Class Profile

Elmira Yafyasova
EY, Economic Advisory

MSM Class of 2018

Undergraduate Alma Mater:
Lomonosov Moscow State University Business School, Moscow

About Elmira:
I am a proud MS Marketing and an international student at McCombs! During my four years at a Russian Business School, I learned a great deal about various business operations. However, I was always inclined to work closely with consumers and learn more about their behavior. After my undergrad, I worked at a real estate development company and was responsible for creating a new market strategy for the firm and making some crucial marketing decisions. Although my efforts paid off, I felt that I was lacking certainty in my decision-making as well as knowledge about advanced analytics. Therefore, I decided to pursue a Master’s in Marketing. I was lucky enough to travel since I was young and it made me a much more brave and open-minded person. Besides work and school, I like to spend my free time doing yoga and listening to audiobooks.

Proudest Accomplishment:
While I was working for a real estate development firm, my friends and I decided to participate in a Russian national case competition just out of genuine curiosity. Not only was the case was based on an Oil & Gas industry, about which I knew almost nothing, but also the entire team was busy working during the day, and we could only meet during the night. Since it was a national competition and we could not devote sufficient time to the project during normal hours, we thought our chances were pretty low. We met many times at crazy hours to discuss our progress on the case and had many times when we argued; however, we persevered. Despite all the constraints that we faced, we stayed highly motivated and worked our best. Imagine our surprise when we passed the Semi-final, Final, and eventually won the fifth place out of 120 teams across the country! So even when we do not have ideal conditions, everything is possible if you work hard and surround yourself with like-minded people!

Why did you choose the MSM Program?
When I considered an idea of applying to a graduate school, I already had a clear vision of I wanted to get out of it. My mentor recommended me to take a look at the University of Texas at Austin as a possible option, and I a was pleasantly surprised to find the MSM program. Besides world-class professors and strong relationships with great companies, the curriculum was a perfect combination of art and science of Marketing.

What are you most looking forward to in your program?
I am looking forward to applying my knowledge gained from classes to real business and marketing problems! I also hope to stay in touch with McCombs and work towards making MSM a widely-known program!