Teresa Lara Hernández MM ’24: Law, Lifelong Learning, and Love of Music

Teresa Lara Hernández MM ’24 has always felt comfortable outside of her comfort zone. This trait, combined with a willingness to learn, has led her to the top of her field—and, ultimately, to the music industry.

“It’s important to build on your skills, but not forget you still have a lot of things to learn,” she says.

A Valencia native, Lara Hernández began her career at local law firm Garrigues before moving to Madrid to work for the “Big Four” accounting firm EY. From Spain, Lara Hernández’s path led her to the U.S. and London, where she worked for a leading IT consulting multinational and a strategic consultancy firm.

She has specialized in international economic law and tax throughout her career, fostering a deep understanding of complex global financial and tax systems. But her current  role, as global head of tax for music software company Ableton, has led her away from consultancy services into the music tech industry.

On paper, it might seem like a great leap between very different industries, but for Lara Hernández, it was a chance to apply her expert knowledge to an intriguing field.

“I love everything that has to do with global entertainment or music. It’s something that I’ve always been interested in, perhaps because of the inherent creativity involved, which, in many ways, is also very present in law,” she says.

In many ways, the transition has been straightforward for her. Her understanding of international law and international tax applies to any industry. “These things don’t change. Anything you do in life, the law is present,” she says.

At the same time, Lara Hernández isn’t one to rest on her laurels. While the fundamentals of tax and law remain the same, she admits there is still much to learn about the ever-changing global entertainment and music industry to achieve her goals.

A desire for continuous learning was instilled in Lara Hernández from a young age, her parents championing the idea of taking on experiences to acquire new knowledge. Not only has this made her resilient and highly adaptable, but it has also allowed her to keep growing professionally and personally. 

Her ambition led her to the Global Entertainment and Music Business master's program at Berklee Valencia. The course stood out for its broad offerings, with data analytics, finance, copyright law, branding, and partnerships of particular interest to her.

Besides the course content, which Lara Hernández found challenging and insightful, the most valuable thing she took from Berklee came from her interactions with other students—in particular, the opportunity to work with different generations on a peer-to-peer level. She believes that these interactions, where people with different perspectives and backgrounds collaborate, will enhance her already extensive managerial experience and broaden her strategic insights in leadership. 

“I really would like to see this kind of peer-to-peer relationship happening in a working environment where all generations are aware of what the other is actually bringing to the table,” she adds.

As a mature student with a full-time job, Lara Hernández’s biggest challenge at Berklee was balancing her studies with her work commitments and social life. Her mantra for staying driven and productive is to “take advantage of every minute in a day.” In addition, she recommends regularly checking focus levels. For example, she takes breaks from the computer screen, takes a short walk, and does small activities (cooking, enjoying music and family, having conversations with a friend about life, etc.) to momentarily disconnect from work when needed.

These techniques have allowed her to stay focused despite her heavy workload. She even started a consultancy project, Larwen, an entrepreneurial venture to help small businesses access high-quality consulting services. An idea shared with her colleague Alejandro Caballero, Larwen will tackle issues in the public interest, such as water scarcity, governance, financial transparency, and the arts (including entertainment and music). 

Still a passion project and a work-in-progress, the idea came about from an entrepreneurship practicum at Berklee Valencia. Lara Hernández devised a legally protected voice catalog to help emerging singers protect their voices against the misuse of artificial intelligence. Her professors in the Global Entertainment and Music Business program at Berklee Valencia praised the project, and she plans to transform it into a foundation to meet the demand for the service.

As a professional who returned to education later in life, Lara Hernández offers valuable advice to others contemplating a career transition. She stresses the importance of building on your experience, lots of patience, and acknowledging that there will be challenging moments. For her, it’s less about changing careers and more about continuously building new skills in different environments to help others to strive for bigger goals.

“There will be lots of moments where you ask yourself, ‘What am I doing here?’” she says, but ultimately, she believes that the knowledge gained always proves worthwhile.

Now, armed with the skills to take her career in the global entertainment and music industry to the next level, Lara Hernández will look to apply what she learned from Berklee at Ableton while continuing to support European entrepreneurs through the Larwen project.