Business and tennis alumnus Marina Prediger will take on a new position as internal auditor at Lenovo Brasil

Business and tennis alumnus Marina Prediger will take on a new position as internal auditor at Lenovo Brasil

In her new role, the BSBA and MBA graduate will conduct audits focused on the company's internal operations, providing independent insights into risks and improvement opportunities.

Marina Prediger, who earned her BSBA and MBA from UMSL and also played on the women's tennis team, recently started a new position as an internal auditor at Lenovo in So Paulo, Brazil. (Photo courtesy of Marina Prediger)

Marina Prediger is not bored in her role as internal auditor Lenovoa multinational computer manufacturer and cloud service provider. Since joining the sales office team of Fortune 500 company So Paulo, Brazil in April, she has found that there is always something new to learn and different areas of the business to explore.

In her new role, she conducts audits focused on the company's internal operations, providing independent insights into risks and improvement opportunities. Normally, her daily work involves meeting with various company stakeholders, understanding internal processes, traveling to facilities and collaborating with global teams and colleagues within Lenovo. She said Lenovo has been a great place to kick-start her career since graduating from the University of MissouriSt. Louis with her MBA in 2022.

Prediger, who grew up in Porto Alegre, Brazil, came to UMSL as a student-athlete at the women's tennis team. She played tennis from a young age, competing in junior tournaments, and decided when she was in high school that she wanted to use tennis as a way to help with her studies abroad. She began applying to various universities and was soon recruited by Rick Gyllenborg, then the men's and women's tennis coach at UMSL.

Initially, Prediger wasn't sure what she wanted to study in college, but she was leaning toward business (her father is an entrepreneur), so she liked the idea of ​​staying in the family business. As she learned more about the offerings in UMSL's College of Business Administrationher decision became easy.

The whole experience was so much fun and very different from the experience in Brazil, Prediger said. At the universities in Brazil, sports are not the same as American universities. If I had stayed here, I wouldn't have been able to continue playing competitive tennis or get a degree from a great university like UMSL. That certainly opened a lot of doors.

While pursuing her BSBA at UMSL, Prediger found support from her professors as well as her coaches and fellow players on the women's tennis team. UMSL Athletics wider. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck during the final semester of her undergraduate career, that support proved crucial. Prediger was playing a tournament with the tennis team in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, when they found out classes were being moved online due to stay-at-home orders. Shortly afterwards, she returned to Brazil where she completed her BSBA online and also decided to take the opportunity to begin her first semester of study. MBA program.

In January 2021, Prediger was excited to be able to come back to the UMSL campus to complete her degree in person. She embraced an active role on campus, both as a graduate assistant in the Graduated Business Office and on the tennis team, because she was able to play another year and then become the team's assistant coach. She said her experience as a student-athlete helped her become successful in her career in the business world.

It certainly helped me develop strengths that will be good for my career, such as teamwork, time management and leadership, she said. It has also helped me build connections and develop a strong work ethic. My teammates and coaches always gave me the support needed to succeed on the tennis court and in the classroom. They are a huge part of my journey and success.

After obtaining her MBA in 2022, Prediger started working as an audit associate at Bayer. She first became interested in auditing through some friends who had gone into the field and after doing some research on her own, she decided this would be a great area to start her career. It's fun that we get to work with many different parts of the company, and you certainly learn a lot about the company's business in general, she said.

In her new role in the internal audit department at Lenovo, Prediger is excited to gain more experience in the field, and she sees plenty of opportunity for future growth within the company. A few years later, she saw herself progressing to the position of project manager, leading audits and working directly with the company's key stakeholders. Looking back, she feels her experience at UMSL, both as an athlete and as a BSBA and MBA student, supported her career development when it came time to join the corporate world.

A lot of the classes, especially working in teams on group projects, definitely prepared me for this, she said. The professors in the department have been very supportive of my development as a student and later in my career, and I am also very grateful to the tennis coach and my tennis team who have worked with me throughout this process. I am super grateful for all the opportunities I have had at UMSL.