Seun Akingbogun

London Business School

“Energetic, friendly, curious and adventurous London-based Nigerian who loves working with numbers and meeting people.”

Hometown: London, UK and Abuja, Nigeria

Fun Fact About Yourself:  I bumped into ASAP Rocky on my 21st birthday in London

Undergraduate School and Major: MEng Chemical Engineering with year abroad from UCL

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: BNP Paribas, Associate, Financial Institutions Coverage Sustainable Finance Team

What makes London such a great place to earn an MBA degree? London is at the heart of everything you could possibly want to explore during an MBA. LBS has it all on its doorstep: it is minutes away from London’s Financia and Corporate District and Tech centre; geographically in a sweet spot that makes travelling to many global destinations possible; and an exhaustive list of activities to do and explore with classmates, such as an active theatre scene, night clubs, and cooking schools.

London Business School is one of the most culturally and professionally diverse MBA programs in the world. How do you see these global perspectives enhancing the value of your business education over the next two years? I am already learning so much and expanding my perspective from various interactions with my cohorts in just a few weeks that I can only imagine how much more I would have developed as a person after two years. This is one of the greatest values one can get from an MBA, because these are the traits that make one a global leader: the ability to genuinely think outside of the box, to be flexible and to think globally.

Aside from your classmates and location, what was the key part of London Business School’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? The length of the program and the fact that the seoncd  year is completely tailored. One of the most important things for me in an MBA was to explore as many career options, countries, cultures and activities as possible, and this takes time and flexibility. I believe LBS is the only school that provided me with this time as well as the flexibility that I need.

What course, club or activity excites you the most at London Business School? The Black in Business Club. I am extremely passionate about being involved, promoting and giving back to my community and I have made sure to do so at each step of my career and education. I was extremely excited to see that LBS BiB Club was created, as it is the perfect avenue for me to continue to promote and champion my community.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: After my graduate program at BNP Paribas, I joined the newly formed Financial Institutions Coverage Sustainable Finance team alongside a Managing Director. Our main objective was to build this new franchise in the bank. Two years later, we had built this business from nothing into a 22 million euro revenue-generating business and had won several awards, including 2021 Euromoney’s Best Western Bank for Sustainable Finance.

How did COVID-19 change your perspective on your career and your life in general? In my mother tongue, there is an old saying that translates into “There is more than one way to the market”. It means that there are many ways to get things done and the ways can be tailored according to the person. Pre-COVID-19 pandemic, I felt the pace of life was very singular and inflexible. I felt that more options could and should be made available to people as “There is more than one way to the market”. Life in the pandemic made me realise that there really are more ways to achieve the things you want to achieve, but for some reason we were all stuck in a singular way. I am glad to see how much more flexible life has become since the pandemic and I hope companies and other stakeholders continue to make the effort to offer people various structures to fit their needs.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point and what do you hope to do after graduation? As part of my work, I could see sustainable finance was becoming more and more mainstream and I felt that, in about five years, an expert with only/mostly sustainable finance experience would be unnecessary in the workplace, as all employees would be experts on the topic. I felt that now was the right time for me to re-train to broaden my skill sets to remain competitive in the job market.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? INSEAD

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into London Business School’s MBA program? Spend a lot of time getting to know the school, if you can come in person and attend a lecture, open days – PLEASE DO. Speak to a lot of students and alumni and ask your honest and open questions and concerns! This is the only way you will really get to know if you are a right fit for the School and if the School is a right fit for you.

DON’T MISS: MEET LONDON BUSINESS SCHOOL’S MBA CLASS OF 2023