Play video: From Opportunity to Impact: Marco Renda on Building a Career and Paying It Forward (opens in modal)
For Marco Renda (BBA ’23), success has been about making the most of opportunities and, increasingly, creating them for others.
Today, Renda is an Account Manager on Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment’s Partnership Development & Innovation team, working in an industry he had set his sights on while still a student at Schulich.
Getting there was about more than any single experience. In the classroom, Renda developed the business foundation he would carry into his career. Outside it, extracurricular activities gave him opportunities to put those skills into practice, take on leadership roles and build relationships with professionals in the industry he hoped to join.
“The extracurriculars at Schulich for me were integral,” he says, pointing to the associations that allowed him to network with industry professionals and demonstrate what he could bring to the table.
One of those experiences was MLSE’s Global Partnerships Case Competition. As a Schulich student, Renda joined hundreds of students challenged to develop and present a dream partnership. At the time, he was balancing a full course load, a part-time job and his role as Vice-President, Corporate Relations for the York Sports Business Association. Winning the competition helped turn his ambition of working in sports business into a tangible opportunity, opening the door to a summer internship with MLSE.
But the story didn’t end there.
Years later, Renda found himself on the other side of the same competition. In 2025, he led the program from MLSE, expanding it to more than 50 schools across four countries. Participation increased 250 per cent year over year, resulting in 279 team registrations and more than 1,350 student sign-ups.
The experience also gave Renda an opportunity to help students take their own first steps into the industry. He managed four Summer Associates selected from standout competition participants through a four-month rotational internship within MLSE’s Global Partnerships department.
For Renda, it was a full-circle moment: an opportunity that once helped launch his own career had become one he could help create for others.
That same desire to give back has kept him connected to Schulich as a young alumnus, including through his involvement as an Alumni Ambassador and donor. He has described his Schulich experience as “unique and transformative” and wants future students to have access to opportunities that can shape their own paths.
For Renda, success has grown from making the most of the opportunities in front of him to helping open doors for those coming next. What began with learning, getting involved and putting himself out there has evolved into something more: using what he has built to help others begin building careers of their own.
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