​Between MBA Studies and Fashion Work, I Go to the Hoop

AN MBA STUDENT AT KELLOGG IN EXCHANGE AT SDA BOCCONI, NICOLAS SEGURA HAS A PROFESSIONAL PAST AND HAS ENTHUSIASTICALLY ACCEPTED TO PLAY ON THE UNIVERSITY'S BASKETBALL TEAM

He has a love for Italy, fashion and basketball, plus respect for Bocconi’s reputation. We do not know in what order, but these are the reasons why Nicolas Segura Dobjanschi decided to attend the  SDA Bocconi MBA for a few months. American by birth, Argentine parents with an Italian grandmother, he is enrolled in the MBA of the Kellogg School of Management. In addition to his course here, he answered the call  of  coach Carlo Favero  to take the court with the Pelicans in the C Gold series basketball league.

"Every year I spend a few weeks of vacation in Italy," says Nicolas, "indeed, I even took over, with an Italian partner, an entrepreneurial activity in Lecce, where I also played an exciting season in Serie C, the only American in the league, before covid complicated everything."  The business is an artisan tailor's shop that the previous owner, now elderly, was preparing to close: "We took it over, focusing on the American market with a careful eye to tradition. Because it is not only fashion, but also Italian history, a story to tell and a heritage to preserve."

And the opportunity to come to Milan, the city of fashion par excellence, was too attractive. "The fame of Bocconi did the rest. An important university in a nerve center for my professional activity was the best. I couldn't pass it up." Basketball has always played an important role  in Nicolas' life: "In fact, I had chosen  a college with a very competitive program in basketball, Northwestern  University, but then I moved on to a smaller university, the Claremont McKenna  College, California, where I had more space and therefore more possibilities to improve my game." The first professional experience was in Italy, in Lecce: "A beautiful period, both in the field and in the city, unfortunately marred by the pandemic. After that, I had a brief experience in Germany, before returning to the USA and enrolling in the Master program."

Nicolas, two meters tall but rather light, is a natural wing, but if necessary he moves to power forward or even center; he does, in short, what the team needs: "Like everyone in the Pelicans," he says, "it's an incredible environment. No one is a professional but the commitment is very high, everyone loves basketball and loves Bocconi and everyone,  starting with coach Favero,  even if they have had a busy day, arrives at practice determined to give their best."

 In a few months Nicolas, back in the United States, is expecting another very important event: "Yes", he says, "I will take the plunge, I will get married. Then we will stay in the US until my wife gets her Master's degree, but the intention is to live a few years in Europe". Perhaps, we suggest,  right in Milan: after all, for a fashion enthusiast, and entrepreneur, where else?

by Davide Ripamonti
Translated by Richard Greenslade