Rami Bazan

IE University

“I’m an artsy French-speaking, bass-slapping, joke-cracking, Lebanese marketing student.”

Fun fact about yourself: I have aphantasia and can’t see images in my head.

Hometown: Beirut, Lebanon

High School: Collège Notre Dame de Jamhour

Major: Business administration

Minor: Marketing and sustainability

Favorite Business Course: Strategic Marketing and Branding

Extracurricular Activities, Community Work and Leadership Roles During College:

President of IEU Music Club (Segovia & Madrid, Spain. 2022-2023 & 2024-2025)
Member of IEU Music Club, bassist (Segovia & Madrid, Spain. 2021-2025)
Wall of Fame Winner: IEU Community Awards winner for best social media (2022-2023)
IEU Mentor (2022-2023)
IEU Top Performer and twice Matrícula de Honor
Communication Officer in Student Government (2022-2023)
Marketing Director 180DC Madrid (2024-2025)

Where have you interned during your college career?

TOMKEEN – Lyon, France – Digital Marketing Consultant Intern

FATTAL GROUP – Beirut, Lebanon – FMCG Marketing & Sales Intern

Where will you be working after graduation? I’m currently weighing my options – and open to new ones!

What is the biggest lesson you gained from studying business? Tell a good story.

I think that storytelling is one of the most important tools students should master in business school: everything from the Sinek Golden Circle to presentations to reports to elevator pitches. If you can tell an engaging story, you’ll be able to sell anything; your products, your ideas, and even… yourself in job interviews and applications! However, it is important to note the difference between bad and good stories. A bad story is a shallow one you come up with on the spot, a good one takes research, hard work, and purpose – all things that a business school should also teach you.

Looking back over your experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently in business school and why? If I could go back to freshman year, I would focus more on gathering experiences than on good grades. I’m job searching right now and (especially in marketing) companies seem to care way more about where I’ve worked and interned than my grades in college. Obviously, being a good student comes with many perks. I’m a top student from a big university, and these things count. However, in my experience, being a top performer in a big internship program of a renowned company helps open many doors.

What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What is one insight you gained from using AI? The skillful and ethical use of AI is encouraged at IE, and a lot of our professors acknowledge its usefulness and also its power. One of my teachers, for example, tasked us with doing a short research project about a technological business trend, then present our findings. He encouraged us to use AI to aggregate our findings (since we mostly worked separately) and structure our report. His idea was that since AI greatly helped in making our report, we would have more time and could put more effort into making our presentation well-structured, engaging, and rehearsed as possible – and he graded us especially on that.

Which academic, extracurricular or personal achievement are you most proud of? My greatest accomplishment of my college years was, for sure, my work in the music club. I was president of the club during my sophomore year on the Segovia campus and my senior year in Madrid. I worked very hard with my communications manager Beatričė to promote our concerts to the student body as much and as creatively as possible. We organized concerts in the university’s Creativity Center with audiences of up to 200 people, vs 50 the year prior. We got on the wall of fame of the IE community awards for best social media and promotion of events.

Then I became president again in my senior year, in Madrid this time. The club was relatively new, with only four years of existence, and their equipment was very limited. They used to organize concerts at a little pub called EGO (because the Madrid campus didn’t have good concert rooms). The deal was that we played there for free, and the venue got to keep the money we had made from ticket sales. When I took charge, I decided to change things completely. With the help of the club’s officers, we found an incredible venue specializing in small-scale concerts with a capacity of around 300 people. I took my plan to the university’s administration and pitched it. I’d need 400€ to rent the venue and their backline, and with the ticket sales, I projected I could turn a revenue of 1000€. They accepted, we rehearsed, promoted it, and sold 220 tickets for a Halloween concert, making us around 2000€. After that, we kept that business model for our concerts, and made a net profit of around 4000€ so far, which we reinvested in instruments, equipment, and decorations for our music room. I’m glad to leave this university knowing I actually had an impact on the institution.

Which classmate do you most admire? Jeanne Hamelin is one of the most dedicated and hard-working students I know. We were in the same class in freshman year and quickly became good friends. What impressed me most was that while studying didn’t come naturally to her, she put in so much effort and thoroughness that she thrived in even the most challenging courses. It was during a study session together when I understood the type of person I was dealing with: Jeanne sat down with a color-coded notebook with notes she had carefully taken throughout the semester. Everything was there. Tips the professor said in class, important notions they’d written on the board, even questions, answers, and remarks from their interactions with students in class. Her determination and work ethic truly inspired me. Because of her, I pushed myself to take on new challenges instead of playing it safe. For example, in my senior year, I initially planned to stick to marketing courses to maintain strong grades. However, I decided to step out of my comfort zone and explore subjects beyond business, like a biology course on sustainability and a behavioral economics class. Jeanne’s example taught me the value of hard work and embracing challenges, and I admire her deeply for that.

Who would you most want to thank for your success? I think the person who helped define the most who I am today (apart from my parents of course, love you mom) is Beatričė Naujalyte. We met in freshman year when she became the comms manager of my music club. We worked together a lot and I learned so much from her. She’s the most organized person I know. When the projects I was working on were adding up, she was like a mentor to me. She showed me how she organizes her week, how she makes effective use of her agenda, and how she stays organized and productive for longer periods of time. Beatričė is the sole reason I was able to go from the disorganized high schooler I was when I arrived in college, to a highly functioning active member of the student body at IE. She has always pushed me to surpass myself and provided great help and support during the harder times. She’s very important to me and essential to the person I am today and I will never thank her enough.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list? For my career, I’ll be focusing on strategic marketing and branding roles, and the top two items on my list would be maybe the following:

1- Win an industry award for a campaign I direct. I’ve got my eye on an Effie.
2- Write a book about branding.

What made Rami such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2025?

“Having Rami Bazan in my Strategic Marketing & Branding course has been an absolute privilege. From the very start, he stood out as a creative thinker, constantly challenging conventional wisdom and bringing fresh, unexpected perspectives to the table.

What makes Rami truly invaluable is his ability to connect the dots between seemingly unrelated ideas, blending insights from different disciplines, cultures, and industries. Whether analyzing a brand’s positioning or exploring consumer behavior, Rami consistently brought an inventive and thought-provoking approach that sparked dynamic conversations and inspired peers to think beyond the obvious.

Beyond strategic insights, he embodied divergent thinking, always questioning, exploring, and pushing boundaries to uncover new ways of understanding branding and individual differences. His curiosity was contagious—fueling deep discussions, introducing new frameworks, and encouraging classmates to explore the “why” behind every concept.

More than just an academic force, Rami fostered a collaborative and intellectually stimulating environment, making the class more enriching for everyone. The ability to blend creativity, curiosity, and strategic thinking is a rare talent, and it is clear that he will continue to make a profound impact in the world of marketing and branding.”

Professor Ramón Méndez Rodríguez
Marketing, Branding, and Cultural & Individual Differences

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