What They Did Next: London Business School MBA Alumni

Over the years, many outstanding London Business School MBA students and alumni have been featured across the Poets&Quants’ annual spotlights. LBS caught up with five of those inspiring alumni to discover where they are now, and hear how their experiences of doing the LBS MBA helped them to succeed in their chosen career paths, and beyond.

Nick Deakin, MBA 2017

Vice President Investment Banking, Morgan Stanley

Tell us about your career following your MBA?

I’ve worked in healthcare investment banking since I left LBS in 2017. Alongside my banking colleagues, I advise entrepreneurs and teams within high-growth companies in the segments of biotech and digital health, who need connections to capital so as to finance change in the way healthcare is delivered. Working at the intersection of finance and science means I can use the skills I learned whilst a doctor at Barts, the largest NHS Trust in the UK, and as a consultant at McKinsey in the UK and the US.

In my banking role at Morgan Stanley in London – which I joined as a Vice President a year ago, following a stint at another investment bank – I’ve been involved in some of the largest capital raises for healthcare companies in the UK, the Nordics and across continental Europe. It’s exciting when you see these deals written up in the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal, and even better when you see your clients issue press releases about the deployment of technology in new areas, patients being given new drugs in clinical trials, or treatments being improved.

How has the MBA benefitted you?

While there are a lot of surprising similarities between being a doctor and working in investment banking, LBS has crucially provided me with the problem-solving skills and confidence I needed to perform in a very different role and with a whole new set of responsibilities.

Aside from learning about finance, modeling, and strategy – which I specialized in, and use every day – the organizational behavior classes were have been the most helpful!

Also, leading Out In Business (OiB), and helping set up two new LGBT+ scholarships, has given me the confidence to be a culture carrier at Morgan Stanley and pay forward all the contacts, support, and skills I learned whilst helping to put LBS on the map for diversity.

What do you want to achieve in the future?

I want to work with companies that have the potential to create the biggest impact on healthcare and to be the go-to financial adviser for founders in digital health and innovative biotech.

I also want to be seen as a positive role model for under-represented, diverse professionals, particularly for those in front-office roles in finance. Being named a Changemaker by LBS and an ‘Inclusion Champion’ by a former banking employer for my role in creating and promoting LGBT+ specific recruitment activities have been notable highlights. In short, I want to be known as a great, trusted banker and thinker first, who happens to be LGBT+.

Read Nick’s 2017 P&Q feature

Michael Vardi, MBA 2017

Co-founder & CBO, Valerann

Tell us about your career following your MBA?

During the first year of my MBA, I co-founded Valerann with three friends, including a fellow LBS MBA. Valerann is a traffic management company that uses data to help save lives, reduce congestion, and decrease costs for organizations that manage our roads.

Today, the company employs 25 people (we are hiring, by the way), has served roads in the UK, US, Spain, and Israel, and increases the safety of over one million journeys every day.

How has the MBA benefitted you?

Starting a company is difficult and full of uncertainty, and I don’t think I would have chosen this path without my MBA. LBS gave me access to resources, alumni, knowledge, and networks that helped shape the first few years of Valerann; it helped connect us with decision-makers in Transport for London, Costain, BRISA, and AECOM, allowing us to gain commercial traction and sharpen our offering. It gave me time to experiment in a relatively risk-free environment; a rare privilege in the world of entrepreneurship. I’m very grateful to have had that opportunity.

What do you want to achieve in the future?

I want Valerann to succeed. We have the opportunity to transform roads, the largest infrastructure on earth, into a connected, intelligent, and proactive asset; increasing the safety of our journeys, reducing the time we spend in traffic, decreasing emissions from transport and preparing roads for the future of mobility.

Together with our team, I want to build Valerann into a company that serves communities worldwide by transforming any road into an intelligent and automatically managed asset at the click of a button. I want us to do this by empowering our clients (the road operators) to become active stakeholders in the future of mobility. I hope my personal role in this story is one where I help other people grow with the company and have their own unique impact on what we achieve together.

Read Michael’s 2017 P&Q feature

Allie Fleder, MBA 2019

Co-Founder and COO, SimplyWise

Tell us about your career following your MBA?

In my second year of the MBA, I started a travel company with a brilliant woman from my LBS class. We wound up selling that business but it gave me the startup bug; I knew I wanted to be in a role where I was able to build something from scratch.

