{"id":152945,"date":"2026-05-11T17:53:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T15:53:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bbs.unibo.it\/?p=152945"},"modified":"2026-05-11T17:53:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T15:53:41","slug":"global-mba-in-design-fashion-and-luxury-goods-skills-and-an-international-career-with-bologna-business-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bbs.unibo.it\/en\/global-mba-in-design-fashion-and-luxury-goods-skills-and-an-international-career-with-bologna-business-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Global MBA in Design, Fashion and Luxury Goods: skills and an international career with Bologna Business School"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interview with Elizaveta Ponomarenko, Luxury Hospitality & Heritage Strategy<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

From enhancing cultural heritage to the BBS Global MBA: building a professional journey dedicated to luxury\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Heritage<\/strong>, craftsmanship<\/strong>, and cultural<\/strong> storytelling<\/strong> now drive the world\u2019s leading global luxury <\/strong>brands. Made in Italy<\/strong> is engaging with a new vision<\/strong> of tradition linked to quiet luxury<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

We interviewed Elizaveta Ponomarenko to hear, through her experience, how attending the Global MBA, Design, Fashion and Luxury Goods<\/a> track at Bologna Business School influenced her career.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Why choose the Global MBA in Design, Fashion and Luxury Goods at Bologna Business School?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Elizaveta,\u00a0 prima di tornare a studiare col Global MBA<\/strong> di BBS<\/strong>, ha lavorato per una quindicina d\u2019anni nell\u2019intersezione tra cultura<\/strong>, hospitality<\/strong> e grandi eventi internazionali<\/strong>. Con una laurea in Museologia e Interpretazione del Patrimonio Culturale, ha iniziato la propria carriera nell\u2019ambito degli scambi culturali e turistici internazionali.<\/p>\n

Before returning to study with the BBS Global MBA<\/strong>, Elizaveta had worked for around fifteen years at the intersection of culture<\/strong>, hospitality<\/strong>, and major international events<\/strong>. With a degree in Museology and Cultural Heritage Interpretation, she began her career in international cultural and tourism exchange.<\/p>\n

That work grew into leading cultural and hospitality programming<\/strong> for some of the world’s most complex international platforms – including engagements connected to the APEC, G20 and BRICS summits – in partnership with world-class cultural institutions such as the Hermitage Museum, the Mariinsky and the Bolshoi. I had always worked\u00a0around\u00a0luxury<\/strong> – with luxury clients, luxury brands as partners, luxury expectations – but I wanted to understand the industry from the inside<\/strong>, with the same rigor I had brought to cultural heritage. That’s what led me to Bologna.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What motivated you to choose the Global MBA at Bologna Business School over other programs?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Two things decided it for me. First, the track itself: Design, Fashion and Luxury Goods <\/strong>is one of the very few MBA specializations in the world that treats luxury<\/strong> as a discipline of its own<\/strong> – grounded in heritage, craftsmanship, and cultural storytelling – rather than as a subcategory of marketing. <\/em><\/p>\n

Second, Italy<\/strong>. If you want to understand the DNA of luxury, you have to study it where it was built<\/strong>: in the maisons, the ateliers, and the institutions that still shape it today.<\/em><\/p>\n

Bologna offered Elizaveta both: the academic rigor of the University of Bologna and the opportunity to experience firsthand the ecosystem of Italian luxury and local manufacturing, sold on the global market.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Which skills or mindset developed during the MBA do you use most today?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Turning intuition into structure<\/strong>: intense work, often under pressure, gave Elizaveta a strong intuition \u2014 almost an instinct guiding her decisions.<\/p>\n

But the MBA gave me the commercial vocabulary and the analytical tools to defend those instincts in a boardroom. In my most recent role as Senior Manager, Travel Product & Experiences for the On Location (Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Games Official hospitality provider), I was constantly moving between two registers: the emotional language of premium experiences and the numerical language of revenue, pacing, and liability. <\/em>The MBA is what made that bilingualism<\/strong> feel natural.<\/em><\/p>\n

