On the latest episode of the Building Interest Podcast, we are joined by the co-founders of the Hult Undergraduate Investment Group, Alejandro Suarez-Cordova, and Sahil Dhir, to discuss the founding of their organization, their personal leadership journeys and the impact that immigration has had on their growth and success as leaders.

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Episode Transcript

Greg Farber:  
Welcome to the Building Interest Podcast presented by Leader Bank. In season two of the Podcast we are exploring what it means to be a leader through conversations with leaders from the Bank, from within the communities we serve and from across the banking and technology industries. Each conversation will focus on our guests personal leadership journeys, and provide insights on what it means to be a good leader. In our last episode, we were joined by Leader1031 Vice President Western USA Kayla Frerking to discuss her leadership journey as well as the challenges of launching a new product at the Bank in a new target market. Today I have the co-founders of the Hult Undergraduate Investment Group, Alejandro Suarez Cordova and Sahil Dhir to discuss the founding and goals of their organization, their personal leadership journeys and the impact that immigration has had on their growth and success as leaders. Welcome, gentlemen.

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
Thank you, Greg.

Sahil Dhir:  
Thank you for having us.

Greg Farber:  
Always a pleasure. So let's set the scene here a little bit. I've met you, Sahil, through work, obviously, and you've recently joined Leader Bank, but this episode isn't about your work at Leader Bank. This is about something completely different, and leadership you provide in another area with your colleague and friend, Alejandro here. So let's set the scene a little bit. Walk us through how you two first met and kind of how and when you decided that you wanted to collaborate and build something together. How does that happen?

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
I think I'm gonna kick us off. Yeah. So before we met in September 2019. We met in our dorm rooms pretty much.

Greg Farber:    
Were you roommates?

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
Yeah. Not roommates, but we leave the one on my way. Okay, well, we meet in the hallway. And I always saw Sahil as a nice guy. But that was it. We shared we had a couple of classes together. But that was it. Nevertheless, I saw that he was like a very energetic guy. And they always like that I like when people are energetic. And then I saw that he was sharp, he was always looking, you know, to participate in class to do extracurricular activities. And, and that was like, Okay, I like these guys who I'm I'm gonna start speaking to him. So we met each other. And it was great. You know, like, I saw that we shared a lot of vision for the future. He liked seeing things long-term as I do. And he had a passion for business. Like, we didn't know exactly what you know, what side of the business industry, what side of the business world, but we we knew we wanted to, to work in really high-performance and challenging industries. So I think that created a good bond between us.

Sahil Dhir:
Yeah.

Greg Farber:    
Did you see the same thing coming? Or did he come out of left field and say, Hey, you're this energetic guy. I want to start hanging out with you.

Sahil Dhir: 
Oh, no. So I think since day one, you know, I was impressed how disciplined he was. I think, like he said, the values we shared commonly was his ability to look longer term and see the bigger picture. And I think that is something that brought us closer. And over the over the years, we took some classes together. And I specifically remember the entrepreneurship class we took from our professor, Professor Bruce MacKinnon. He was himself a graduate from Harvard MBA 1980 class. And so his classes were pretty competitive. But Alejandro came prepared every time for assignments. He was very presentable. And I knew that he had a deep understanding of business and he was destined to success. So definitely had that vision. And yeah, we kept it all together.

Greg Farber:    
So for those who aren't familiar with Hult, this is a business school here in the Boston area.

Sahil Dhir:
Yes, it's a business school. Its owned and I think the parent company of it is Education First. And Education First is actually a very big organization, big presence in Europe. They do travel and language courses. And yeah, it's located near Museum of Science.

Greg Farber:    
Yes.

Sahil Dhir:
Yeah. So.

Greg Farber:    
So you guys have a couple of classes together, you see each other all prepared and energetic and ready to go and dive in? Did you work on projects together? How did you decide that working together and not just seeing each other Excel separately was a thing,

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
I think it came all to the pandemic. Like during the pandemic, I took a gap year. So I was in Mexico, Mexico City and Sahil was here in Boston. And I knew we I wanted to do something productive. Because I am the type of guy that always wants to do something productive.

Greg Farber:    
You take a year off only to not take it off, but to do something.

