Creating a Career To Support Underrepresented Communities
Sergio Marrero, E’07, industrial engineering, blended his love for entrepreneurship, passion for helping disadvantaged communities, lessons from co-ops at Gillette, Johnson & Johnson, and Procter & Gamble, and an MBA, to make a successful career supporting startups that are helping underrepresented people.
Sergio Marrero, E’07, industrial engineering, is an entrepreneur at heart. As a child, he ran lemonade stands and sold handmade bracelets. In high school, he worked as an independent DJ performing at weddings and often creating videos, including graphic design elements, for these events.
Today, he supports new ventures as managing director of Blue Ridge Labs@Robin Hood, which funds startups developing tech-enabled products for low-income communities. Recent innovations include an app to help individuals manage their supplemental food benefits and an on-demand child-care service for working parents. “We are funding very early-stage organizations with plans to fight poverty and accelerate economic mobility,” Marrero says.
Because of opportunities given to him when he was younger, including his Northeastern experience, Marrero embraces a pay-it-forward work philosophy. “My extended family grew up in public housing,” Marrero says. “My family came to New York City to make the most of the opportunities available. My purpose now is to focus on how to best support low-income communities and to create systemic change.”
Co-ops were the primary reason he selected Northeastern. “Hands down, without the co-op program, I wouldn’t be where I am now,” Marrero says. “The co-op program was structured to give me a deep dive and work in a profession for six months, and then go back to the academic program, which was a safe space to continue thinking about what I wanted to do next.”
His first co-op was at Gillette Co., where he worked on an industrial engineering team tasked with integrating new product production into plant operations. He recalls assisting in the setup of a new assembly line for the Gillette Fusion razor. His next co-op was at Johnson & Johnson, where he worked on a team that managed contracts and relationships for the corporation’s consumer products groups. This experience had more of a business focus, which Marrero found as interesting as the engineering component.
A final co-op took him back to Gillette as Procter & Gamble was acquiring it. He was assigned to a team managing a portfolio of new product plans and determining how they might best fit in the overall business plan.
“That’s how I got into innovation,” Marrero says.
In his senior year, Marrero was certain he wanted to pursue a career focusing on entrepreneurship and set his sights on working for a large consulting firm to gain experience. When he heard about a career fair for MBA students at a nearby university, he decided to attend, although he was not on the guest list. Some firms “were not impressed with my hustle,” Marrero says, but Deloitte Touche Consulting, the world’s largest consulting organization, appreciated his determination.
After graduation, PepsiCo hired him for a one-year leadership program. He stayed in touch with Deloitte, which eventually hired him as a strategy and operations consultant. After several years, he moved on to earn an MBA and a Master in Public Policy (MPP) at Harvard University.
Marrero went on to launch several companies, including one in the education technology market that was short lived, but offered him valuable lessons. “Like many startups, it wasn’t a stellar success, but we put together a team and launched a product,” Marrero says. “Through that experience I gained real empathy for other founders and realized there needs to be more support for underrepresented entrepreneurs.”
In 2017, he founded Rebel One, which provides support and entrepreneurial and investor training, and then joined Blue Ridge Labs@Robin Hood as managing director in 2022.
He says his Northeastern experiences continue to inspire him, noting that in addition to co-ops, he benefitted from student life on the Boston campus and other supports.
He attended Northeastern’s Summer Bridge program, an orientation and networking program for underrepresented students held before the start of an academic year. “It was great because it connected me with so many people and that helped my confidence,” Marrero says.
He also served as president of the Latino American Student Organization (LASO), where he learned to advocate. “It allowed me to lead, to organize, and to get things done,” Marrero adds.
Marrero still vividly recalls when LASO was recognized as a student group of the year. “We really showcased the Latin American culture, collaborated with organizations across the campus, and people would attend our events regardless of background,” he says. “I was excited by the change we were able to achieve by bringing people together.”