From Schiller to IBM: Maria Alvarez Gaona on Global Leadership & Lifelong Learning

Meet Maria Alvarez Gaona, a Schiller International University graduate whose career demonstrates how international education can lead to global impact. Following her studies in Paris and Madrid, Maria spent over 30 years at IBM, contributing to international business transformation and managing long-term partnerships with global organizations like Vodafone. Today, she is applying that same passion for connecting people through leadership coaching, community initiatives, and innovation.

Key Takeaways

• International education builds global careers. Studying across Schiller's Paris and Madrid campuses prepared Maria to work confidently across cultures and languages.
• Cross-cultural leadership is a competitive advantage. Her ability to adapt leadership styles across Europe and India became one of the defining strengths of her career.
• Relationships matter more than transactions. Long-term trust, empathy, and cultural understanding proved essential in managing global partnerships and negotiations.
• Lifelong learning fuels growth. Even after decades in international business, Maria continues expanding her expertise through postgraduate studies in Digital Marketing and AI.
• Your network is one of your greatest career assets. The friendships and professional relationships formed at Schiller have remained valuable throughout her career.

Why did you choose Schiller International University?

I chose Schiller because I was looking for far more than a degree: I wanted a genuinely international education, one that would prepare me to move naturally between cultures, languages, and ways of understanding business. The chance to live the academic experience across different European campuses, and to weave a truly global network of contacts from day one, matched the person I wanted to become: open, adaptable, and driven to connect worlds. Schiller had an innovative method that is now used by every prestigious university.

You studied at both Schiller's Paris and Madrid campuses. Looking back, what memories stand out most from those experiences, and how did living and learning in two different international environments shape you both personally and professionally?

What I remember most from my years at Paris campus is the daily life alongside classmates from dozens of different nationalities, something that felt at the time like simply "student life" and that, over time, I came to understand was my first school of cross-cultural leadership.

Living and learning across cultures became my first school of cross-cultural leadership.

I lived in Paris for many years, studying and working there, and my time in other European capitals went on to anchor my professional identity internationally. That experience taught me to move comfortably between French rigor, English professionalism, Italian freshness, and my own Spanish roots — a combination that would later define my entire international career.

You joined IBM shortly after graduation and went on to build a remarkable 30-year international career there. Looking back, how do you think your international education at Schiller helped build that career in such a global organization?

My international education at Schiller was the foundation on which I built more than two decades of a career at an organization as global as IBM. I started working right after finishing my studies, in February 1999, and my day-to-day since then has unfolded in multicultural, multilingual environments — exactly the terrain Schiller had prepared me for. Fluency in four languages, ease leading teams across different countries, and the open mindset I cultivated as a student were an essential condition for leading pan-European and global programs in a context where relationships were the key to success.

What skills or lessons gained from the BS on International Business you studied have been most valuable in your professional life?

From my Bachelor's in International Business, what I have applied most in my professional life is the ability to understand business from a systemic, cross-cultural perspective: how the same strategy must adapt to the market and, above all, to the people behind it. On top of that, I built a solid foundation in management, negotiation, and financial analysis, which I used daily managing global contracts. While I continue my journey by adding a Masters degree in International Business from ESCP.

Throughout your career at IBM, you worked closely with Vodafone, one of the company's most significant global clients, contributing to major international agreements and long-term partnerships. Looking back, which negotiation skills have been most important in your professional journey, and what advice would you give to young professionals looking to develop them?

Working with Vodafone taught me that negotiations that truly last are not won at the table, but long before it: in the trust you build, in a deep understanding of your client's business, and in genuine listening. The most important skill, by far, has been balancing firmness with empathy: defending your organization's interests without losing sight of the other side's.

Negotiations that truly last are built on trust, understanding, and genuine listening long before anyone sits at the table.

To young professionals looking to develop that skill, I would say: invest time in understanding your counterpart's cultural and business context before you sit down to negotiate, and never underestimate the value of patience and long-term relationships over immediate results. Soft skills are more necessary than ever, where empathy and dedication are key to understanding what's really going on.

Having worked across countries such as Spain, Italy, France, and India, how has adapting your leadership style to different cultural contexts contributed to your professional success?

Adapting my leadership style to cultural contexts as different as the English, Indian, Spanish, Italian, or French has probably been the single skill that has most defined my professional success. In each country I found a different kind of leadership: closeness and personal relationships; the weight of hierarchy and formality; rigor and structure. Learning to read those differences without imposing a single model of leadership was, at its core, the seed of what I now practice in my newer projects too: building community while respecting the identity of each person and each community.

You remain in contact with several of your former Schiller classmates today. Why do you think those relationships have endured, and what role has your international network played throughout your career?

I believe those friendships have endured because they were born of a very intense shared experience: building a professional identity together, at a very young age, in a language and culture that were not our own. That shared vulnerability creates bonds different from purely professional ones. My international network has been, throughout my entire career, a constant source of perspective, opportunity, and support; it has taught me that the most valuable relationships are not the most numerous, but the ones you tend to over time. My contacts are a way of life.

You are currently working on a personal project, Vecinos La Moraleja, which aims to connect people, create synergies, and strengthen the local community. Having spent decades building networks in an international business environment, what similarities do you see between fostering global professional connections and creating a sense of community closer to home?

The similarities are, in fact, deeper than they appear at first glance: in both cases, everything starts with listening before proposing, with identifying what each party needs, and with building trust before asking for anything in return. Every time we learn something new, our brain forms new connections and reinforces existing ones. That's why I'm convinced that the more we challenge our brain with new experiences and learning, the greater our capacity for adaptation. I love helping, connecting, coming up with ideas, bringing people together, and above all, continuing my learning journey. That is why I decided to keep studying and began a Master's in Digital Marketing and AI.

After building a successful career in technology, operations, and global leadership, you are now also helping bring women together through the Women's Professionals Club. Looking back on your own journey, what advice would you give to women aspiring to leadership roles, and what opportunities do you see for the next generation of female leaders?

To women aspiring to leadership roles, I would say: don't wait to feel one hundred percent ready to take the next step. I wasn't either, at every one of my promotions, and it was precisely taking that risk that allowed me to grow. I would also tell them to build their own support network from the very beginning, because no twenty- or thirty-year career is sustained alone. For the next generation of female leaders, I see enormous opportunities in digital transformation and artificial intelligence, fields where diversity of perspective — including women's perspective — is more decisive than ever for leading with judgment and purpose. Female talent will take us to new places in the decades to come. Just believe in you.

As a final note, what advice would you give to current students to help them make the most of their Schiller experience?

I would tell current students to use their time at Schiller not just to learn business, but to learn how to move between cultures, because that will, over time, be their most lasting competitive advantage. To nurture the international friendships born on campus with the same care they'll later put into their careers, because many of those friendships will become the network that sustains them for decades.

The friendships you build at Schiller can become the network that supports you for decades.

I'd just remind them that they are, and always will be, eternal students. That these years at Schiller will shape their future. I wish them all the best… and they are in a place that is preparing them for it — MAKE THE MOST OF IT.