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova:   
So I took exactly so I took the year off. Because my parents told me, Hey, we send you to the US. So you could leverage all of the beautiful things that being abroad, like offers to you, you know, like meeting a lot of people networking, getting out of your comfort zone. So what's the point of having you there? If you're studying online via zoom, so why don't you take a year off, then wait for the pandemic to ease And we send you back. So I said, Okay, let's do it, I'm, I'm, I'm on for it. Nevertheless, I'm the type of guy that doesn't even like to take holidays. I'm not kidding, you know, you know, like, during winter break spring break, I just need three days off, and then I'm ready to ready to go, ready to rock and roll. So I said, I want to do something, something new, something big, something that will, you know, like, help us to develop ourselves for our careers and have an edge against other students within the greater Boston area. So I said, I need a guy that's like really committed, has a lot of energy, and that is willing to work. Like late nights, during this extracurricular project, I just call him, I said to him, I have this idea. You want to join forces, and I laid to him, like, I put cards on the table. Okay, so it's just gonna bring any benefit in the next six months, but if we do it appropriately, is going to bring us a lot of good things, at least in the next year.

Greg Farber:  
So this came entirely out of your own vision. This wasn't like a, a professor-sponsored project, or this is just you guys saying, we need to do something more and deciding to form what is it called the Hult Undergraduate Investment Group.

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
I mean, you know, like, not gonna lie, like we had some inspiration from Harvard. I have, I have a Harvard friend, that was part of Harvard Undergraduate Capital Partners. And I liked what they were doing with students and with guest speakers, I saw that they brought a lot of prominent guest speakers. And I remember, I saw how in the middle of the pandemic, they were able to bring Dr. Robert Langer, Co-founder of Moderna, to speak at their club. So I was sitting in my room, and like, you know, like, saying, like, Okay, if these guy that lives one mile away from me, brought Dr. Langer in the middle of the pandemic, I will do it as well. So we created the prospectus for the group, we created like the speaker series called leaders of the business world. And I sent a letter to Dr. Langer. I cold email him. And three minutes later, I received an email saying, let's do it, and I'm on board. And we started rolling like that. And we received a lot of, you know, like resources, and energy from our institution, they support us a lot. And that's how we started pretty much.

Greg Farber:    
That's, that's really amazing. Especially that fast response. Yeah, at this point, it sounds like you were kind of just a loose club of friends, though. Was there any kind of formal structure really to this? Do you like have you did you start as a club among friends? And now you're a formal organization with leadership and and bylaws and things like that are what does this investment group look like?

Sahil Dhir:
So I would, I would want to say a quote here, perception of reality is stronger than the reality itself. And our perception of reality for the club was to do great things to leverage networking here in the Greater Boston area, and to, you know, leverage the ecosystem that we have here for universities, universities, like Harvard, MIT, and we were competing with the students that study there. So you know, our goal was to do great things. We started as a, you know, student run organization. But we always had back of no back of a mind that this is this can grow. This can be a business itself, not a business that's going to produce money. But business. Yeah, but a business that's going to have you exposure to networking, making your connections and learning about financial service industry. So, you know, that's what our perspective was. And I think it pretty much worked out for the best.

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
As far as for the structure of the club. I said to set to Sahil, ok, well, I want to be president. Okay. I want to be president as well. So we're co-presidents. Since then, we started recruiting people. And I said, we need to get a student board. But we need people that are really committed. Yeah. Because what happens with projects isn't that the beginning, everyone's excited, and everyone's like, ready to go. But as time goes by, people start to lose that excitement and that determination, and that's when things die, right? So I said, I need really, really, really committed people. I rather have someone that is really committed and not so knowledgeable of the financial services industry, rather than having a genius from the industry but not committed. So we started recruiting people. And we had a we had a friend Leslie, she was really good at finance. And she had like these, you know, like this ease to go with the school and bring funds and things like that. So she was the VP of Finance. Then we have an Italian friend Pietro. He is really good at networking. He has A lot of connections in other universities in the US and also universities in Italy. So he was the VP of external partnerships. And then we had another friend from India Druvan. He was a day trader, and he wanted to be the head of our of our paper trading. Because just to clarify, we always did paper trading for legal reasons. So because yeah, you know, also we need, we need it to be pretty clear with the club structure, because we're a student run organization. And a lot of people could get confused and maybe think that it's real company, or real, real fun. But no, it's a student-run not for profit organization.

Greg Farber:    
But you set it up with a structure and a vision that's akin to a real business. It wasn't just this loose club of people hanging out in the dorm at night. It was really set up, like you said, with roles and specific goals in mind. So how does that work? Who can who can join?

