UCLA Goes to Chile!

Through the UCLA Global Immersion program, about 40 UCLA students were able to take a trip to Chile with distinguished Professor Edwards.

This trip, without a doubt, has been the highlight of my MBA experience thus far.

We met with prominent leaders in the Chile community, and had the opportunity to learn about Chiles financial, economical and social matters from such an informed professor. (And his connections in Chile are not to be undermined!).

Everyone in Santiago knew Professor Edwards, and it showed how much respect they all have for him.

We learned about Chile’s finance and Art markets from Dr. Charlin.

Dr. Charlin mentioned that Art and finance have always gone hand in hand for centuries.

That Artworks has a dual nature, in that they are objects whose contemplation can provide aesthetic pleasure while concurrently they can also be valuable financial assets.

We also learned from Mr. Cifuentes about Chile’s wine markets and capital markets.

It was interesting to learn about Chile’s pension system.

We leaned that Workers contributes 10% of their salary every month, and their money is managed by Specialized asset management firms (AFPs). The Workers also pay a monthly management fee of about 50/150 basis points (based on their monthly salary). AFPs offer five different funds (A, B, C, D, and E) based on different risk profiles i.e., from A (riskiest) to E (most conservative). The Funds are kept in segregated accounts and all of the AFPs, together, managed about $ 210 billion (in 2021).

Regarding Chilean wine, Chile produces almost 5% of the world wine or roughly 13 million

hectoliters per year, of which 70% is exported, mostly to China, U.K., U.S., Japan and Brazil.

We had the opportunity to visit a Chilean winery, and learn about the ins and outs of running the winery, the troubles they have faced during covid, their crisis Mangement techniques, and how they’ve pivoted over the years.

This trip to Chile was extremely educational and inspiring. I was also able to connect deeply with my classmates, get closer to my professor, and meet some very esteemed leaders.