Meet London Business School's Class of 2019

Dr. Claire Vassie

London Business School

Describe yourself in 15 words or less: British medical doctor, Lloyds MBA Scholar, passionate about impact in the healthcare and education sectors.

Hometown: Fleet, Hampshire, United Kingdom

Fun Fact About Yourself: I’m known amongst friends for my super-human strength that occasionally emerges! This reputation developed in my first year of medical school in which I successfully carried a 6’7” male friend down three flights of stairs despite my small body frame!

Undergraduate School and Major:

Imperial College London, UK – Medicine (MBBS, President’s Scholar, Triple Distinction)

Imperial College London, UK – Bachelors of Science in Gastroenterology & Hepatology (Frist Class Honors)

Imperial College London, UK – Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation:

Employer	Role
Guy’s and St Thomas NHS Trust	Physician
QuintilesIMS	Clinical Trials Physician
Candesic	Healthcare Analyst
Imperial College London	Clinical Education Fellow

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Working as a physician is a great privilege, and I’m honored to have lead teams in high-pressure environments, produced pharmaceutical research that will deliver new therapies, and to have made the complex decisions that had life-changing impact on patients and their loved ones.

I’m a strong believer in judging accomplishments by impact. One of my biggest accomplishments was being the youngest president of Vision Outreach, an organization aiming to increase diversity in the medical profession. Managing a team of 20 committee members and 60 volunteers, we reached 400 school pupils from state schools, running inspirational conferences and providing free advice on all aspects of the admissions process. I oversaw a complete rebrand of the organization to raise our profile, building a social media presence and recruiting high profile public figures to partake in publicity materials. We also had huge successes in doubling our sponsorship revenue and building partnerships with national education charities to launch a program of events reaching a larger national audience.

I was also delighted to be recruited to a role in developing a new Medical School program in Singapore – it was a huge honor to be involved in a project with such great impact on international healthcare and the education of future generations of clinicians at such a junior stage in my medical career.

Looking back on your experience, what one piece of advice would you give to future business school applicants? One key piece of advice is to reach out to as many current students and alumni as possible. This is absolutely invaluable in getting a real feel for a school and whether you will be a good fit for their programme.

It’s only through visiting schools or reaching out to student ambassadors that will you be conducting sufficient due diligence in selecting where you will be spending two of the most transformative years of your lifetime.

At London Business School, I was incredibly impressed with the kindness, responsiveness and willingness of current students to help aspiring colleagues. These students were the embodiment of the truly collaborative spirit of the London Business School community, and this experience really swung my decision to apply.

What was the key factor that led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you? The rich class diversity was a huge factor in my decision. There is nothing more valuable than being able to test and challenge your ideas with a class of intelligent and driven classmates from such diverse professional and national backgrounds. Building a global network is vital for anyone wanting a global career and with students from 70 countries. London Business School truly offers this.

What would success look like to you after your first year of business school? Success at the end of first year would involve being on the road to a globally impactful career combining my passion for healthcare and education with a firm grounding in business fundamentals and the transformative experience of being part of the London Business School community.

Meet London Business School’s Class of 2019

Dr. Claire Vassie

London Business School

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