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
So that's the thing every fall, we open up applications, we...

Greg Farber:  
Within the undergraduate class at Hult? Is it open to others as well?

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
Within the undergraduate and graduate class at Hult and for other people from other universities, we have these roles called the external advisors. So if you want to be an external advisor and cooperate with the club, you can, but it's a different process. But as far as for members within our institution, we basically wanted to do it as if they were applying for an internship within the industry, because we know how tough it is to apply for internships in the financial services industry. And we wanted to show them, okay, you need to start practicing. So we created like this process as if we as if they were applying to Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley. So we created like these, with these, this application, they had to write an essay, they had to send us a resume.

Greg Farber:    
You can sound like business mentors that have been doing this for 30 years and are trying to give back to the community and yet you are yourselves. The students? It's fantastic.

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
I mean, we always took it like very serious, because we will, as we said, like, we know we're competing against the most brilliant minds in the country, we know that Boston is the most talent competitive scene in the world. And I mean, you know, like the track record, the internet was invented here, the telephone was invented here. Mark Zuckerberg was a student when he when he founded the trillion dollars, Facebook. So we always knew that we needed to act as if we were like, not only students, but like, real businessmen, per se.

Greg Farber:    
So you do all this planning? What sort of obstacles do you run into along the way? Do people try to stop you? Did you try to go faster than you should have? Did you run into any roadblocks?

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
Before you start, I think it's worth mentioning that I was in Mexico, while we were doing this process, and Sahil was in Boston. So every day we had we had goals at night. And we had like our objectives. We have like the short term objectives and the long term objectives. And basically, Sahil was the operations guy. And that's why one of his first roles was being you know, like, also vice president of operations, because I couldn't do anything because I was not in Boston. He was the guy who, like we made a consensus, and we got the idea. And he executed the idea within the school. So we created the logo, we created everything, the prospectus, we show it, we show it to the school. And then they said, Okay, this looks like a real company for us. And now we're name is at stake. So it's a no go for us.

Greg Farber:    
So right off the bat, they didn't want their name on it now. So their name is on it now. So how do you get around that?

Sahil Dhir: 
Like Alejandro said before, we were inspired by the Harvard Undergraduate Capital Partners. And they are now a student run organization that managed real funds, connects VCs operations, towards the expertise of the students as well. So we kept our name as Hult Undergraduate Capital Partners, you know, getting the motivation from them on the first go that, you know, they did not pay more attention to the prospectus that, you know, the name doesn't matter, but this is what we want to provide. But then we had to change the name, and we kept Hult Undergraduate Investment Group. So it does sound like it's a nonprofit organization, which it is, and, you know, it's a student run organization. And then, you know, like you said, you know, first time they rejected us, and then we had to...

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova:   
Actually the name didn't include the undergraduates. Yeah, it was just like, Hold Capital Partners. I was like, No, it looks like a company add something else. Okay, undergraduate. And then we had the logo, like the whole logo. And then you see, like, you can't use the logo. You have to change it because it's trademarked and everything. Okay, so I remember I went to PowerPoint. And I looked at very similar fonts. So I created like the Hult name with a different font, different size, different everything, even like the space between letters, it was different. But I made like, exhibit A, and exhibit B with the real logo. And I show them with centimeters and millimeters and millimeters like the difference. So the Hult real logo is like, like the spacing is .10 centimeters for us its .07.

Greg Farber:    
And that was good enough for them?

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova:   
Yeah, it was good. Like, for legal reasons, it was good for them.

Greg Farber:  
So it's recognizable, but acceptable.

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
Exactly. So also for our website, we had to include like in every single like page, like we're a not for profit, not for profit, student run organization. With the link to Hult business School.

Greg Farber:  
So now you started this you put in your all your VP's, and folks, by the way, the folks that you mentioned before the your friends, you mentioned Leslie and get Pietro and things. Are these also students? Or are these people in? In the working environment?

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova:   
All of us are students.

Greg Farber:    
Okay. And so this is all happening. Now. How has this evolved? Since its creation? How many people are members in your group now?

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
We have like 86. Members,

Greg Farber:  
Wow

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
86 members.

Greg Farber:  
They can't all be Co-President VP's.

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
They're just like, we actually gave them titles. So their Analysts.

Greg Farber:    
Okay. Again just like a real business.

