News & Stories
First Haitian Winter Paralympian is a Tar Heel
Ralf Etienne (MBA ’22) walked up to the stage, Haiti flag in hand, for the opening ceremony of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Paralympics.
“I looked up and saw the Haitian flag and realized I was the reason that flag was there,” says Etienne. “I had put Haiti on the map of the Winter Paralympics. Looking back, I realized I had just made history as the first Haitian to compete in the Winter Paralympics.”
Etienne, an alpine skiing Paralympian, credits the MBA he earned from UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School with helping him get there.
“Being a performing athlete requires business acumen and strategy to qualify in a short time and organize training. At UNC, I learned strategy, leadership, communication, planning and organization,” says Etienne. “What I learned through my MBA helped me prepare to compete in the Paralympics.”
Etienne had an entrepreneurial spirit from a young age. When he was 16, he launched a magazine and within four years it became a national magazine, radio show and production company.
Then, in 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti. Etienne lost a leg after being trapped in a collapsed four-story building and hanging upside down for eight hours. Living through the earthquake inspired him to use his entrepreneurial skills to start Rebuilding Haiti, an initiative to help Haitians who lost their homes during the earthquake. Within four months, Rebuilding Haiti went from a GoFundMe page to a nonprofit organization, raising enough money to build homes for 720 residents.
His work with Rebuilding Haiti opened Etienne’s eyes to impact investment, economic development and business consulting. In Haiti, Etienne also worked with doctors to help provide eyecare to children. Those experiences inspired him to study medicine and business administration at Anderson University.
Etienne went on to earn his MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler in 2022. He moved to New York City to begin his investment banking career at Bank of America, later relocating to Switzerland and then London.
He balanced his banking career with training to compete as Haiti’s first Winter Paralympian. Beyond resilience, he wanted to showcase an image of Haiti defined by excellence, discipline, leadership and possibility and to use his experiences to inspire young Haitians.
“I was born, raised and educated in Haiti, just like them,” he says “Despite losing a leg, I was able to build a life that took me from Haiti to UNC, investment banking and the Paralympics. I want young Haitians to look at my trajectory and believe that anything is possible for them.”
Etienne hasn’t been able to travel back to Haiti in several years, but he hopes to visit soon to see how much his work has continued to impact people. He wants to use his knowledge from Carolina to raise funds and help people beyond Haiti to use investment as a vehicle to fight poverty.
“From under the rubble of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti to carrying the Haitian flag on the slopes of the Alps as an elite Paralympic skier, this journey has always been bigger than sport,” he says. “It is a message to the youth of Haiti that their story is not defined by where they start. If this inspires even one young Haitian to believe that anything is possible, it’s worth it.”