Irene Treter (MBA Finance and Corporate Accounting ’06), senior director of mergers and acquisitions at Dow, served as the latest guest speaker in the Roy S. Pung Executive Speaker Series. Dow is one of the leading companies in material sciences, committed to delivering innovative and sustainable solutions that transform our world and deliver a sustainable future.
Treter, who spent most of her life in Peru, studied economics at the University of Lima and finance at the University of the Pacific. When Treter made the decision to pursue an MBA degree, Michigan State stood out to her due to the excellent reputation of the Broad College’s master’s programs. Upon completing her MBA, Treter forged a connection with Dow, ultimately leading her to becoming a full-time hire. With a commitment now spanning 17 years at the company, Treter explained to the room full of Full-Time MBA students the importance of her passion for Dow.
“The reason I am still passionate about Dow after all these years is because of its strong commitment to create solutions to address the challenges we have right now in the environment and its ‘humble yet high-performing’ culture, requiring effective teamwork while also demanding a high degree of individual accountability.”
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Irene Treter (MBA Finance and Corporate Accounting ’06), senior director of mergers and acquisitions at Dow, served as the latest guest speaker in the Roy S. Pung Executive Speaker Series. 
Full-Time MBA students took notes and learned Treter's life lessons and career takeaways. Dow takes pride in its transformative journey as an industry leader in environmental sustainability, embarking on a path to reduce its net annual carbon emissions by 5 million metric tons by 2030. In addition, the company is strategically investing in key technologies to transform plastic waste into circular and renewable solutions and amplifying its plans to increase global recycling and convert packaging materials to recyclable alternatives.
During her tenure at Dow, Treter explained, she worked across various areas within corporate treasury, such as credit risk management, financial planning, compliance, funding and corporate real estate, before securing her most recent position in mergers and acquisitions.
When asked how her previous roles affected her entry into M&A, Treter said, “Corporate real estate facilitated a smooth transition to M&A. When the role of M&A opened, a lot of people applied to it, but I had already a good understanding of the M&A process due to close collaboration in previous M&A transactions and developing a cross-functional network as part of my role in corporate real estate.
“I developed good relationships, and those helped me land the job in M&A,” she continued. “That was something that I definitely felt very proud of.”
Treter learned many lessons throughout her career, and she generously shared those learnings so students could follow in her footsteps:
She specifically touched upon the importance of proactively managing one’s career, emphasizing the pivotal role of this management in professional success.
“When I started out in the MBA program, I thought that just doing a good job was enough, and [I realized] that is good, but it is not enough,” she said. “You have to be in the driver’s seat and plan what you want to do by having clear goals in mind. You have to productively manage your career.”
More information on the upcoming 2023–24 Pung Speaker Series, as well as information on past events, is available via the Full-Time MBA program.
