Giorgio Zanardi was born and raised in Italy and now lives in southwest Florida. He is a sales manager for an Italian manufacturing company, managing big industrial projects with U.S. and South American customers. During the EMBA program, he balanced work demands, family obligations and a challenging academic work load in a language that is not his native tongue. He was recognized by UT faculty as the EMBA Outstanding Student of the year for his high GPA, strong work ethic and thought leadership in the classroom.

As a professional with an international business career, the UT EMBA added significant value to his skill set. He noted that “the last 20 months as an EMBA student have been a whirlwind of excitement, learning and astonishment as I realize how much discipline, rationality and science is required to operate a successful business. I am confident that all these courses will make me a much better educated, highly insightful and more prepared executive.”

Zanardi credits his success to professors who brought both strong academic backgrounds and solid business world experience to the classroom, as well as his cohort members who represented a variety of businesses and industries — all who helped him expand his horizons to learn and grow not only as a professional, but as a person as well.