Lima, Boston, Athens and now Dubai. See this grad’s journey to a career in business
Graduate Vicent Armas has completed the Dubai Business Associates program, a nine-month graduate management training experience in Dubai.
Northeastern University graduate Vicent Armas takes global learning seriously.
He grew up in Lima, Peru, completed his undergraduate degree in finance and accounting management on Northeastern’s Boston campus, and did a co-op in Athens, Greece.
“I always had this curiosity of learning how business is conducted around the world,” said Armas, who graduated from Northeastern in 2025.
He has now also added the Middle East to his educational journey, completing the nine-month Dubai Business Associates (DBA) graduate management training program in the United Arab Emirates.
“This program ignited my curiosity to learn more about business and explore that part of the world and find how to build bridges between all of the places where I’ve been,” Armas said.
Armas entered Northeastern in 2022, drawn to the university by its finance program, the experiential learning opportunities the university offered and its global focus. He relished the opportunity to meet classmates from all across the globe, saying that interacting and sharing opinions, comments and knowledge with people from different backgrounds was the way to “enrich your life.”
“I never felt like I was far away from home,” Armas said of being at Northeastern. “The people I met, my professors, everybody I interacted with made me feel like I was one of them.”
A co-op with Pireaus Bank in Greece was central to Armas’ Northeastern experience, he said, offering him the opportunity to work in several different departments, including the chief investment office and investor relations. Armas also praised his capstone business strategy course, where teams of students simulate running a company. Steering a mock company that manufactured cameras and phones, Armas and his teammates made decisions about pricing, marketing and production, and then saw how these decisions affect revenues, investor targets, earnings and more. Armas’ team ended the competition with the largest market share and largest revenue.
“What I liked about Vicent was he was always engaged,” said Dick Lush, the instructor of the course.
Lush said Armas would frequently “augment” the real-world examples that Lush offered with his own experiences, which Lush said “reinforced” his lesson.
“He could think and he had critical thinking,” Lush said. “He certainly had an entrepreneurial spirit.”
The Dubai program wasn’t on Armas’ radar until a chance conversation with a family friend.
Run under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Dubai, the program gives recent graduates from around the world a fully funded opportunity to study and work in Dubai Inc, a network of state-owned holding companies, investment funds and enterprises.
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Armas decided to give it a shot, keenly aware that the program generally only accepts between 30 and 40 people and that, at the time of his application, 6,600 people had already applied.
Armas was accepted.
During the program, he was trained by PwC Academy Middle East, the talent and skills development business of PwC Middle East and a partner in the DBA program. He was also able to work with the Emirates Group, a state-owned international aviation holding company.
“What impressed me the most about Vicent was his positive attitude, his drive to succeed and his commitment to his own professional and personal development,” said Rami Tawfiq, the director of the program. “He is also great at networking, keen to meet new people and build relationships.”
Armas called the experience “priceless,” and said that he was particularly taken with Dubai’s recent rapid growth and “booming” financial sector.
“I want to be part of that growth,” Armas said. “I want to be able to contribute as well, and I knew that Dubai would be the right place where I can develop my career.”
These days, Armas is preparing for the first of three levels of certification to become a chartered financial analyst, which will qualify him to work in senior and executive positions in areas such as investment management, risk management and asset management. He also sees business school in the future, and aspires, eventually, to the C-Suite.
Wherever he ends up, Armas said he will take the lessons from his global learning experiences with him.
“If I can say ‘this is what I learned in this other part of the world, perhaps it can be helpful for us,’ perhaps we can leverage that knowledge and do even better things,” Armas said. “If I can bring some of the things I learned into different ecosystems and make the world a better place for everybody, I would be happy to do it.”
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