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Greetings from beautiful Seattle, Wa...well to be exact, beautiful Bellevue, Washington which is just a . In Colorado terms, it’s about the same distance from Louisville to Boulder. But we’ll get back to this later.

My name is Scott Ibaraki and I’ll be taking over the MBA Blog from the esteemed Susanna Wright as she thrives in post-graduation life with her new job in Wisconsin. We wish her the absolute best and appreciate all that she did for the Leeds School of Business!

As for me, I’m a second year Marketing MBA candidate hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area. Prior to attending ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ, I received my undergraduate degree in Environmental Biology and Management from UC Davis and subsequently worked for a handful of years in both the environmental sector in Washington, DC and in sports sales at two MLB teams in DC and the Bay Area (). Now, I’m catapulting my career forward by combining all of my past experience in public relations, campaigning, sales and marketing with my Leeds MBA education to become a marketing maven. But, enough about the past - let’s get to the fun stuff!

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be running the Summer Internship Spotlight Series, highlighting an array of second year Leeds MBA students and their internship experiences this summer!

First up, it’s yours truly! As I mentioned earlier, I’m enjoying my summer in the greater-Seattle area at headquarters working as an Associate Marketing Manager on the Experience and Loyalty Postpaid Revenue team. What does all that mean? In essence, we optimize revenue and create value for existing customers by driving changes and innovation in several areas, most notably value added services and products.

I’ve been tasked with several responsibilities, but the majority of my time and effort has been directed toward two significant projects. Though both are not public yet, I can say that the first strengthens my project management skills, while the second allows my creative juices to flow as I segment, target, position and innovate on an idea. My first year marketing professors including Pete McGraw, Heather Kennedy and Jay Waddell should be proud that much of their teaching is helping me get the job done.

As a career-switcher coming into the Leeds MBA program, I wanted to experience life on a marketing-focused team at a large company. T-Mobile fit that criteria perfectly and brought along with it a uniquely wonderful company culture captained by the magenta-tinged, rockstar CEO himself, John Legere. As interns, we’ve been lucky enough to participate in several sponsored events including the , which gives T-Mobile retail, customer care and corporate employees access to the senior leadership team and insight into what’s coming next for the company. In fact, the company’s CFO, Braxton Carter, is a ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ alum, which made his talk on financials extra exciting for me. Actually understanding what EBITDA and Free Cash Flow meant was also a big plus (thanks Corporate Finance class!). The event was followed by a gigantic happy hour and free tickets to see the Seattle Mariners take on the Boston Red Sox in a thrilling matchup at Safeco Field.

Other intern-focused programming includes a field trip to the highest performing T-Mobile call center in the nation, a community service day at a botanic garden, a summer picnic at Lake Sammamish, another Mariners game and several more intimate talks with individuals from the senior leadership team. Beyond work, I’ve made lifelong friendships with students from MIT, Vanderbilt, Franklin and Marshall and the University of Washington to name a few, and have been fully enjoying everything the great Pacific Northwest has to offer, including breathtaking hikes, mouthwatering seafood and the legendary music scene. All in all, this summer has been a whirlwind in the best way possible and my internship with T-Mobile has been fantastic. I can’t wait to see what the next year has in store!