Meet the Graduate Coaching Team

Peter DeCotis assumed the role of PEMBA Career Coach at the Feld Center for Career & Alumni Engagement in July 2020. His prior experience includes serving as an Associate Director for Specialty Master’s Career Programs where he led a team of career professionals and developed curricula for a largely international student population. Peter has had the privilege of coaching, advising, and partnering with every graduate student population, many alumni, and dozens of employers at Questrom.

Notably, Peter made significant contributions as the pioneer staff member responsible for conceiving and launching all MSBA career programming. He initiated and cultivated partnerships with employers, designed specialized curricula, and orchestrated numerous career-focused events and presentations.

Before his tenure at Boston University, Peter spent over two decades as a technology leader within the financial services sector, where he ascended from a help desk role to executive leadership. Throughout his career, he actively engaged as a hiring manager, mentor, and trainer, amassing valuable experience in these areas. Furthermore, Peter has a background in college admissions counseling and life coaching.

Currently, in his capacity as an Associate Director, Peter is dedicated to guiding and mentoring the PEMBA student population. His responsibilities encompass conducting career-oriented classes and workshops, providing one-on-one guidance to students, fostering relationships with employers, and coordinating various career-related events. Peter also collaborates closely with the MBA Center on social programming initiatives.

Beyond his professional pursuits, Peter derives enjoyment from outdoor activities such as kayaking, traveling, hiking, golf, and tennis. He is a perpetual advocate of lifelong learning and holds both an MBA and a master’s in hospitality.

In August 2023, Gabrielle DiMariano joined the Feld Center for Career & Alumni Engagement as an Assistant Director of MBA Career Coaching. Within this role, Gabrielle is dedicated to cultivating a dynamic and personalized learning environment at Questrom, where the central focus is on tailoring career development to everyone’s unique journey.

Before joining the Feld Center, Gabrielle worked as a recruiter at one of the world’s leading technology companies, where she oversaw the full recruitment cycle for internships and student programs, affording her a valuable insider’s view of the student hiring process. Her responsibilities encompassed interview preparation, seamless collaboration with hiring managers, adeptly matching candidates with projects, extending offers, and guiding students through the onboarding process. Gabrielle helped champion Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, spearheading the development of interview rubrics, crafting comprehensive interview guidelines, training modules, and managing diverse hiring committees.

Gabrielle’s career has been marked by her commitment to community betterment. Preceding her tenure as a recruiter, she dedicated her efforts to nonprofit development, working for local and national community health organizations, focusing on providing underprivileged patients with access to crucial healthcare services. Some of her experience excapsulates managing annual fund development efforts, strategic communication planning, community engagement, stakeholder and donor relations, and project performance analysis.

Gabrielle’s holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Master of Arts in Educational Leadership and Administration. Beyond her professional endeavors, she finds joy in outdoor activities, quality time with loved ones, and traveling.

Ramesh Jayavaram joined the Feld Center for Career & Alumni Engagement in November 2023 as an Assistant Director of MBA Career Coaching. Prior to joining the Feld Center, Ramesh worked as a career coach at General Assembly, a global coding bootcamp, where he taught career workshops, provided one-to-one advising, and organized alumni programming. Before working at the coding bootcamp, he worked as a career counselor for specialty master’s students at BU Questrom School of Business and co-op counselor for engineering students at the College of Engineering at Northeastern University. He also ran his own private practice for a few years where he provided career services to immigrants and international students in the US.

In his current role as an Assistant Director of MBA Career Coaching, Ramesh guides and advises MBA students on the entire career and job-search process, from exploration of industries and functional roles to crafting and refining personal branding tools, preparing for interviews, and negotiating salaries and job offers. As part of the Feld team, Ramesh collaborates on developing MBA curriculum offerings and resources, teaches career workshops, and supports the many corporate events held at the business school.

Like many international MBA students, Ramesh came to the US in 2014 to pursue an MBA and is a multiple-time career changer. He was born and brought up in Andhra Pradesh, India. After completing his undergrad, he worked at L&T, a multi-national manufacturing and construction company, in a project management role supporting a $2B green-field thermal power project. During and after his MBA program, he worked at a few Boston-area companies in different marketing roles and volunteered as a Venture Coach at IDEA, Northeastern University’s student-run venture accelerator.  In 2018, he decided to transition to the field of career development to do more meaningful work and make a direct impact on individuals pursuing higher education and better opportunities.

Ramesh holds a Bachelor of Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Patna (India) in Mechanical Engineering, and an MBA from Northeastern University with a concentration in Marketing. His interests outside work include reading books on personal and professional development, watching documentaries, biking, and spending time with family, especially his 2-year-old daughter.

Mark McGarry joined the Feld Center for Career & Alumni Engagement in May 2024 as an Assistant Director of MBA Career Coaching. Most recently, Mark has served as a certified Mindset & Resiliency Coach and as a Mentor-at-Large in Harvard’s HealthLab entrepreneurship accelerator, where he used many of his business strategy and growth mindset skills in his advising role.

Before joining the Feld Center, Mark worked as an executive at one of the world’s leading sportswear brands and has a 20-year track record of driving growth and product innovation for global market leaders and emerging challenger brands in the footwear and apparel industry. His responsibilities encompassed a $1.3B business unit revenue accountability, driving strategic partnerships with professional athletes and desirable fashion brands and leading high-performance teams in the United States, Germany, United Kingdom, and Japan. As a seasoned entrepreneur, Mark has built two companies from scratch, including a sportwear consultancy that launches new performance footwear and apparel brands and an award-winning ecommerce footwear brand dedicated to personal growth and social impact. Mark is well versed in global brand strategy and marketing, product management, team leadership, early-stage venture strategy, capital fundraising and P&L performance management.

Mark is passionate about helping students, entrepreneurs and executives unlock their full potential in business and in life. In his current role, Mark guides and advises MBA students on career strategy, personal branding tools, interview preparation, negotiating job offers and growth mindset strategies to help them overcome their preconceived limitations to achieve big career goals.

Mark holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Vermont in Recreation Management with a concentration in Business Administration and Entrepreneurship. He is also a certified P.A.R.T. instructor from the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind-Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and a board member at Stoked, a youth development non-profit that promotes mental and physical health through action sports.

Beyond his professional endeavor, Mark is an avid surfer, snowboarder, marathon runner and enjoys spending time with his family and friends in Boston.

Aspa Papanastasiou joined the Feld Center for Career & Alumni Engagement in July 2024 as Assistant Director MiM Career Coaching.

Prior to Boston University Aspa worked in recruitment, non-profits and higher education and brings over 25 years of career counseling, job development and program management experience. In her latest tenure at Northeastern University Aspa developed an extensive global network of employer partners, designed badge programs and managed large scale international conferences and career fairs. Her global connections include Pluxee, University of Paris Saclay, Toulouse INP, Medan Asset Management, Sure.co, Chalhoub Group, EPN Consulting Research and Innovation, French Consulate & Embassy, TWT GmbH, Action Innovation Network and others. Earlier in her career Aspa led teams of two programs funded by Department of Housing and Department of Transitional Assistance serving unhoused clients in the greater Boston area.

In her current role at Questrom, Aspa counsels students in the Master’s in Management Program on career development, develops employer partnerships and organizes events. Aspa believes in the transformational power of experiential education and early exposure of students to industry. Through her work she is committed to empowering MiM students to excel in their academic journey, identify competitive careers, and lead fulfilling and inspiring lives.

Aspa holds a BS in Business Administration from the American College of Greece and a MS in Human Resource Development from Suffolk University. When outside of work, Aspa enjoys time with friends biking and sailing across the Atlantic shoreline.