Sam Epee-Bounya, MBA '03

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But what I love about the debt investing is that at least in emerging market, you tried to allocate capital to companies that are transforming lives , uh , in , in this countries. So yes it is, the upside is cap. And if you compare that, for example, to equity, but I feel like it from the most part, it helps government and companies diversify their source of funding in a way.

We are responsible for managing the money on behalf of our clients. And the way we get the return is to invest in emerging market countries, companies. And that's in essence the job.

I grew up in a country called the Ivory Coast in west Africa and I can tell you when I was seven or eight, I already knew what the IMF was all about because when the IMF was, and for those that don't know that IMF is the International Monetary Fund and that early age, you know that when those guys come in town, that means austerity measures. The parents are not happy around the table. And as a child you wanted to better understand how the world works.

How can my country is in a position where they have to ask help, right? And that it's always been kind of in the back of my mind. Okay . Solving that problem, understanding this. And that led me to engineering first. So I did chemistry as an Undergrad and then did a master in chemical engineering in the quest of understanding how an industry work. And then finally I said, well, I want to have a bigger impact what just the industry.

I want to understand how the countries companies work and this is why Sloan was instrumental in making that switch.

And people thought I was nuts. They're like, okay , the acceptance rate is 5% and you only gonna apply to one. And I said , yes. I said , it's a huge investment. The opportunity to cost is really high, it's Sloan or nothing. And it was a huge bet , but this is how passionate I was about stone. So I would say engineering first principle , like the mission, right? The to develop principal leaders.

And I know the mission was clarified later, but I felt when I visited snow I was always impressed by the energy and people wanted to make an impact in the world. It was not about who's going to get the next big job. It was how are you going to have an impact in the world? So I love that mission driven type of, of vibe here. And then honestly , when I visited, people were really nice, very humble, extremely smart. And that combination, just confirm what I , why I wanted to be here.

And at 15 years after my graduation I can tell you it was the best decision of my life. And were you married at the time? Did you have children at the time? What role did your partner play in choosing to go back to school and Choosing Sloan? So yes , uh, yes, yes to those questions. I was married and I'll tell you a little story here. Cause my wife, we are high school sweetheart, so we've been together 30 years.

I'm young by the way, but uh, yes, we've been married 21 years, but we've been together 30 years. So she's truly, we grew up together. But I can tell you the day I received my mission letter from Sloan, we were just coming back from a trip out west and my wife is a physician and she had a postdoc at Stanford and she's like, well let's think about this Sunny California, Beautiful Palo Alto and then you want to do what? Come to frigid Boston. Um, so she has been an unbelievable supporter.

While we were at Sloan , we already had our first child, Middle League who was adopted by the rest of the class. He was 18 months when I started any to the MIT daycare. And honestly that family support was incredible, incredible. And I , I tell you, my wife and I have made beyond the academic and intellectual tools you get here. We made friends for life at Sloan and to this day some of our closest friends are Sloanies.

But when you ask about community, this is where stone to me shined. Right? It's like the way people were helpful, right? They say , okay, this is a smart guy, but he's an engineer. He hasn't done accounting. He hasn't done finance. And you had former investment bankers, former accountants helping me. Right. And I can, I'll tell you a little story.

When we were interviewing for a position post-snowden uh , some of the recruiters were frustrated because as the interview scheduled progress during the day, the students were getting better. It's because literally people will do it . I would call it coopetition, right? People were just happy to tell you, okay, this is what to expect. This is why I fail. Everybody was rooting for somebody else's success. And that's incredible. Very powerful.

And do school basically allow me to sort of experiments or as a first year I came in and I was like, well, I didn't hear anything Africa here, this is, that makes no sense. It's a continent is almost a billion people. Why are we not talking about it? Said maybe because people don't know. So I'm going to organize the first ever MIT Sloan trip to Africa. Everybody told me you're nuts. This is core semester. You're not going to compete against the well established trips. It takes too much time.

And I have to say that at during the process, there's times where I regretted it. I was like, this is too much. Right? Why did I do that to myself? So sometime you're like, okay, maybe I should have handled this better. But now I love the fact that I stretched myself at times. You struggle a bit because you take on too much. But I think this is why we came right to just experiment and go beyond what you thought you were capable of.

Uh , and I was lucky, I was hired by a local bank here called fleet and I happened to work on the biggest deal ever in banking where we sold fleet to Bank of America sometime being lucky because they're like, oh wait , you just came from Sloan , you had to be smart. This is a , this is a big, big deal that we are going to work on. But that was kind of DELAC and the second lock was the fact that they were selling some assets in Latin America.

And I love e m and I communicate clearly that I don't mind going to Brazil, I don't mind going to Argentina and say , okay, this is yours. So no way it was, I have to say you have to have a bit of luck. But because I had a clear sense of where I wanted to end up, I gradually build kind of the path towards that.

