A space where personal growth and investment are transformed into business success

Guatemala, October 8, 2025. Acton MBA is a unique master's program specializing in business and entrepreneurship, designed to help each student discover their potential with tools and learning applicable to everyday life. In each session, participants delve into how to identify market needs, design solutions, execute with determination, and turn the fear of failure into an opportunity.

“More than a destination, entrepreneurship is a journey of transformation. It involves taking risks, facing uncertainty, and evolving through trial and error. The decision to become an entrepreneur can be made in an instant; the important thing is to prepare intentionally and be brave enough to take action,” emphasized Hugo Díaz , director of Acton MBA in Entrepreneurship .

Career path program

It's important to recognize that the program, more than a master's degree in finance or capital, is a master's degree in entrepreneurship. It was created with this purpose in mind. In 2003, Jeff Sandefer and a group of entrepreneurs and professors founded Acton MBA in Austin, Texas, with a clear vision: to create a business school designed exclusively for those determined to become entrepreneurs. 

That's how this movement began, with a single class, which then became a complete program and today is a renowned business school with global impact.

The philosophy behind Acton focuses on developing leaders who not only understand business, but also dare to create their own, since entrepreneurship is not simply about investing capital, but about committing to a vision, taking risks, and building something where there was nothing before.

As a result, Austin, Texas, is now one of thefastest-growing entrepreneurship hubs in the world, and that transformative energy is what drives every classroom, every case study, and every conversation within the program.

Entrepreneurial Impact

The program's instructors are successful entrepreneurs and businesspeople who share their firsthand knowledge and experience, providing students with resources and learning tools that would otherwise take years to acquire. Furthermore, they allow students to witness firsthand each stage of an entrepreneur's journey.

For Oliver Leonowens , the first Guatemalan assigned to the UFM Acton MBA program, it was a decisive act in his life as an entrepreneur:

As a young entrepreneur, I had little interest in university education, so I focused on working on my business. After ten years, I reached a plateau because I wasn't close to achieving my ambitious goals. Acton was an oasis of practical information, helping me understand what I was doing wrong and correct my course in life, thanks to all the lessons and discussions in class.

The master's program has a diverse student body; some of them are professionals in other fields and industries: there are leaders of family businesses, managers of small, medium and multinational corporations; established entrepreneurs and others who wanted to start their ventures with a firm step, but not before preparing themselves academically to achieve faster success.

Since 2011, the Acton methodology has been present in Guatemala through the Acton MBA in Entrepreneurship at UFM. Its practical and transformative approach has generated undeniable results: while in traditional MBAs only about 6% of graduates decide to become entrepreneurs, in Acton more than 60% launch their own projects. This difference speaks volumes about the type of professional the program develops.

In this way, Acton MBA continues to position itself as a unique program in its category, where each class session conveys an entrepreneurial methodology and philosophy, guiding students more from experience than from theory.

For more information:

You can visit actonmba.ufm.edu or go to the headquarters in Guatemala, located in the Business School Building, EN-101, Francisco Marroquín University.
You can also contact us by phone at (+502) 2338-7907, (+502) 2413-3273 or write to actonmba@ufm.edu .