To build on the technology skills he acquired in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), Erez Perelson (MS/MBA 2020) came to Boston to pursue an AB in engineering at Harvard College, but his academic path didn’t end there. “I’m interested in entrepreneurship, and because I want to lead an organization someday, I knew I needed to learn more about management,” says Perelson, explaining what prompted him to apply to HBS.

A native of Los Angeles, California, Perelson grew up in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv, and has lived for most of his life in one of the world’s most dynamic ecosystems for technology, especially for startups and venture capital. During five years in the military fulfilling his required service, he gained firsthand technical experience as a member of the IDF’s Elite Technological Unit, where he was a software engineer and R&D team leader. Perelson was especially pleased to learn about HBS’s new MS/MBA: Engineering Sciences Program, which would enable him to bridge the worlds of business and engineering by developing insights needed for success in leading technology ventures.

“This new program sounded especially interesting and was aligned with my objectives,” says Perelson, who, along with two other students from Israel, is among the 29 enrolled in the inaugural cohort of HBS’s joint degree program with the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. “I think the combination of business and engineering is the best foundation you can get,” he notes of the curriculum, which includes required courses at HBS in the first year, and electives and curated courses at both schools in the second year. “One of the things I’ve learned is to really test out an idea to make sure that you are creating something that people want. I think that sometimes, as engineers, we get excited by the building process and forget that part.”

Perelson appreciates having the opportunity to hone his entrepreneurial and management skills to understand how to lead a successful business. “I feel that in Israel, we’re very good at creating technology, but not as good at scaling it. We end up getting an early exit, instead of taking the company all the way, which emphasizes the need for us to evolve our management philosophy,” he observes.

At the end of the MS/MBA program, Perelson hopes to pursue an interest in real estate and tech. He got a taste of that during the summer of 2019 while working as an intern at Davidson Kempner Capital Management. “I want to stay in the US for a while after school, but long-term, I think that students from Israel who have been lucky to come to study in the US need to be ambassadors between the two countries, hopefully developing successful business careers that enable us to strengthen that connection,” says Perelson. “I think that’s part of our responsibility.”

Post a Comment