Name: Kyle Sherrill
Year of Graduation: 2023
Nationality: American
Post-MBA Country of Residence: Spain
Post-MBA Employer: Nina Capital
Hi Kyle! Thank you for your time. Please tell us about a little bit about yourself.
Hi everyone! I’m originally from the US, and got my career started as a chemical engineer working in big pharma at Eli Lilly. Since then, I’ve basically stuck around the healthcare industry but have sampled a variety of different roles across pharma, startups, and consulting. More recently I joined Nina Capital, here in Barcelona, to learn more about the investment angle within the healthcare ecosystem. Outside of work, I’m a bit of a varied hobbyist. This is code for the fact that I like to try many new things, but rarely stick with one interest for long. The interests that have stuck around are the outdoors– hiking, camping, etc, music – live shows, playing guitar below average, and reading – forever trying to catch up on all the classics I didn’t read in high school.
So what inspired you to pursue an MBA and how did you choose IESE?
Like many engineers, I decided that I didn’t want to have a technical career and was much more interested in the problems that my Sr. Director and VP were thinking about – aka business problems. I also knew that I had ambitions for a global career, or at the very least trying out working in another country or culture for a few years. For that reason, I only applied to three schools: HEC, LBS, and IESE. While I had a slight bias for Spain, what really won me over was the people. During interviews, Open Day, and across the entire admissions process, it felt collaborative, not confrontational. Alumni I spoke with echoed the same sentiments – friendly students, helpful professors, and a culture that went beyond the rankings. Beyond this, in my humble opinion, Barcelona beats Paris or London on cost, climate, and culture!
My first year team at IESE, Barcelona 6.
What activities were you involved in at school? Did any of these activities help in your job search?
Hosting a panel session at Doing Good Doing Well 23, one of the flagship conferences at IESE organized by the Responsible Business Club.
Every MBA program has clubs. But I think IESE is unique in that the non-professional club community is quite vibrant and the diversity of the student body really backs this up. This means we have everything from casual sports groups, to mental health and social impact clubs, to the regional clubs which share experiences like Lebanese wine night or DACH Christmas parties. Apart from these, I was involved in the leadership of both the Responsible Business Club (RBC) and Startup and Entrepreneurship Club (S&E) during both first and second year. While the leadership titles typically don’t mean much to employers, you get the opportunity to network with interesting people outside of IESE on behalf of the clubs. I credit RBC with giving me the chance to explore career options outside of healthcare while the S&E club showed me the passionate world of entrepreneurship through the eyes of a bunch of smart, adventurous classmates. In part, this led me back to my interest of the intersection of startups and healthcare which ended up being the foundation of my post-MBA career path.
What made you decide to pursue venture capital post-MBA? Was there any particular course of activity that you found beneficial in helping you to achieve your goals?
I came to IESE with a very rough sketch of how the investment world actually worked; I would even offer that I had a negative bias towards the VC at the beginning. However, the first year courses begin to give you a broad understanding of the complexity and challenges of funding and financing a business. During second year, I chose a few electives that had a focus on entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurial Finance (ENFI), and Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC) both of which improved my understanding of the mechanics of the VC but also exposed me to the people, the type of work, and a few real world examples. From this perspective, I found that I really enjoyed the novelty, challenge, and being surrounded by smart, inspired people every day. My path to VC wasn’t linear. I took a half-step towards it by working in corporate innovation at Novo-Nordisk and got a lucky break in terms of timing when Nina Capital was backfilling an Associate role. Since it was a specialist fund, my healthcare background helped get a foot in the door and learnings from IESE courses and the entrepreneurship ecosystem prepared me for the interview process.
Glad to hear that you are enjoying your post-MBA career so far! Finally, what are some of your favorite memories or highlights from IESE?
Always hard to choose just one. Instead I’ll offer a category of events that I thought were super special. With the diversity of the student body, we had representation from tons of amazing places. Students felt compelled to share their culture with the rest of the students through big events like Diwali, through formal and informal student treks (e.g. Japan), and through intimate dinners (highlights were Peruvian, Romanian, and Nigerian). It was always amazing to see your classmates beaming with pride as they showcased their hometown highlights.
The Responsible Business Club Leadership Team.
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