Academics / Undergraduate Program / Client Project Challenge / ProjectA CPC project can be a great way for alums to connect back to NU's IEMS program
July 16, 2024
For the second year in a row, IEMS Alum Pablo Garza Villarreal has sponsored a Client Project Challenge project at his company, GP Vivienda (GPV). Pablo graduated in 2015. Since then, he’s worked at McKinsey, completed a Harvard MBA, and is now a Finance Subdirector at GP Vivienda.
“Meeting and working with a new generation of Northwestern IEMS students has been great. I would encourage all alumni to do this,” said Pablo.
“We love to see our alums engaging with our students. These real-world projects are an important part of our undergraduate curriculum. And, the client companies benefit from our great students,” said Simge Küçükyavuz, Chair of the IEMS department.
Last year, Pablo’s project focused on developing an inventory system.
“In the Spring of 2023, the students worked on an inventory warehousing optimization problem. The team found significant inventory reduction opportunities, and we still use their forecasting model today,” said Pablo.
That student team was Cheryl Chen, Elena Llaguno Cantu, Mika Ng, and Ben Wrather. Professor Derek Nelson was the faculty advisor.
This year’s team worked on a supply chain problem.
“This year, the students worked on a supply chain investment decision problem. I was impressed with Jomi, Wahibh, Breck, and Ana. They built a comprehensive case using advanced analytics to help determine whether we should make an important logistical investment. In addition, as they analyzed the data to reach a recommendation, they also identified some easy-to-implement operational savings which we gladly implemented,” said Pablo.
Jomi Babatunde-Omoya, Wahib Charamand, Breck Dunbar, and Ana de Souza were the Northwestern student team. Professor Vadim Linetsky was the faculty advisor.
About GP Vivienda: GP Vivienda is a division of Grupo GP, founded in 1966.
Grupo GP has 4 divisions, with GP Vivienda focused on housing. In its 50+ years in the market, this division has built and delivered over 125,000 homes, and is amongst the largest homebuilders nationwide.