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
Exactly. And if they perform, they will be promoted to Senior Analyst. And if they perform, they actually have the possibility to apply to be part of the board. Okay. And when we, because we have to pitch them the idea, we have to sell them the idea. We sell them the idea, it's like, we like to be brutally honest, we don't like to butter up things. So we're honest. And it's like, Look, buddy, like you want to join one of the most challenging industries in the world. Like the acceptance rate of an internship in Wall Street is one 2%. Even, it's even harder to get into one of those internships rather to that rather than getting into Harvard. So you have to put in the work. And you have to show extracurricular activities and other things. So if you have that on your resume, and you say, I did these I was able to support the speaker series, I was able to, to perform and to support the paper trading team, it actually will help you had to learn that internship because even though you have no experience within the industry, it shows the level of commitment you have.

Greg Farber:  
Are you already seeing I know, it's just been a few short years. But are you already seeing any of your members graduating out and having an advantage getting into the business life? Post Graduation? And I'm not just looking at you?

Sahil Dhir:
No, no, definitely. I mean, you know, every member took an advantage from the community, we were able to build, you know, the community we wanted to build, involve people having the passion for it, having the passion to share things and learn from each other. And I think that's one thing that we were able to set up. So anyone...

Greg Farber:  
You really gave them a credential going forward that they could take to a job interview and say, I did this.

Sahil Dhir:
Yeah, exactly. practical learning of whatever you were doing within the walls of Hult International Business School, and being part of Hult Undergraduate Investment Group. It was practical learning, it was learning from our mentors, we had few of our professors advising us, because this industry is competitive. You need to build credibility, you need to have your name in the industry, but as fellow students, we did not have the credibility or the expertise to you know, go dive in and you know, perform something that was different. So, you know, this idea came across that, you know, let's have our professors that have been part of this industry for a long time. So we proposed them that why don't you advise, so we had three professor that advisors, Mr. Michael McCarthy, Professor Robert Nir, and Professor Phillipson. And I think that just gave us a boost up, they were helping us to look into the right direction, to follow a follow a direction that would, you know, expose us to the industry itself. They brought in their own connection as well for us to get started. So you know, that was a huge help. And I think that's how we started things off pretty much.

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
And for those professors, why we chose those three, he was pretty strategic, because Professor Robert Nir he is he is a Professor of Law at Columbia as well in New York. And he has started several businesses. So we knew that we had to cover the legal area with him. So whatever arises whatever we want to consult him regarding something in legal terms, yeah, he was the guy, then Professor Michael McCarthy, he had a lot of experience in Wall Street, managing money. So you know, he's really good at networking. And he's really good at approaching people and creating relationships and synergies. So he was the one that helped students to sharpen up those skills, you know. And then we had Professor Philippson, who is the co founder of hedge, have a small hedge fund here in Boston. And we knew that he was a numbers guy. So he was able to help students with fundamental and technical analysis, and to do stock valuation and other things related to that. So we covered the three main pillars that we thought were relevant for us as students. So one, like most of us being international, we always want to be to be in good terms, with everything related legal terms, yeah, we are friends of the government, we like to be friends with them. And also, again, we wanted to learn from them. What I what I always say to Sahil, and to our guest speakers that we bring, it's not learning from the company, and it's not learning specifically from their position, like the technicals they do is to learning from them. And that's how we approach our speakers. It's, we know that you're a giant of the industry, you're a giant that has gone through a lot. And we want to learn that because as young students and you know, we're going to start our business careers soon. We want to have these edge and have this knowledge that you went through, and will allow us to reach other levels similar like yours. And I think this has worked like pretty good to bring speakers. Our speaker series has brought Dr. Robert Langer, co founder of Moderna, Mr. Sushil Tuli, Chairman of Leader Bank, Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren racing.

Greg Farber:  
I feel like I need to start attending some of yours your sessions. Can I join your group?

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
Former CEO of Aston Martin, also, Jost Capito CEO of William Racing Formula One, Kevin Demoff Chief Operating Officer of the Los Angeles Rams, among other businessmen. And I think we are able to create good synergies with them because we're honest, and we show them, we don't care what you have, we don't care, we don't want to get something from you. Just knowledge. We just want to be your friends to learn from you.

Greg Farber:  
 Appreciate the experiences you can get.

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
Exactly. So I think that has how that has allowed us to create, you know, like good synergies with them and good synergies with other students as well from the greater Boston area. So right now, if you ask me, what is the club and what's like the biggest asset of the club? I think it's community. Yeah, we have students from more than 100 nationalities in the school. And I can assure you that within our club, we have more than 40 nationalities representing you know, so we know that that's going to give us an edge. And that's going to give us something that other student run organizations don't have. So...

