Spotlight: Fernando Tamayo Grados ’22 MBA

Lehigh Business 1-MBA candidate Fernando Tamayo Grados wants to make an impact.

Image Courtesy of Fernando Tamayo Grados

Fernando Tamayo Grados

Thirty-two-year-old, 1-MBA candidate Fernando Tamayo Grados wants to make an impact. “There is always something we can do,” says Tomayo. “We can always find 15 minutes to help someone.”

Tamayo learned about Lehigh Business when he was invited to speak to a group of Lehigh students, who were visiting Peru, about his start-up Yaqua, a bottled water company that commits 100% of its dividends to building infrastructure that gives rural areas access to water. At the time, it was suggested he apply for the Asa Packer Social Entrepreneurship Award. Tamayo did, but not until four years later.

“I decided I needed to learn new tools and new techniques,” says Tamayo, who also cofounded a chain of gyms. “I wanted to learn how to make a larger impact.”

When it came time for an internship, Tamayo, who feels the larger the organization, the more impact he can have, searched Lehigh’s alumni database and found an MBA alum at Amazon who put Tamayo in touch with an Amazon recruiter. Tamayo completed his internship this past summer which involved him creating a new procedure for Amazon’s fulfillment centers.

He says his improved writing and data analytics skills, along with what he’s learned over the last year about operations, prepared him to tackle his role as an Amazon intern and deliver results.

Tamayo accepted Amazon’s offer to be a senior product manager and is moving his wife and two-year-old baby girl from Peru to Seattle.