Poi, la capacit\u00e0 di definire un mindset orientato al problem solving<\/strong> e all\u2019evoluzione dei progetti anche negli scenari pi\u00f9 complessi: restare orientati alla soluzione anche in condizioni imperfette, proteggendo il business ma permettendo al team commerciale di continuare ad avanzare. \u00c8 diventato un principio personale di lavoro, e BBS<\/strong> \u00e8 stato il luogo in cui ho imparato per la prima volta a dargli una definizione.<\/em><\/p>\n

She also developed a mindset focused on problem-solving<\/strong> and evolving projects even in highly complex scenarios: staying solutions-oriented under imperfect conditions, protecting the business while keeping the commercial team moving forward. It’s become a personal operating principle, and BBS<\/strong> is where I first learned to put words around it.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

How did the track help you understand the dynamics of global luxury brands?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The track taught me to read a luxury brand the way a curator reads a collection<\/strong> – as a living system of heritage<\/strong>, narrative<\/strong>, and <\/em>cultural<\/em><\/strong> authority<\/em><\/strong>, not just a product portfolio. We studied brand architecture, storytelling, design-driven innovation, and the economics of scarcity side by side, which is rare. <\/em><\/p>\n

That integrated view is exactly what global maisons are working through today<\/strong>: how to scale without diluting; how to activate heritage for a new generation of UHNW clients, especially in Asia and the Middle East; how to balance commercial performance with cultural credibility. These are no longer abstract case studies for me – they are daily questions in my work with premium hospitality portfolios and international partners.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What competitive advantage did you gain from attending the BBS Global MBA in Bologna?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A very specific one: I came out of Bologna with a rare combination that is hard to replicate – a museology background<\/strong><\/em>, a <\/em>luxury MBA<\/em><\/strong>, and a decade and a half of commercial execution<\/strong> across European and Asia Pacific markets. Few professionals in the luxury industry sit at that exact intersection, and that is precisely where the most interesting roles are today: Heritage Directors, Cultural Strategy leads, UHNW experience designers, premium hospitality directors. <\/em><\/p>\n

Beyond credentials, the Bologna network<\/strong> itself has been a competitive advantage. The alumni<\/strong> community<\/strong> is genuinely international<\/strong>, genuinely senior<\/strong>, and genuinely generous<\/strong> – and I have found that a Bologna connection still opens doors across the Italian and European luxury landscape.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What advice would you give to someone considering a Global MBA today?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Be honest about why\u00a0you want it. An MBA is not a label – it is a year and a half of rethinking how you work<\/strong>, whom you work with, and what you want next<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Use the program as a space to test your ambitions: s If you already have deep experience, choose a track and a city that will stretch that experience in a new direction – for me that was luxury and Italy.<\/em><\/p>\n

Two pieces of practical advice on top of that. First: if your goal is to build a career in Italy after the program, learn Italian seriously and from day one. The fluency opens an entirely different layer of the country – the people, the maisons, the conversations that never happen in English.<\/em><\/p>\n

Second: invest in the network as seriously as you invest in the coursework<\/strong>. The classmates, the alumni, the faculty – those relationships will still be opening doors for you ten years after graduation<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

According to Elizaveta, the Global MBA<\/strong> at Bologna Business School<\/strong> is worth more than a degree: it is a long conversation you become part of for life.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Interview with Elizaveta Ponomarenko, Luxury Hospitality & Heritage Strategy   From enhancing cultural heritage to the BBS Global MBA: building a professional journey dedicated to luxury\u00a0 Heritage, craftsmanship, and cultural storytelling now drive the world\u2019s leading global luxury brands. Made in Italy is engaging with a new vision of tradition linked to quiet luxury. We […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[207],"tags":[],"rubrica":[708],"class_list":["post-152945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-en-2","rubrica-alumni-pov-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGlobal MBA in Design, Fashion and Luxury Goods: skills and an international career with Bologna Business School | BBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbs.unibo.it\/en\/global-mba-in-design-fashion-and-luxury-goods-skills-and-an-international-career-with-bologna-business-school\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Global MBA in Design, Fashion and Luxury Goods: skills and an international career with Bologna Business School | BBS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Interview with Elizaveta Ponomarenko, Luxury Hospitality & Heritage Strategy   From enhancing cultural heritage to the BBS Global MBA: building a professional journey dedicated to luxury\u00a0 Heritage, craftsmanship, and cultural storytelling now drive the world\u2019s leading global luxury brands. 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