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Welcome to the Alumni Newsletter

July 2013

Summer has been sizzling and Mountbatten alumni seem to be hot property too. In this issue we have a group of alumni who recently got together on 4th July for a Mountbatten reunion in San Francisco to celebrate Independence Day and reminisce about their time in London, some great photos from the August 12 Completion & Awards Ceremony in London which had a buzzing atmosphere, an Entrepreneurial Alum with a lifestyle business in Vienna and recruitment consultants clamouring to work with alumni.

In the Mountbatten Business Challenge in New York, for the first time ever, Mountbatten has two teams in the top ten standings which is an unprecedented and incredible achievement. You can read all about this below.

Then we have the usual sections such as Alum of the Month, and Jobs, where Accenture are looking to recruit a Client Marketing Team Specialist as soon as possible.

Finally, we have the birth of a new Royal Prince with no name as yet, to celebrate! Will it be George, Louie, Albert, Arthur? We will have to wait and see!

San Francisco 4th July Alumni Reunion

A group of London Programme alumni recently held a Mountbatten reunion in San Francisco on the 4th July. Mary Walker Baus (August 2011 - London), one of the organisers comments; "It was wonderful to see everybody and really goes to show how much Mountbatten means to us... even so long after our intakes have left the UK".

Mary then gives the following account of the reunion: "The hardest part of the Mountbatten programme is saying goodbye to the wonderful firends you've made during your year abroad. Having been back in the US for over a year, a group of us decided to have a reunion to celebrate America and the amazing opportunity we were given to meet each other. Alumni from the London March & August 2011 inakes (including Lindsey Shindler, Katie Dodson, Laura Donaldson, Brad Howell, Audrianna Sibiski, Jaclyn Weiss, Becca Musser and Mary Walker Baus herself), met in San Francisco to celebrate the July 4th holiday with some traveling from across the US from New York City and Florida. We had a wonderful time seeing each other, reminiscing on the fun times in London and catching up on life after Mountbatten".

Thank you Mary et al for sharing this celebration with us and sending such wonderful photographs.

 

Alum of the Month

Justyna Kopacz
March 2011 - London

"...We sent a 3 man team to Antarctica in a custom built polar vehicle (including solar panels, bio fuelled, handcrafted/ designed model) with the aim to beat the Guinness World Record of the fastest overland journey to the pole - WHICH WE DID!"
Read full story
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Summer Softball Tournament

Current vs. Former Mountbattens
This is your last chance to sign up for our Summer Softball Tournament taking place on Saturday 10th August at Canary Wharf Play on Sports. It takes place at 3-5pm, with the winning team earning a round of drinks.

To join us, please contact Charleane Smith.

August 12 Completion & Awards Ceremony - London

On Tuesday 16th July, interns, staff and guests gathered for the August 2012 intake awards ceremony at The Brewery in Moorgate. Guests were welcomed with a drinks reception, which was followed by the main ceremony. Gary Ball (Deputy Director General) presented the awards to candidates, while speeches were given by our alum Kubi Springer (September 2001 - New York), Marketing & Media Specialist, Molly Ferree (MBA Programme Participant) and Kyle Kirchner (Postgraduate Programme Participant). All speakers kept the audience amused and entertained during the ceremony with anecdotes of the highlights of their year, but it was generally agreed, that Kubi Springer's speech had offered plenty of insight and motivation for the next step beyond the programme. Other guests included lecturers; Dr. John Forgan, Dr. Stuart Kewley, Dr. Gemma McGrath and Femke Ven der Veer, whilst sponsor companies were represented by; Janet Aderounmu and Ciara Murray from Morgan Stanley, Debbie Brown from Thomson Reuters, and, Russell Gibson and Alison Radley from Royal Bank of Scotland.

A delicious dinner was then served in the spacious Queen Charlotte room towards the end of which was shown a slideshow of the August 2012 intake's year. People were moved, buoyant, and sad at the prospect of the finishing of their internship year, but it seemed, full of optimism and good will for what lay ahead.

