Meet The Rotterdam School of Management’s MBA Class Of 2020

Leon Laubscher

Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University

Hometown: Cape Town, South Africa.

Fun Fact About Yourself: I am a licensed skydiver and SCUBA diver.

Undergraduate School and Major: Stellenbosch University, Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Energy Partners, Sales Engineer

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: I successfully started a water treatment business unit amidst the water crisis in Cape Town. We offered solutions that allowed clients to treat their own groundwater for domestic use to reduce dependence on the city’s water supply and as a contingency if the water supply ran out. The work that I did aided in the city more than halving its water consumption, resulting in Cape Town narrowly avoiding “Day Zero”. This has gone down as one of the most drastic civic water conservation campaigns ever and I’m very proud to have been a part of that.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? We have 37 different nationalities in our cohort which means there are 37 different cultures to learn from – an amazing opportunity! I have already heard many amazing stories and am inspired everyday by being surrounded by such a diverse group of people.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key factor that led you to choose this programme for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you? I have a passion for sustainability, so RSM really appealed to me due to their focus in this field.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? I am chairman of the Erasmus University TEDx committee, so I am really looking forward to the event in October which we are currently busy organizing.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? My career goal is to develop and implement solutions that will allow businesses and society to transition to a more sustainable way of doing things. My background in engineering along with an MBA from RSM will provide me with the necessary tools to achieve this.

How did you decide if an MBA was worth the investment? The financial return was fairly easy to calculate and that alone made the investment worth it. More importantly, however, was the personal growth that comes along with doing an MBA. I learned the value of this by speaking to alumni from several B-Schools before I started this journey. Lastly, doing the MBA outside of South Africa will provide me with international exposure which was also very important to me.

What other MBA programmes did you apply to? None. I had my heart set on RSM so put all my effort into getting in there.

How did you determine your fit at various schools? I first calculated the financial returns and focused on the 10 schools with the best returns. From there, I spoke to alumni, looked at course content, considered the countries the schools were located in, and where I could see myself working after the MBA in terms of geography and sector. The feedback from alumni was very valuable as they were very open about both the positives and negatives.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? When I was 17 years old, I climbed Mt Kilimanjaro and was struck by the fact that the glaciers we came across were disappearing and are predicted to be completely gone by 2030. As cheesy as it might sound, this opened my eyes for the first time to the impact that we, as humans, are having on this planet and was the catalyst for me deciding to dedicate my career to fighting this.

What do you plan to do after you graduate? Pursue a career in sustainability in Europe.

Where do you see yourself in five years? Professionally, I see myself most likely still in Europe leading the charge to transition the corporate world towards a sustainable future, but starting to make plans to start my own company in South Africa to do the same there. Personally, I see myself as being fit, healthy, and still having the zest for life that I’ve been good at nurturing up until now.

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