Because sitting in a macroeconomic class and you mix it very entertaining, but it was very powerful because I finally understood the interplay between microeconomics and macroeconomics and how decision at the top affects how the country function and even companies and to this days , the lesson from those class that helped me make better investment decision . Now when it comes to African lad time, I see similarities where you have countries that are heavily dependent on commodity.

And I remember I talked about the IMF and growing up knowing and the reason why the IMF was showing up in my country regularly is that we are the largest producer of cocoa beans. In the world, 40% comes from the coast . So for those chocolate lovers out there, you have to think the Africa's for supplying the chocolate. But nevertheless those are very cyclical. So you have a cycle of boom and bust and you see that also in Latin America.

And I would see a common thread in terms of weakness in those countries is governance. So you have a lot of corruption and you don't have a robust institutional framework. And that to me is kind of due similarities that you see. But honestly, as an investor now in eem and I do lot time but also Africa, I think those early childhood lesson and being able to sort of understand the macro economic and also have a bit of empathy for people when you're struggling in the system. Exactly.

And now it's become a bit more prevalent in in financial circles. But I've always been pushing the companies that we invest in to be good citizen. And what I told them, I said , well, if you'd not doing right by your communities, your business is not sustainable. So how was it you grew up in Cote d'Ivoire and how did you end up at American University? What was that transition? It certainly had a bus commute. No, no, I was, you know, sometime they see your first break in life is your parents.

And in my case, that was it. I was very lucky that , uh, my parents basically love North America. I was born in Montreal. You may not know that my parents were studying in Canada and my father was doing his phd at the University of Montreal in economics. What's interesting about the fact is that he won a scholarship from an American institute, random message in New York that was providing scholarship to very talented Africans to come study in the u s in the 60s so he came as an Undergrad .

He went to Miami, Ohio and then went to do his phd. The University of Montreal. I mean those are the, I call them the Obama's father's generation. They all came to the 60s to do the Phd. So keep in mind that I grew up in a French speaking country that was colonized by friends. And most of my peers went to France for graduate schools , the Montreal connection.

But I was one of the few that was set on a different path because my parents were familiar with the North American education system and believe, and I tend them everyday that it was a better fit for me. And so are you an American citizen now ? Yes, I am. That makes it easier. And how did that, yeah , so , um, so I've been in the u s uh , for 27 years. As I said, I did my Undergrad in Washington, D C in chemistry, then did a masters in chemical engineering.

And then I was lucky to be sponsor by company to have the green card. And after a number of years became a citizen. And I'm happy to say that all my kids were born in the u s and we teach them all the time. We say , you have to understand your multicultural, right, that you have ascendancy in Africa. My wife is half from the Abacos , half from France and this, they roll their eyes and say, yes, we know, but we're from Boston, so they're Bostonian now.

But we happy love being in Boston, working in Boston, live in Cambridge. Honestly, since my MIT days haven't moved a mile away from, from here, from slum . So tell me about your work on the MIT Sloan Alumni board. I know you're working on the diversity and inclusion initiative this year. Yes. So I've been on the board for two years and I head up the sort of the community and resources subgroup if you like. And I'm focused on on diversity and inclusion.

This is a topic that's very close to my heart for a number of reasons. First, I'm of African descent to , as I explained the story of my family. My Dad's scholarship came from the African American Institute of New York in the 60s so I always had a soft spot for diversity inclusion. And in fact my experience at Sloan kind of amplify that experience because there was people from all over the world.

And finally my wife and I set up a fellowship fund to increase the number of African American and African student at Sloan because I honestly feel like we could do better. And this is why I'm passionate about the project. I'm working on the board. I think the MIT Sloan admission and the school is doing a fantastic job addressing those gaps, but they're recognized as gaps. And I would love for Sloan to have a student body that basically reflects the world.

And that's kind of the mission and I feel like a , it's an opportunity for the school to do so. And I think with the help of fellow board members, we are working hard to sort of come up with good ideas to increase the pipeline of underrepresented minority and ensure that those that are talented can have an admission offered to snow end up Sloanies.

We're just coming out after the Internet bubble, right ? The crisis in 2000 so I graduated in 2003 so I entered in 2001 it was difficult, but when we came out things were starting to look up and honestly we fail . We fail rightfully so, that will change the world. But changing the world takes time.

And I wish that message was driven home a bit more because I think that there's a risk out there for the folks who are applying to business school to think that, okay, you're going to have the magic wand. I'm sorry to tell you this. It's hard. You will be equipped with the tools to attempt this, but it's a lot of work and I think when you come out, when you're 25 27 you may not have that patient and I can tell you now that I'm wiser, I didn't say older.

Why is there, it takes time and so people have to go into Dale Line of of work or there even if it's a passion, even if it's a start up and you know this, it requires a lot of energy, some patients and of course passion.