UK alum keeps his BU memories alive

By Rebecca Beyer | Published July 2026

Despite his brother’s advice to find a college in Boston so they could live near each other, Roberto Lampl (CAS’90) initially followed a high school guidance counselor’s recommendation to begin his undergraduate studies at a small liberal arts school in rural Pennsylvania.

But, on a visit to see friends from home who were studying in Boston—his brother had also recently finished dental school at Tufts University—the Peruvian-born Lampl, who grew up in Curaçao and Aruba, fell in love with the city.

“I realized a city environment is what I wanted,” he said, of his decision to transfer to Boston University in the summer before his sophomore year. “Plus, BU had an amazing, huge international student body. I thought that was really important.”

Today, Lampl, who lives in London, is helping grow BU’s international presence as cochair of the United Kingdom Alumni Leadership Council, which aims to promote the University throughout the country; facilitate connections among students, alumni, and parents in the region; and provide professional development opportunities. He said watching BU grow in reputation and reach over the years has been exciting.

“I met amazing people when I was at BU and had a lot of fun,” he says. The alumni council is “another way to connect with that positive experience. I think Boston University has gone through a phenomenal evolution as an institution through investing in engineering programs and infrastructure, and I am glad to support that over here.”

Lampl, whose parents worked in retail related to the tourism industry, studied economics at BU. He found the intersection of geopolitics and the financial markets fascinating, in part because of his international upbringing.

“I realized in my travels going back-and-forth to see family that there was this huge potential for development—economic development, political development, and so forth,” he said, adding that he was intrigued by “the big differences” he saw between the infrastructure in the United States, where he attended boarding school in New Jersey, and his countries of origin.

At BU, Lampl participated in the ski club, attending and eventually helping organize trips to Vermont, Canada, and Wyoming. As part of his studies, he completed an internship at the investment firm Dean Whitter, which later merged with Morgan Stanley. He also took classes abroad—in Paris and, after graduation, in Brussels (BU was one of the first universities in the United States to offer international education programs).

“I realized I wanted to spend more time in this part of the world,” he says of his studies in Europe, which included an internship with the Hong Kong Development Council in Paris. “It just increased my conviction of what I wanted to do.”

After graduating, Lampl earned an MBA from Babson College and then took a job with a Dutch bank, living in Holland and New York for several years. He later worked for a development bank in The Hague and in various roles in asset management and investment banking, including with a focus on Latin America, before moving into a role focused on evaluating companies’ performance on environmental, social, and governance measures. He now coleads sustainability research at ISS STOXX.

Lampl had stayed in touch with friends from BU, including his best friend—who was also the best man at his wedding. But, after attending an event with a Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies professor in 2017, he began to consider getting more formally involved with his alma mater.

“There were some really wonderful people there; it was a great lecture,” he says, adding that he thought: “I can make time, especially for something so positive.”

The UK Alumni Council was formed in 2024; Lampl’s cochair is Obi Onyeagoro (ENG’98). The group has hosted networking events and facilitates mentorship opportunities through BU Connects, a platform exclusively for BU alumni, students, faculty, and staff. Lampl has engaged with several students, including a soccer player who was interested in finance and accounting.

“Hopefully we can be a bit more ambitious” going forward, he says.

Lampl estimates that attendance at events has ranged between about 40 and 70 people so far. With more than 1,000 alumni in the United Kingdom, he is eager to expand, building on the success of events like the Kleh Family Foundation Distinguished Lecture series, held in London annually since 2001.

“If you had a positive experience at BU,” he says, “staying involved is one way to rekindle that and keep those memories alive.”

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