Hello! My name is Ben Capano and I am a rising second year at UCLA Anderson (Class of 2021). I grew up in Indiana, where I attended Purdue University to study electrical engineering. After undergrad, I moved to Chicago and spent several years working for Deloitte Consulting before deciding to come to Anderson. Apart from the idea of living in Los Angeles, the strength of Anderson’s tech management program was a major selling point for me. My focus in business school is the transportation industry and exploring the various technologies and business models for moving people and goods that will emerge over the coming years. With the help of AnderTech and the Parker Career Management Center, I have been plugged into a network of Anderson alums that are working in this space which helped when looking for an internship.
I am currently interning at EDF Innovation Lab, which is the US-based R&D office for global electric utilities company ‘Electricite de France’ (EDF). In my role with EDF, I am responsible for looking at the landscape of electric mobility and micromobility (i.e. e-scooters and e-bikes) startups and identifying potential investment or partnership opportunities for EDF. I worked primarily with large automotive clients at Deloitte, so I have really appreciated learning more about how startups operate and scale.
Like everything else in 2020, the internship has been different from what I imagined – but it has been a great virtual experience nonetheless! No two days are the same, but here are some major recurring themes from my days as an EDF intern.
6:30am – Wake up and work out. This summer, I have started most of my work days with an OrangeTheory At Home class or a run to Santa Monica. Before March, I preferred working out at the Kinross Center (which is the UCLA graduate-student-only gym) and taking SoulCycle classes.
7:30am – Coffee and news. Lately, I have been exploring the Sawtelle/Brentwood neighborhoods to support some local coffee shops and meet my daily caffeine needs. This gives me a chance to get out of my apartment and listen to my favorite podcasts before the day starts. I also read the Morning Brew daily email, TechCrunch, and several other transportation-related newsletters that keep me informed on happenings in the world and my industry.
8:00am – Research and Reach-Outs. Given the Innovation Lab team is small, I have considerable autonomy throughout the day to manage my own work. I take the morning to research interesting mobility startups and come up with potential projects that EDF could work on with them. This role has given me a reason to reach out to companies I am interested in to set up a call, which has been great from a networking and learning standpoint. Check out my work-from-home setup below (it’s not always this clean though)…
1:00pm – Internal calls. After lunch, I connect with my manager to share insights from each of our morning calls and discuss progress on my project. Apart from general startup scouting, I am spending the summer building a financial model for our projects. Thankful for first year core classes Finance, Strategy, and even Accounting – all of which have already helped me in my internship!
5:00pm – Log off (and happy hour). The EDF Innovation Lab interns have had several happy hours throughout the summer, which has been great considering we are not in the actual office together.
6:30pm - ? – Relax and connect. I’ll FaceTime/Zoom with family and friends in the evening and then usually make dinner, or more likely, order Chipotle. With many of my classmates also doing their internships remotely from LA, we have been able to meet up at the beach during the week as well, which feels like a uniquely LA weekday perk.
The MBA summer internship is an awesome chance to push yourself and learn new things. Even with the constraints that COVID has placed upon typical summer activities, I have found this to be an extremely
rewarding and insightful experience. That being said, I miss Anderson and can’t wait for classes to start up again in the fall!
ABOUT BEN
- Hometown: West Lafayette, Indiana
- Undergraduate Studies: Purdue University
- Pre-Anderson: Consultant, Deloitte Consulting
- MBA Summer Internship: Mobility Analyst, EDF Innovation Lab
- Post-MBA Goals: Transportation / Mobility
- Leadership@Anderson: VP of Admit Weekends, Admissions Ambassador Corps, VP of Engagement and Partnerships, Innovation & Design at Anderson (IDeA)
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