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Alumni Newsletter

August 2014

This month's newsletter is full of alumni achievements, celebrations and activities. There has been a graduation in Bangkok; a graduation in London; career speaker panel in New York; an alumna offering opportunities for you to attend a speaker series she is involved in; our Entrepreneurial Alum who set up a charity in North London is now rolling out the model in a second part of London offering lots of volunteering opportunities for alumni; fundraising efforts, and, of course the latest jobs, amongst other articles.

We are delighted with how our 30th Anniversary ticket sales are going - we're looking at a sell-out! We will shortly be asking you to send in your top 3 music tracks that sum up and remind you of your year on the programme, as these will form the backdrop to the musical entertainment and dancing part of the evening, and please keep filling in the form for the anniversary book!

So don't despair about summer drawing to an end, the Autumn has a lot of activities and events to be excited about!

30th Anniversary Event Update

We are delighted to announce the attendance of two special guests: In New York the Gala Dinner on 17th October will be attended by Lord Ivor Mountbatten, nephew to Lady Patricia, Countess Mountbatten of Burma, our programme patron, and great-nephew to Earl Mountbatten of Burma; and in London, Mr Michael Billett, former Director of the New York office (1995-2009). Both individuals have played key parts and been associated with the Mountbatten programme for a number of years, so it is a real bonus that they are able to attend the respective events.

On the ticket sales front, tables are now selling fast, so all of those who have emailed to reserve tables or tickets, need to confirm their bookings within the next two weeks, so that we can give you the countdown warnings to ticket sell-out. You don't want to miss out by leaving it too late! Go to our Anniversary website for full details.

March 13 MBA Completion & Awards Ceremony - Bangkok

MBA Program Director, Mr Jeff Simcox welcomed the MBA graduate students warmly and began the program festivities.

On behalf of Naresuan University, Mr Kajit Habanananda, Founder of Naresuan University addressed the audience and spoke of the experiential and cultural value of the four-month research field assignment in Thailand, one of the most powerful of the ASEAN countries economies.

Following his address, MBA class representatives Mr Humza Mir and Mr John Pietropaoli summarized all that the MBA graduate students learned in the last four months and expressed their gratitude to the Mountbatten Bangkok staff, especially Ms Nisa Chamat and Mr Jeff Simcox.

Mr Kajit Habanananda and Dr Dennis Garritan, Global Academic Dean of the Mountbatten Institute presented the Certificate of International Business Practice in the Asia-Pacific Region from Naresuan University and the Certificate of Program Completion from the Mountbatten Institute to each MBA candidate. Check out the full details & Photo album.

 

Alum of the month

Jenna Bata
March 2009 - New York

"Since being in NY, I definitely got the bug and my dream is to own an apartment in New York. Career-wise, after running my company in Dubai for 3 years, I am now looking to do more international projects with social business in this part of the world, whether in India, Nepal, Pakistan or Africa."
Read full story
.


August 12 Alumni Reunion - California

A few weeks ago some alumni from the London Programme met up on the West Coast for a reunion. Molly Ferree shares a picture that was taken, which shows Molly, Christian Navarro, Alison Elving, Brett Norris and Julia Vasinda. It looks like they had a great weekend, and hope that they will be able to meet up again at the New York Gala Dinner on 17th October.


Fundraising Alumni

Lindsay Meloy (August 2011 - London) is participating in the Alzheimer's Association Walk to End Alzheimer's on 4th October, in the hope of raising awareness, funds for research, care and support. To find out more and/or how you can help Lindsay, please go to her fundraising page. Good luck Lindsay, and we look forward to hearing how the fundraiser goes.

SMU Summer 2014 Graduation - London

On a sunny Thursday in London on 24th July, Dr Paul Beresford-Hill, Gary Ball, Vicki Downey and Dr David Twigg joined 11 Mountbatten Alumni to attend their SMU official graduation at the beautiful Westminister Cathedral in the heart of London. The 11 Almuni consisted of 7 MBA graduates and 4 PGC graduates. Jimmy Miguel and Brittany Miller traveled over from the US to pick up their well deserved MBA's. They were joined by Joe Burgess, Aaron Foy, James Harrison Greenwood, Alex Lee and Simon Pawson who also collected their equally well deserved MBA's. At the ceremony to collect their PGC's were Anirban Ash, who traveled over from Germany, Jamie Cole who traveled over from Ireland and Nicola Masters and Erin Young, UK natives! The celebration continued after the ceremony at a Mountbatten hosted Graduation lunch at The Royal Overseas League for the graduates, family and friends. A fantastic time was had by all! Congratulations everyone! For those who were there and those who couldn't make it, we're proud of you!

