When Cristobal Dupuis, MBA ’22, decided to take the e-commerce skills he had honed in Mexico City to a new life in Canada, he knew a Canadian MBA program would be key to developing a robust local network and expertise.

So he put together his application package, highlighting work in revenue growth and customer acquisition at companies including Linio, one of Latin America's leading eCommerce platforms, a sports apparel company and a cloud-based accounting and administration software firm. Dupuis was accepted to three of Ontario’s top programs, and while Ivey was not initially his first pick, as he learned more about what it had to offer he knew it was where he wanted to be.

“As I started talking with people from the different schools, I could see Ivey was the right choice,” he says. “It has a tight community of learners and its case method approach seemed so practical, as opposed to long, boring lectures.”

That said, there were two classes he was particularly grateful for and that he feels set him up in his current job as senior growth marketing manager with Toronto’s Tonal, which bills itself as the world’s smartest home gym.

The first was a class on decision-making with analytics and the second was on strategy. Thanks to those two classes, he can now make more confident projections about how to spend marketing dollars for the biggest impact.

Dupuis also feels the program’s requirement for making regular presentations helped him sharpen his ability to effectively communicate his ideas. “I’m so much better at that now,” he says.

But he reserves his highest praise for his classmates. Even though his first six months at Ivey were online because of the pandemic, the program’s format meant he and his classmates were able to effectively build off each other’s strengths.

“You prepare for every class with your learning team and that was super helpful,” he says. “If I was struggling with some key topic, they would help me understand concepts I would have found extremely complex a few months prior. Then I would sit down to the exams and I would think, ‘Oh, I know how to do this.’ It was a good feeling.”

Just as significantly, Dupuis was able to pay it back to his fellow student when he was the one with the required expertise.

“It really builds a strong community of people who want to help each other. It’s been a big starting point for me, having this network.”

Dupuis was also pleasantly surprised to realize that network extended to spouses and families. His wife, who was also new to the country, made many good friends because of the program.

“I really feel like I got everything I wanted to get out of it,” says Dupuis.