As COVID-19 hit Brazil, Alexandre Amorim gathered his team remotely and asked the question: “How can we be useful at this moment?”

With that, the team generated a list of strategic projects to help families with food, health care, and other critical needs. “We are living in a moment of the extreme,” says Amorim, a moment that requires leaders and organizations to meet new challenges.

As executive director and co-founder of ASID Brasil, Amorim started the organization 10 years ago with $400 and an inspiration to support people with special needs. It principally helps schools that serve people with special needs maximize their resources and form partnerships with companies and volunteers that improve access and education. 

Amorim has studied entrepreneurship and social innovation at Stanford, INSEAD, and Harvard, as well as corporate strategy at Harvard and HEC–Paris. But in 2018, he decided to expand his business horizons further, enrolling in the EMBA Program at FDC.

“I always wanted to have a whole vision of management,” he says. “I needed to understand more profoundly the big picture of business administration.”

The EMBA experience more than met his expectations: It profoundly impacted his work.

“I took almost everything that I learned and applied it,” he says, including the hard skills, such as finance, and the soft skills that helped him become a better leader. 

The end result: ASID Brasil dramatically extended its reach, now impacting some 28,000 children and families, compared to 6,700 at the start of his program.

Amorim also brings his new knowledge to another role, professor of entrepreneurship and social business at FAE, a local university, where he also serves as education coordinator.

Now in the age of COVID-19 with needs greater than ever, Amorim looks to further leverage his EMBA education. “I am applying the knowledge and tools to grow and create greater impact.”

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