There were also 3 engagements to celebrate across this intake (which must surely be a record at this stage), with James Kyllonen proposing to his fiancée in Paris; Kimberly Mahon getting engaged in Rome; and, Mellinah Madza making up the trio. (We hope for more details in a future newsletter).

Mountbatten would like to congratulate and wish the best of luck to all participants. We also look forward to staying in touch. Full details & photo album.

Entrepreneurial Alumni

Isabella Maria Schiefer (September 1998 - New York) set up her own business, Vienna Lifestyle Communications in 2012. The company's services include strategic communication consultancy, public relations services and artists' management, as well as event management and wedding planning. Below is Isabella's account of how her business came about, and what inspired her to set it up.

After graduating from a private business college in Vienna EWS, Isabella was accepted onto the Mountbatten programme in September 1998. There in New York, she found her passion for marketing and communications, feeling honoured to gain experience at one of the most creative agencies worldwide, now called KraftWorks NYC. Isabella worked on lifestyle accounts such as Voss, Esprit, Ann Taylor, as well as Jil Sander and Adidas Fragrances.

After New York she went to work and live in London, followed by a year in Madrid until her return to Vienna in 2003. Isabella started her own business in 2012, merging all her experience in Austria and abroad. For full details of the services that Isabella's company provides, please go to her website: www.vienna-lifestyle.at, where she is currently offering all Mountbatten alumni are eligible to a 15% discount on the wedding planning fee.

We wish Isabella every success with her business, and look forward to getting an update in a future issue of the newsletter.

Mountbatten Business Challenge Triumph

Dr Dennis Garritan recently informed us that he had checked the final results of our Mountbatten Business Challenge where students virtually run a $40USD million company over 8 simulated years. It's a simulation run by over 1000 global universities including all of the top US graduate business schools.

For the first time ever, Mountbatten has two teams in the top ten standings. The winning team consisted of Will Butcher, Tim Hill and Dafydd Horan and the team that came in second to them by a very small margin consisted of Damien de Bruijn, Andrew Staite and Andrew Thomas.

In their final round the winning team scored in the top 2% and the runner-up team scored in the top 8%. The overall cumulative results across all eight grueling rounds resulted in the top team scoring in the top 4% of all participants worldwide and the second team socring 6% of all global participants!

These results mean that they bested the performance of all participating members of the 2013 graduating classes of the Johnson Business School of Cornell University, the Stern Business school on New York University, the Columbia University Business School and the Harvard Business School.

This is not only a major achievement for these students but also the first time ever that Mountbatten has had two teams in the top ten results!

We hope that all Mountbattens and alumni will join us in celebrating the awesome achievement of these future business executives!

Alumni Offers

Sarah Luber (March 2012 - London) has just relocated to San Francisco. She is currently working as a recruiter for Robert Half International specializing in financial services. As a Mountbatten, she wanted to reach out to other Mountbattens who are in or looking to relocate to the Bay Area, to help them with their job search. Their services are free and Sarah is more than happy to chat with anyone to discuss their employment options. You can contact Sarah at sarah.luber@roberthalffs.com.

Jobs

Firstly, we are happy to inform you that the Project Management position advertised last month in our alumni newsletter for the Mountbatten Institute New York office, has been filled by one of our alumni.

In addition, this month we have been contacted by recruitment agency Tay Associates. Established in 1999, Tay Associates describe themselves as "an independent, pivotal player in the London business support market. Working in close partnership with reputable companies of all sizes and across most sectors, our long standing consultants handle all temporary and permanent: PA/EA, Secretarial, Administration, Reception, Sales Support, Office Management, Marketing Assistant and HR Assistant roles, including additional language requirements. Client care is top of their list, and this month, Tay Associates was awarded No1 support recruiter in London for a fourth year running via Here Is The City 2013". If you are interested in using the services of Tay Associates, please send your CV to Lucy McInerney.

We also have other job opportunities on our alumni website, including a Client Marketing Team - Specialist contract with Accenture for which they are hoping to conduct interviews next week.

email: vmccordall@mountbatten.org
web: http://alumni.mountbatten.org