Greg Farber:  
So now, at some point, you're going to graduate out of school? Do you remain involved with the group? Or is there a succession plan where a current student has to take it over? Are you are you no longer going to be the co presidents at some point going forward? Or do you stay on and continue to maybe become, I don't know, advisors or something in the group? How does that look going forward?

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
I think Sahil can start out because he graduated, but he's still part of the club. So you can kick us off on that.

Sahil Dhir:
Yeah no, so after graduation, you know, we have a board and you know, we have daily meet regular meetings, every Monday, every Monday every Monday. Yeah, so they asked me they're like, also your, you know, Tata, Bye bye from the school, you want to still be part of the club? I'm like, yes. Because I know, it's such a big asset. I've learned so much within the communities that we build. And there's no way I'm going to leave that. So, you know, I strongly hold my position as co founder and alumni, as well from the club. So I think that's the structure we wanted to set that everyone that started this club was a integral integral member of the club, if he wants, if he or she wants to be a part of the club, we have to have the succession plan. So you know, at that point, we started to think and we started to discuss about, you know, the next batch of the board and we started getting those people on board with us, Julius. Now we have...

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova:   
We have a lot, we started recruiting freshmen as soon as the as soon as the fall semester started.

Greg Farber:  
So again, just like a real company, you have a succession plan.

Sahil Dhir:
So you know, started to think about those things that's going to help the club to stay active. And at the same time to catch up the bigger pace of, you know, the founders are not involved, you know, we'll have our jobs, you will be busy. But we wanted to get the right people that had right vision and shared, not an individual goal vision, this division that you know, as an organization, as a club we shared. So I think that was the key. And I think we have a good team too. Even if you are graduated, I think there's a there's a team...

Greg Farber:  
Theres a vision to carry this on beyond yourselves.

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
Yeah, we know, we know who are gonna be the next co president. Yeah, we know. And they are, we also gave them you know, like the responsibility to start recruiting people for when, like, it's their board now. Yeah. And, again, you know, like, I told them, we told them, we want determined people, we want resilient people, we want people that think outside the box and get out of their comfort zone, if we have learned something from our guest speakers is that we have to go through the difficult path, we have to do the things that nobody wants to do. Because in the end, that's gonna help you succeed and have an edge against other people that you're competing against. So we told him that and, again, we wanted to remind people and I like to say that we want people that have fuel on their veins, you know, like that. They're like, energetic ready to go.

Greg Farber:    
So a lot of obviously, what you guys are doing, and really promoting sort of future leadership, and I want to come back to that in a few minutes. But I want to I want to go away from leadership for a minute, and just kind of go to the past. And you guys are so impressive. The drive the planning, having not just a vision for starting something, but understanding that you have to put certain pieces in place for it to work and everything. Where did you guys come up with is what when were you children, and you were somehow shaped? And somehow you fell into this like, fountain of motivation? Well, how did you become the young adults that you are today?

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
I think we can owe it to our parents like respectively. You know, my dad and my, I can say proudly that my father is a workaholic. And he he likes to have, he doesn't have a work life balance, he has a work life harmony. So he, he always, instead of separating professional life from personal life, he integrated both. So since I was very young, I was always listening, you know, to business conversations he wanted me to learn from his meeting. So he took me to his business meetings, he was always you know, like giving me the gentle nudges of, hey, you have to work, you have to learn you have to because one day you're gonna be a businessman one day, you're you, you will like to do this. So it's better if you start really young. And I thank him a lot for that. And, and yeah, I can I can say it's mostly because of my dad, he has given me these. It's hard to explain your this feeling the sentiment file, I like to work hard, I like to go through tough stuff through, I like to go and, you know, go against what people say it's impossible, can't be done. Or it's unlikely to happen. I like to do that. You know, like, I think I think in these like, we have to go Go big or go home. So yeah.

Greg Farber:  
Sahil, how about you?

Sahil Dhir:
Yup no, so pretty similar sentiment, I grew up in a family with plus 20 members. We all lived in the same house, but you know, had

Greg Farber:  
Different generations?

Sahil Dhir: 
Yeah, so different houses, but they were all connected. And my father's cousins, they started to, you know, build a house together and build a business together as well. So I think that just gave me you know, like, kind of synergy.

Greg Farber:  
How old were you when this was going on around you?

