Donata Bauer, MIB’21

You’d think someone with the life experience of Donata Bauer—who holds four passports, speaks in six languages, and spent much of her childhood travelling between Switzerland, Canada, and Argentina—would be pretty comfortable operating in international circles.

And you’d be right—to a point.

Yes, Donata grew up a global citizen. But it wasn’t until she completed the Smith Master of International Business (MIB) program that she learned to translate her international experience into a career superpower.

The MIB program crossed her radar at a pivotal time. She’d been working for three years as a consultant for a boutique board governance and executive compensation advisory firm, serving Swiss clients in a Swiss environment. She liked the job but was starting to suspect she was better suited to work that allowed for a broader and more international range of experiences and interactions.

Donata had always wanted to pursue a master’s degree at some point—“I never wanted to plateau in my career because I didn’t have one,” she reasons—and the timing felt right, before work and life commitments made it harder to take on an intensive program. As a Swiss resident with Canadian citizenship, she liked the idea of studying in Kingston, and a semester-long exchange option in Milan was not exactly a tough sell. Most importantly, the program married two of her passions: When choosing her undergrad concentration years earlier, her decision to pursue a business degree instead of one in international affairs had come down to a last-minute coin flip. She thought the MIB might allow her to sharpen her skills in both areas.

Her hunch proved correct. Upon starting the program, Donata was immediately energized by the fresh and varied perspectives of her cohort: “I grew up in an international environment, but I don’t think I’d ever been exposed to so many people with so many diverse experiences.” She loved that class time was more about deep discussion than rote recitation and found herself invigorated by nuanced and respectful debates with peers about big—often contentious—issues, such as trade disputes.

Other lessons surprised her: Donata admits to being skeptical when asked to read Erin Meyer’s The Culture Map in a class led by Professor Jana Raver, thinking the idea that people from different places communicate in different ways was a bit obvious. But after devouring the book and hashing it out in the classroom, she came away with an entirely new outlook on what it takes to respectfully and effectively connect with others. “Understanding where another person might be coming from and what they’re trying to tell you is such a strong skill, especially in a globalized world,” she says. “It’s so easy to miscommunicate, even when you’re in the same room. Learning how to develop mechanisms to get everyone on the same page is a skill I come back to, and try to build up, all the time.”

Today, Donata feels the program’s influence everywhere in her life. She moved to Toronto with a classmate for a time after graduating, before relocating to Zurich in 2024. She meets a program friend from Barcelona a few times a year. She’s preparing for a trip to China, for the wedding of another in her cohort. “I’ve developed friendships for life with people scattered all around the world,” she says.

Professionally, Donata leans on her MIB often in her director-level role at global dental implant firm Straumann Group, where she is currently building out a job architecture framework meant to help thousands of employees in more than 100 countries better navigate their careers. She deals with a wide range of stakeholders, with an even wider range of expectations, and the program has helped her meet people where they are, convey her ideas clearly, and make productive connections. “The program gave me a lot of confidence,” Donata reflects. “It’s opened a lot of doors for me.”