“I have always been ambitious and after a stint in the Royal Danish Airforce I wanted to try something different, so joined the shipping company, A.P. Moller – Maersk, as a trainee. The job was varied and took me to different parts of the world, but I eventually settled in Denmark to take up the position as the global Head of Operations for the Handy tankers product tanker pool back in 2007. This led to various roles within Optimization and later Supply Chain, which gave me another angle on the tankers’ industry from a more technical perspective. I have always enjoyed studying, both out of interest and to challenge myself in a bid to stay relevant and keep on developing my career.”
A global overview
“In 2015 I began to consider an MBA. I had been in the Head of Operations position for some time and was looking to get a global overview of the business; I wanted to gain more perspective of the financial side of shipping, for example. I had looked at ‘regular’ MBAs briefly, mainly for the networking side of things, but the Blue MBA at Copenhagen Business School is a well-known and respected qualification and I kept coming back to it. It more than made sense for me.
“I could see there was a succession of impressive alumni and it was a broad curriculum. With kids aged one and three at the time I didn’t particularly want to travel to study – and I wasn’t interested in the opportunity to take a year out either – so being able to remain here in Copenhagen and study while holding on to my full-time job was perfect.
“I was fortunate to get a scholarship for the cost of the MBA and my company agreed to support me in other areas also, which was a great motivator and pat on the shoulder.”
Getting the balance right
“Of course, there were some modules I found more relevant than others. The finance was insightful and I learned a lot on the supply chain module as well. It was real-world learning. I actually changed job twice during the course of the MBA, moving into supply chain, which meant that I got to practise my skills in a new, exciting area.
“I am not the kind of person who does things by halves; when I am in, I am all in. I wanted to learn and to study and to be the best that I could be.