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Distance Learning MBA Alumni, Maureen Leber '08

Erick Reinartz-Carbonell '08, Mexico
“Participating in this program provided me with extremely valuable tools to interact with distinct cultures and build a strong cross-cultural team, while [also] providing me with new challenging professional opportunities [and] providing my family with exposure to our very diverse and rapidly changing world.”


Erick Reinartz-Carbonell '08

Erick Reinartz-Carbonell’s three children, 8, 6 and 5-months, have inherited a global family legacy: Spanish and German familial origins, a globe-trotting father who lived in Switzerland for six years of his childhood and studied in both Mexico and the United Kingdom, and their own varied birthplaces: Mexico, the United States and Switzerland.

Exposing his children to the global world has always been important to Reinartz-Carbonell, a chemical engineer who wanted to expand into a business career while focusing on his family life.

“Thunderbird’s Distance Learning Global MBA program gave me the opportunity to balance my work, family and study time – and it gave me the ability to study with people from all over the world,” says the 38-year-old.

Before beginning Thunderbird’s Global MBA program, Reinartz-Carbonell had earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in chemical engineering, working for eight years in the pharmaceutical industry at GlaxoSmithKline in Mexico and North Carolina, and Valeant Pharmaceuticals in Mexico, Argentina and Brazil.

“I wanted to broaden my scope of studies from technical and engineering to general business, in particular, in areas related with finance, economics, marketing and general management,” explains Reinartz-Carbonell. “Thunderbird’s reputation made the choice easy.”

A year after beginning Thunderbird’s Global MBA, Reinartz-Carbonell was tapped to lead supply chain operations for healthcare product and pharmaceutical company, Novartis OTC, based in Switzerland.

“I am responsible for Novartis OTC operations in all of Europe, ranging from third-party manufacturing management and operations of our manufacturing site in Geneva to distribution operations in 21 European markets, demand and supply planning and new product introduction coordination.”

Reinartz-Carbonell says the most challenging aspect of his job is ensuring that global and regional strategies are adapted to local market needs – from both a business and a cultural perspective. “Even though the EU has provided significant political and economic synergies, the different countries in Europe have very distinct cultures, and it is important to be aware of these differences in order to keep teams across the region motivated and focused.” His experience with Thunderbird's curriculum, Reinartz-Carbonell says, helped tremendously in this area.

Even though he’s on the road 25 percent of the time – mainly in Paris, London, Munich, Milan, Barcelona, Warsaw, Athens and Istanbul – he says he wouldn’t have it any other way. “I have always enjoyed the international setting, and I am convinced that the ability to conduct business in a global arena will continue to increase in importance.” But … when he does have downtime, the husband and father of three hits the Swiss slopes with his family any chance he gets.