After connecting with a number of early-stage founders through my LBS network, I met my (now) co-founder Sam Abbas and together, we’re growing SimplyWise to redefine retirement finances. Getting to grow something you care about with people you want to grow with is as exciting and empowering as it gets.

How has the MBA benefitted you?

My MBA gave me the incredible privilege of stepping back from my day job to evaluate what I wanted to do with my career. I had “coffee chats” with my LBS classmates and alumni, to learn about the day-to-day aspects of their jobs. These often turned to “shadowing”, consulting projects, and even internships. It gave me the opportunity to experience a wide range of career options and focus my passion for startups.

The program also deeply expanded my business skillset. The teaching goes beyond instructional classes; LBS regularly provides practical opportunities to apply lessons in accounting, finance, and management.

Finally, my MBA provided me with a global network of impact-driven businesspeople. Now, there are few places I travel in the world where I don’t have an LBS connection – and as soon as I find them, wherever I am, I’m instantly at home.

What do you want to achieve in the future?

I believe a person’s success is measured by the impact they have on the lives of others, so my ambition is to help create products and services that will have a lasting impact. My dream is to have that kind of great success, at scale.

Read Allie’s 2017 P&Q feature

Tarana Shivdasani, MBA 2016

Country Operations Manager, UK at Google

Tell us about your career following your MBA?

I joined Google in London immediately after my MBA. I’m passionate about marketing and technology and started as an Industry Manager focused on FMCG brands. For me, this was a perfect intersection of my interests, and an opportunity to partner with world-class brands to help shape their vision and marketing strategy. After a few years, I was keen to explore something new, and am now the Country Operations Manager for Google UK. I focus on strategy and operations and work closely with the Country Manager to drive decisions and enable success.

How has the MBA benefitted you?

My MBA served as a broad foundation and gave me the ability and confidence to engage with my clients in various capacities. I found the Change Management courses, with the emphasis on soft skills, most helpful in navigating the corporate environment, while managing both challenges and opportunities.

My MBA also gave me a ready-to-go network I could lean on at Google – the LBS alumni were so welcoming! The same can be said for the LBS network outside of Google; I’ve leaned on my peers to get their unique perspective on business problems, which has proved immensely valuable. I view my MBA as a long-term investment that will continue to benefit me for years to come.

What do you want to achieve in the future?

My future goals have evolved in the last five years, and I have no doubt that trend will continue! My current role at Google has pulled me into managing operational challenges, which I am enjoying immensely. I’d love to continue to build my experience in that field. The energy transition is also at the top of my mind – we’re undoubtedly on the cusp of a revolution in that space, and I’m keen to explore how I can play my part here.

Read Tarana’s 2016 P&Q feature

Nasi Rwigema, MBA 2020

Founder, Umwuga

Tell us about your career following your MBA?

I want to level the playing field, so I’m focused on building infrastructure and providing access to services for those who need it the most. While finishing my MBA, I started working on my startup, Umwuga, a social network that helps blue-collar and pink-collar workers turn their talents into long-term careers.

Since graduating, I’ve been dedicated to making this venture a success. I took Umwuga through the LBS Incubator, and this year, Umwuga is a member of the inaugural cohort of The Entrepreneurship Lab at LBS. A brilliant group of students is assisting us in ironing out our kinks, in preparation for our next round of funding.

How has the MBA benefitted you?

My MBA gave me a toolkit for understanding and addressing business challenges, and I learned how to be a better leader. I’ve also developed a vast network of incredibly smart and helpful people on whom I could rely in times of need.

Above all, I gained the confidence to dream as big as the people I read about in international magazines. Before my MBA, I had no idea; it’s easy to believe that people who achieve great things have an advantage that you lack. Nothing is further from the truth.

What do you want to achieve in the future?

My father was an educator, and I’ve always admired his academic accomplishments. My itch for a Ph.D. isn’t going away, and I feel compelled to write a book someday.

Professionally, I want to make Umwuga a huge success. Our target markets are the 2.3 billion low- and mid-skilled workers in the labor force. My greatest hope is that each and every one of them will find success and take ownership of their career on our platform.

A key theme of my work so far has been to build things that help African people get access to the basics, and I believe this will be a guiding factor for the rest of my career.

Read Nasi’s 2020 P&Q feature

Find out more about the London Business School MBA.

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