrates every client’s success with a mixture of fist-bumps and emojis. In his spare time, Amit volunteers at local schools,& loves games, whiskey and creating learning opportunities for his two daughters.
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Chris is a co-founder of MBA Prep School. He is also the immediate Past President of AIGAC and chair of the Sponsorship Committee.
Chris has 20+ years of experience in top-tier management consulting as a partner, managing director, and executive vice president. More recently, he has been focused on helping to fund and grow promising early-stage companies applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to help address health, safety, and environmental issues in heavy industries.
Chris enjoys hiking with his wife and sons or sharing a good glass of Australian red wine.
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Mennette grew up in Southern California, graduated from Claremont McKenna College, and then studied comparative and English literature at the University of Chicago.
While in grad school, she started working for the business school evaluating applications to the MBA programs, which she enjoyed more than teaching undergrads. She decided not to finish her PhD dissertation on Samuel Beckett and instead returned to California, where she became the Assistant Director, then Associate Director of MBA Admissions for UC Berkeley Haas. She made thousands of admissions decisions for both the full- and part-time MBA programs and met a wide range of candidates at recruiting events and admits receptions.
While living in San Francisco, she joined the University of Chicago Alumni Club Board, planning monthly events all over the Bay Area, becoming President of the club, and working closely with UChicago staff. (She met her husband at an event!) She was then selected to serve on the international Alumni Board of Governors for 6 years, meeting in Chicago twice a year.
In 2008 she started working for a large firm as an MBA admissions consultant. Five years later she and a fellow consultant started Admissions Unlimited. Now she runs the firm on her own in Austin, Texas and loves working with applicants from all over the world.
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Each year we solicit nominations for Board of Director candidates to run for three seats with a three-year term. Learn more.
The first step towards a board position is to volunteer for one of our committees or suggest a new one if you have great plans or ideas that don’t fit into our current structure. Our current committees (and current chairs in parentheses) are:
Please get in touch with the committee chairs if you’d like to get involved!
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Put your talents and great ideas to work (not to mention bolster your resume) by joining an AIGAC Committee or the Board! Please note, this is open only to current AIGAC members.
Please provide the following information and one of our team will be in touch shortly to explore how you can get involved with AIGAC!