Sahil Dhir:
I was born in that family. I was born within those big

Greg Farber:  
That was just what was happening around you your whole life.

Sahil Dhir:
And, you know, it just gave me growing up. It gave me a perspective, that unity is everything. With those brothers coming together forming a business living together. Nothing was impossible for them. They built a brand that wasn't just profitable, but had presence outside India. So you know, unit unity and synergies were as key words that I think I started to recognize when I came to Boston as well. That this is the way I think moving forward. You know, you have to develop the sense that synergy is real synergy exist. You have to find it and evokes for the greater good and it just boots boost up anything that you're planning to do. So growing up within that environment, I felt you know, I cannot like Alejandro said you know a lot to learn from my father. One thing I think, you know, the biggest take of a living with such family is humility. Humility just grows on you. And I think it's the best. I think the best thing to have, as a leader as, as a student, as, as a son, anything, I think that humility, you, you don't close the door for opportunities, you don't close the door for learning. You know, I think if you tell yourself the more, you know, the less, less close my, the less minded you will be. And I think that was something I realized, growing up within that family. So, you know, kept that humility. I learned from my father a lot about humility and being humble. And that's how I think, I think life takes you to different places when you are humble.

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova:   
Yeah, I agree. Also adding to that, like, as he said, humility, you always have to understand and know that there is going to be always someone superior than you. Yeah. So you can't believe that you're the best. And you can't believe that you're untouchable, you have to say, Okay, I need to keep working hard, because if not someone else is going to, he's going to serve as me or take these that I want or land these job opportunity. So it's like constant work, and remind yourself that you can lose everything in one second.

Greg Farber:    
So you mentioned before, and obviously, you both have an immigration story to tell you obviously mentioned, you hear from Mexico, and then from India. And you mentioned all of the international diversity that you have in your school, and also the number of international countries represented in your group. Do you find that this is there's any struggles related to that as immigrants coming in to unique challenges that made it tough for you to pursue your education and careers? Or was this just you walked in and everyone else was international, too, so you fit right in?

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
I think more than a challenge is, I see it as an opportunity. Because if you're willing to go abroad, to get out of your comfort zone,

Greg Farber:  
You instantly have a bigger view of the world.

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova:   
Exactly. To leave alone to now you start to have to create a budget for yourself to Okay, besides school, I have to do a lot of other stuff related to life. And I think that gives you an edge. I like it. Because let's say when you're in classes with locals or with peers from other schools that are from the Boston area or from the country, I think you're more ready to go through some, let's say struggles, like being alone in the beginning, when you when you're new to a city, when you don't have friends, when you have to pretty much start from zero. So yeah, honestly, I don't see like, there isn't a specific challenge like, oh, well, because I'm an immigrant, I see something that's more of a challenge to know, I see it as an opportunity, actually, it's like, I'm ready to go.

Greg Farber:  
Just another chance for you to grab a hold of something and make the most of it.

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
Yeah, exactly.

Sahil Dhir:
And, and it's like, as an immigrant, you have limited time. And in a city like Boston, where you have all the tools, it's like, this is your chance to do it, with limited times come the comes the pressure. And I think pressure is something that, you know, we both like, and you know, what pressure you have to perform, and with, you know, all the tools, so students from Harvard that are succeeding in life, MIT, like Harvard, like Alejandro said, they were miles away. So if they could have done those things, I think as an immigrant, that doesn't stop you to do the same things, you know, grab those opportunities and exploit them, because you have limited time. So you know, go for it, have open doors open, new up, you know, open for be open to new opportunities. And I think, like Alejandro said, immigration is less than a challenge but a motivator for us to go strong.

Greg Farber:    
So we're going to take a bit of a turn here and go in a slightly different direction. Lack of time, you guys are constantly busy. When you're not studying, you're working when you're not working. You're doing the group when you're not doing this. The other thing? What do you both do when you're not studying working or leading the investment? Do you have any time left over for hobbies? Passions, what what drives you personally beyond everything we've talked about in the last half hour?

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
So for myself, it's motorsport. More specifically, Formula One.

Greg Farber:  
This is how you got all those contacts to come in for exactly guest speakers.

