Turning to MPM to Make a Difference

As a teenager growing up in the Dominican Republic, Anthony Logrono (MPM ‘23) watched housing and commercial projects begin and looked forward to what they would become. That excitement routinely dissipated as the projects frequently stopped and were abandoned.  

“The issue is that there's no management,” he said. “A lot of people there don't know how to actually perform something beforehand and make it happen.”

Logrono earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering because he wanted to learn the process to take a project from idea to completion. He then turned to Northwestern Engineering's Master of Science in Project Management (MPM) program to build on that knowledge. 

Logrono is a project control specialist with global design and engineering company Arcadis. He is based in Columbus, Ohio, where he is helping a technology client with a massive data-center construction project.  

“Every single week there's something new, something different,” he said. “What you did this week, it's good for this week, but for next week it might not be. Being someone who is able to adapt fast and deliver on time is really important in this job.”  

The ability to keep huge construction projects on time and on budget is central to Logrono’s work, and it’s vital in keeping up with the penchant for producing data in the US. The demand for data centers is expected to double between 2022 and 2030, according to a McKinsey & Company analysis.

As Logrono settled into the new job, he felt a sense of familiarity when his day-to-day work and interactions often resembled what he experienced in MPM.

“Everyone is different in the MPM program," he said. " Same as here. Everyone is from a different country. Everyone has a little bit of experience on a different topic, and if there's an issue, we sit together and figure it out together with everyone's differing background and previous expertise.”

Learning how to work as a team was one of the most important lessons Logrono learned in the MPM program.  

"Those different perspectives and learning how to manage problems helps a lot," he said. "Making it possible for people to talk about problems and come to solutions together helps students in the moment and in the future."

While Logrono is currently focused on his work in Columbus, part of his mind will always be on his past — and his future. He came to MPM to develop the skills and capabilities to one day return to the Dominican Republic and impact the community.

Thanks to MPM, he's confident he can make that difference in his homeland.

“The MPM program was just not about construction. It was more about whole project management,” he said. “Now I can leverage all the knowledge that I got from the program into my life, into my career, and hopefully one day go back to the Dominican Republic to make things happen.”