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Club President Interview
Odemiro Fonseca A good MBA is much more than an academic experience. It's a personal experience, where you learn how to look at your interests in life, your career, your values.
Odemiro Fonseca,
WG'75
Co-founder
Viena Rio Restaurants
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Career
Worked for 15 years in the financial markets, including 10 years with Citibank, living in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, New York, and Porto Alegre.

In 1980, co-founded Viena Rio Restaurants, part of a group that operates restaurants in Rio and São Paulo, employing 2,300 people and serving 1.1 million clients per month.

While building Viena Rio, also acted as a consultant for financial markets and managed the Instituto Liberal, a Policy Research Institute, for more than eight years.

Currently president of the Brazilian National Restaurant Association.

Alumni Involvement
Member, Wharton Executive Board for Latin America since its establishment in 1991.

Helped organize Wharton Global Alumni Forums in Rio de Janeiro in 2001 and 2006.

Works closely with MBA student coordinators in organizing Wharton’s annual Global Immersion Program (GIP) in Brazil.

Major
Banking

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On Wharton and Brazil
When I was at Wharton, I was one of only a couple of students from Brazil. It completely changed my career track. When I returned to Citibank, I was given much more responsibility and sat on senior committees, and later started my own business.

As Brazil became more sophisticated in the financial markets, it started to discover Wharton, and Wharton started to discover Brazil, too. The students graduating from Wharton today are going to be very important in Brazil over the next 20 years. I think the major impact they’ll have is from the entrepreneurial spirit in the Wharton community, which is higher than I see in other schools. The Wharton graduate is much more of a risk-taker. This is important, because we badly need entrepreneurs in Brazil, and that includes entrepreneurs in big companies, not necessarily just starting from scratch.

On the alumni network in Brazil
We’re a close-knit alumni community in Brazil, with about 400 in the country and more outside. It’s very young and concentrated mostly in Rio and São Paulo – so we are close to each other. We help each other in professional terms, and in other terms also. When something comes up, we get together. We can do miracles.

The GIP is my pet project with the School. Since it started in 1993, we have brought 600 non-Brazilian Wharton students to Brazil through this program. It plays an important role, not only for students to get to know Brazil, but also to raise the Wharton brand within the Brazil corporate community by having companies meet and become familiar with Wharton students. It's a lot of fun, too.

On Wharton's international network
Wharton has become a very international school, much more so than other business schools. Today, more than 50% of Wharton students were not born in the U.S. That’s impressive. And we use this international network both personally and professionally. I have visited colleagues in all continents and I have hosted alumni from all over the world. There is this "Wharton etiquette" that permits us alumni to relate at ease with each other in any part of the world.

Some years ago, a very young but respected IT specialist in Brazil called me and said, "We're going to have a very important IT congress in Brazil, and a Japanese expert is coming to be a keynote speaker. He is a Wharton graduate, and I'd like very much to meet with him." Through the Wharton network, I introduced myself and invited the Wharton alum to a private dinner in São Paulo with several of these young engineers. Everybody clearly enjoyed the experience, including the Japanese visitor. This kind of opportunity helps, and it happens a lot, because Wharton is so international. It was a clear case of the "Wharton etiquette" at work.

On the Wharton experience
A good MBA is much more than an academic experience. It’s a personal experience, where you learn how to look at your interests in life, your career, your values. You learn to calibrate your expectations on a higher level and move forward. You learn the value of someone who takes charge and does not make excuses. It’s an international experience that in most cases is also extremely valuable to your spouse. And of course, there are the academic and cultural experiences. I tell prospective MBA students that to have this kind of experience, you have to go to a very good school, and Wharton is one of the best you can find in the world.