Paradosso's profile

I've posted my profile in the accepted.com board and in another thread seeking advice to finalize my school list, but in the latter case I was probably looking for some profile reviews as well (otherwise career goal and school list could have been sufficient).

It seems like I had my mind read by the guys who started this board, so without further ado here's my profile and everybody is welcome to share their opinion on which schools I may have a chance / be competitive for and to advise on strategies to optimize my application strategy (reference to specific schools/essays is extremely valuable, as are experiences from '10 admits or current ambassadors).

Hope I can return the favor though I'm not nearly as informed as most guys around here.

A starting point: should I talk about graduating one year later as I had to help out my family working? Trade-off between highlighting a weakness and showing some leadership (yet my job was not really linked to what I was studying, nor I can ask LORs from people there - they cannot speak a word of English...).

Thanks, as always.

Age, gender, ethnicity: almost 27 (almost 28 at matriculation), white male, Italian.

Education: BA (Hon.) with a major in marketing and business administration from Bocconi UG (best management college in Italy). GPA 28,2/30, final mark 110/110. Semester abroad at Strathclyde (UK). Member of International Students Association.

GMAT: taking it in two weeks, currently scoring 720-750 in MGMAT and GMATPrep

Work Experience (3 years at matriculation):
- 20 months at a boutique MC firm in Italy: promoted after one year, given an intern and a full-time analyst to manage after one year, substantial contribution in selling the extension of a major engagement, acted as the company reference point for IT procurement and integration with parent company when the firm was acquired;
- 3 months now in a major MC firm (top 3): international engagement (Ukraine, Switzerland, Italy) as well as international team (Ukrainian, Russian, Dutch, Italian), should be promoted to a post-MBA position in one year.

Extracurriculars: junior teacher at local sailing club, organized sailing race with about 100 participants; head of non-editorial activities for the leading italian music webzine (until I went working as a consultant), negotiated two deals with major players in the online advertising business.

Career Goal: move to the US in a product management role in a major Internet-based company (first choice would be Amazon), eventually lead my own team or my startup again in a product and design based industry.

Weaknesses: took me one year more than expected to graduate, due to family matters. I also feel my extracurricular are not up to par with other applicants though leadership could emerge in my professional career so far.

Other: at my previous company I worked directly with the CEO for a couple of months, he happens also to be a VP of HBS Alumni and would strongly support my candidacy with compelling stories (An ex-colleague who worked with him in comparable ways and had his LOR is now in HBS with a 620 GMAT -and a very well-engineered application though!).