ALUMNUS OF THE YEAR
Hult Alumnus of the Year—Cynthia Kaplan
Hult’s Alumnus of the Year award recognizes the unique personal and professional success of a Hult
alum and their embodiment of Hult’s spirit and values. This year Cynthia Kaplan (MBA Boston, 1992)
of the Mexico City Chapter was the proud winner, so we decided to catch up with her to learn more
about her time at Hult and her involvement with the Alumni Association.
Q. ell us about your involvement in the Hult Alumni Association
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after graduation.
Former students sometimes get in touch to say that they have
graduated from Hult and they’re coming back to Mexico. Depending
o n their level of experience, I’m well-placed to recommend alumni for
positions at my firm or its sister company. I’m happy to offer them a little coaching, or refer their résumé to my colleagues in the headhunting
industry. Over the course of the years I’ve probably helped about eight
to ten alumni members and I hope to get more involved in the Alumni
Association in the future.
Q. hy do you continue to be involved with the Association? What
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benefits have you gained from supporting fellow Hult alumni?
First of all I truly believe in networking. I don’t mean just contacting
your friends or networking only to get something out of it for yourself.
It’s about meeting new people and offering something to somebody,
making that connection, and then following up with that person as best
you can. I try to do that when I meet somebody in a different industry, if
I see an article or if I know somebody that I think could benefit them, I
contact them. You just have to have a bit of faith that it’s going to come
back around to you and it always does. It has always been the case for
me. I don’t think I would be where I am now without networking.
Q. ow did you go about founding your natural dog food company
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Lucky Dog Nutrición Natural?
It was actually by accident. I was living in Mexico working as a
cross-cultural coach and had decided to adopt a two-month old dog
called Max. I fed him the dog food that was available commercially at
that time in Mexico but despite getting a lot of exercise he started getting fat. To cut a long story short, I met a woman in the park who had a
beautiful white German Shepherd that she had been feeding a natural
diet for the past couple of years. There was nothing available like that
in Mexico at the time and she gave me a couple of recipes. I ordered
about ten books about feeding your dog a natural diet, after which I
started making dog food, natural stuff, just for my dog. I never expected
to prepare it for anybody else, but the results were amazing. My first
client was a neighbor. That’s how it started, he told friends and within a
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