Gaetan Kashala

Gaetan Kashala has worked all over the world. But no matter where he’s traveled, he’s been driven by a passion to improve people’s lives.

As engagement director at the Associated Industries of Massachusetts, the largest business lobby in the Commonwealth, Gaetan’s organization advocates for policies that advance the competitiveness of the state and attendant economic opportunities for those who reside in it.

Gaetan moved to the United States from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and subsequently earned a bachelor’s in political science from Tufts University. A few years later, he started his own government relations firm in Washington, DC, often traveling to Central and Western Africa to do lobbying work. When he returned to Massachusetts, he got involved in international education, working to create institutional partnerships between U.S. and foreign universities, specifically in China and the United Kingdom. At Fullbridge, Inc., Gaetan served as director of global partnerships, helping organizations such as law firms, universities, and tech startups develop their workforce through the acquisition of in-demand professional skills.

But it was a Questrom directed study project in Haiti that had the greatest impact on Gaetan’s future career. This for-credit MBA project was a collaboration between BU’s Institute of Sustainable Energy and a non-profit microgrid operator called EarthSpark. “Our task was to conduct field research around how the increased use of electric cooking appliances could accelerate the long-term adoption of sustainable energy practices in Les Anglais, and memorialize our findings in a paper,” says Gaetan. “I was grateful for the opportunity to participate in a project that revealed insights that could help improve the public health, environmental, and quality of life of such an impoverished community.”

Since earning his MBA degree, Gaetan has stayed put in Boston, using what he learned at Questrom—management, operations, and strategy—to make life better for people in Massachusetts.

“I was grateful for the opportunity to participate in a project that revealed insights that could help improve the public health, environmental, and quality of life of such an impoverished community.”

– Gaetan Kashala