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
Exactly. So when I was two years old, I don't know why. But my family saw that I was like, hugely passionate about cars. So they took me to a race to an IndyCar race in Mexico and I fell in love. And then I started like these huge passion for Formula One. And I remember in 2015 Formula One was going to Mexico, so my friend because my friend, my dad, because of his business, had one of his business partners was organizing the Formula One Grand Prix in Mexico. And they invited me because they knew that I was such a big fan. And I was there. And I was like, like a kid in Disneyland. You know, like the sound of the engines, the smell of the fuel of the burnt rubber.

Greg Farber:  
You get to go up close and personal.

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
Exactly. So I said, I want to, I want to have friends in this world, they want to be part of this world one way or another. So if I'm not a driver, I want to be part of this world.

Greg Farber:  
How come you're not a driver?

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova:   
So I'll get back to you. But I started approaching people introducing myself I was 14, 15 years young. Yeah. So I started introducing myself. Hey, my name is Alejandro I'm very passionate about this sport. And I showed how passionate I was because I really knew the support to the technicals regulations, who were the team owners, the sponsors, so I will I saw them when I was talking to them. Because if I saw who was the chief executive officer of the team, I knew who was him and instead of going to the driver to ask for a picture, I went to him and speak to him and introduce myself. So I was able to make some really good friendships in this sport. And, for example, Franz Tost the Team Principal of School, Scuderia AlphaTauri, he's one of my closest friends within the sport. And he has given me a lot of advice, you know, because I see Formula One as one of the most challenging sports in the world with a lot of stake on it, a lot of you know, financials politics. So him being a head of a team, and if you want to say like a company, he has helped me a lot, he has given me a lot of piece of advice. Then I've met Sean Bratches, he was the managing director of commercial operations of Formula One, when Liberty Media bought the company in 2017. And again, you know, learn from him. Being friends, but hey, I want to learn from you, I want to be like a sponge, you know, like, learn and learn and learn. I saw him actually let two weeks ago here in Boston, really nice guy. And having the opportunity to learn from that people, you know, while enjoying my passion, that is Formula One. So remember that I said, you know, like these work life harmony instead of balance.

Greg Farber:  
When you started off by saying you can't take a vacation sounds like even when you have a hobby, you connect it right back to what you want to do

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
So that's what I like to do. So connected back to the professional side of things. So when I go to Formula One, I know that I'm enjoying the racetrack, the cars, the drivers...

Greg Farber:  
But also everything that goes into making that happen exactly.

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
But then I know I have to network I know I have to meet people I know I have to, to you know, like, ask them about their personal and professional lives, you know, and become their friends because their pieces of advisors so so valuable, you know, there are priceless. And I know, I know that I am, I am where I am right now because of them, like, of course because of my family and my friends, but also because of their support. For example. I am, I'm a I'm a software analyst at Deutsche Bank, in Wall Street. And I'm very, very lucky to be part of that culture, to be part of that family. And I always say that I am there in big part because of my friends from Formula One, because of what they have taught me and because of what I have learned from them. So for me, even my hobbies, I like to connect them to my to my professional life. So as I said, you know, like, it's like a work life harmony. So for me, everything all blends together all blends together and everything becomes an opportunity.

Sahil Dhir:
Yeah, I specifically enjoy music, I play guitar and I sing. So I think whenever I have a time, I would play I would learn new songs. That gives me a sense of calmness. Music as how always helped me to stay motivated to get off your overthinking zone and you know, think straight, make yourself calm. And other than that, I think specificly this year, we started going to a lot of conferences, and personally I enjoyed doing that. Most of the conferences were on Sunday. So three times recently we both went to the global family business conference at Harvard. And I mean, it was it was amazing. It was like the best Sunday spent ever because we would be literally got the opportunity to shake hands with Mr. Bill Ford. And learn from him about Ford Motor Company. Succession about his business as well. Along not just that, but board members from Salvatore Ferragamo family. Yeah, there

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova:   
Ferragamo family,

Sahil Dhir:
I've been inspired by him not to think a lot about work life balance and you know, make a sense of it, where you actually, it blends in and you know, you're learning consistency. I think learning is as is huge. And you never have to stop learning. Yeah.

Greg Farber:  
I think that's really unique. Because, you know, I've heard a lot of people say that they love what they do, because it doesn't feel like work or things like that. And it always sounds a little bit like a cliche. Yeah. And to hear it expressed kind of the same concept in a slightly different way, what you're describing where you're, you're not saying that, that there's only one thing there are more than one things, but to have that, I love the word harmony, right to bring that together to where it's, it's a place that's comfortable for you. And we all relax in different ways. It sounds much more relaxing, to me to sit back and play some guitar, I don't play but that sounds much more relaxing, than running around and chasing down race team owners, but to have the passion and to find a way that that connects back. I think that's, that's really unique. And I love the way you put that. So as we wrap up here, you guys have done so much already. And you're just only starting out really in your professional careers. You started this session just by talking about always looking forward. And that you noticed Alejandro, you noticed style, because you thought he was forward looking and you yourself? Were forward looking. And he noticed that in you? Are you looking ahead? Where Where are you guys gonna be? 10 years, 20, 30 years from now? Where do you see yourselves? And don't tell me you're not looking that far ahead? I know you are.

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
So I think, you know, obviously...

Greg Farber:  
You're gonna own an F1 team, right? This is your goal.

Sahil Dhir:
Inshallah.

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
I mean, that would be great. Not gonna lie. But you know, I think it's good to plan ahead, because you have to, but it can be very, very, very specific. And the reason for that is like, a lot of things happen, you know, an example is the pandemic, never imagined a pandemic is gonna hit and change the world pretty much in the span of a year. So what I like to say is that, I just want to keep in the next 10, 20, 30 years, to keep having the same drive and energy that I'm having right now. I want to work in a high-performance and challenging industry, that I know that I can grow severally that I am going to continue learning day by day. And I also, you know, I don't say a specific industry as well, because you never know the opportunities that may come. So that's one thing I never, I never closed the door to anything, I'm always open. So yeah, right now I enjoy banking. It's a huge passion for me, but you never know, in the next few years, but I just want to know, I just know that in the next 10, 20, 30 years, I want to continue, you know, doing good networking, creating synergies, synergies from the ground up, because you know, the best opportunities come from the most unexpected places. So why want to continue doing that. And I see the club as part of that, for example, after attending the global business conference, now we want to create another arm of the club that focuses on on that focus on creating a network, and alumni network. And we said to the students, hey, most of you are from different countries have family businesses. So let's create a network of like minded individuals. And this is not gonna pay off in the next five years is gonna pay off in the next 30 years. Yeah, because eventually, if we want to start a business, or if we've or if we want to, to do something in whatever country, we're going to have a contract that we want to have someone with expertise in that country and with knowledge. So we have a group of people with 40 Plus nationalities. We are covered in 40 Plus nationalities. And that's what we see.

Greg Farber:  
So you don't know where you're going, but you know how to get there.

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova:   
I mean, hopefully, it's a way to get there. We just know that we're just going to work tirelessly to achieve our goals and go through challenges and adversities to achieve our goals.

Sahil Dhir:
Yeah, same sentiment, I want to be a part of a goal that's bigger than an individual goal and a goal of an organization consistently working to learn and grow. Be humble about all the successes that we are going to incur in future. There's a quote I want to mention, and it was mentioned in one of the books our board of directors Mrs. Priscilla Douglas wrote about work leadership, and Mr. Sushil quoted that "I strongly believe that you can never stop learning. If you want to become and remain successful, you can never simply rest on your past laurels and past success, you must always be willing to push forward and try something different." You know, your past successes won't matter if you stop learning. So I think consistently having an idea in your mind that you have to learn, this is not it, there has to be a next step. And you know, look for a longer term picture, don't stop that, you know, don't think that this is just going to provide you short term happiness or satisfaction, look for the bigger picture. And I think 30 years ahead, you know, who knows, but I think, a perfect, like, I'm going to use the F1 ideology. So a perfect lap exists. And when it comes to the time, I think we all want to be prepared to get that perfect lap, so be prepared for all the opportunities that are coming ahead of you.

Greg Farber:  
Well, this has been amazing. You guys have inspired me. I had no idea what to expect. For us. This was a little bit outside the box. We've always had these conversations really revolve around Leader Bank. And this wasn't a conversation about banking. This wasn't a conversation about any products that we have. And to see the drive the individual leadership for yourselves, the leadership for the folks coming after you though, the way you've approached this in planning. I'm impressed. I thought this was a really good time. I look forward to seeing where you guys end up. I can't wait to see what's next. Thank you both so much for being here.

Alejandro Suarez-Cordova: 
Thanks for having us, a pleasure.

Greg Farber:   
For more information on today's subject, visit leaderbank.com. In addition to past episodes, you can also find our corresponding blog entries for more insights. This podcast is a production of Leader Bank, N.A., Equal Housing Lender, Member FDIC. NMLS number 449250.