Mr Kajit Habanananda and Dr Dennis Garritan, Global Academic Dean of the Mountbatten Institute presented the Certificate of International Business Practice in the Asia-Pacific Region from Naresuan University and the Certificate of Program Completion from the Mountbatten Institute to each MBA candidate. Check out The Photo album.

Entrepreneurial Alumni

Alex Smith (September 2007 - New York) has founded North London Cares and South London Cares two sister charities which recruit young professionals to volunteer to support their older neighbours with a little extra time, practical help, social connection and human companionship.

Alex explains his inspiration... "When I was in New York on the Mountbatten Programme, I worked with an amazingly community-minded family - actually two families - at Buchbinder & Warren in Union Square. They'd formed one of the first Business Improvement Districts in Manhattan which had been hugely influential at transforming their part of the city after the 70s and 80s. While I was in America (it was 2007/08) I volunteered in Brooklyn on the Obama campaign, and I guess that combination of seeing the difference individuals can make over time with developing a business-like approach was what motivated me to get involved in community when I came back to London

I stood for Council (I lost) and on Election Day I met a gent in his late 70s who couldn't get out of his house. He told me he felt he'd lost his dignity, because his hair had become long and greasy because he couldn't get to the hairdresser and he had no one who could take him. So I offered to wheel him to the local barber, and he said that had made a huge difference to him. That made me think there must be a lot of people like Fred, and a lot like me who would help a neighbour, if only it was made easy for them to do so. That's where North London Cares - and now South London Cares - all started."

Read the full account of how Alex set up the charities, and the extent of their work.

A day in the life of...

Benjamin D'Innocenzo (August 2010 - London), former Alum of the Month currently works as a Business Development Advisor for The United States Peace Corps Cameroon, West Africa.

"Mornings start early in my small abode in Cameroon. The temprature sharply rises with the sun, and all sorts of busy activity in my neighborhood begins around 4:45AM. The sounds of chickens clucking, pots and pans banging, machetes being sharpened make it hard to sleep in... After getting myself ready for the day, I head to the office of my microfinance organization, TOMCCUL to meet with the manager and money collectors for a morning briefing. Afterwards, I hold an office hour for potential entrepreneurs in the community to come in for a consult, or schedule meetings with current work partners. My work mainly consists of growing the organization's client base, but also involves a lot of 1-1 business consulting and planning services..." Read full story.

The Female Entrepreneur & Entrepreneurial Leadership Programme

Kubi Springer (September 2001 - New York), featured in previous newsletters, is speaking at the Female Entrepreneur and Entrepreneurial Leadership Programme, which is taking place with The Eurasia Consortium (with Dr Stuart Kewley, who lectures for the Mountbatten Institute) at Wolfson College, Oxford from 1st-5th September. It has an impressive line up of guest speakers that may be of interest to you. Check out full details.



Career Speaker Panel: Unlocking Your Potential

On Tuesday 29th July 2014 the Mountbatten New York office held its latest Career Speaker Panel for its trainees. The subject under discussion was 'Unlocking Your Potential' and we were honored to not only have a Manager, Margie Oguendo-Pai from Citi, who has seen many Mountbattens through their New York year but also 4 of your very own, Mountbatten Alumni, on the panel. They were Nick Anable (August 2009 MBA - London), Sarah Bailey (September 2008 PGC - New York), Candace Moore (March 2008 MBA - London) and Audrianna Sibiski (March 2011 MBA - London). It was a vibrant and interesting discussion, with advice on global skills trends, interviewing, networking and career paths, to name but a few topics! We want to thank Margie, Nick, Sarah, Candace and Audrianna for giving their time and input in making this a very successful event. If you are interested in being part of a future career panel in New York or London please contact Jo Harvey, Alumni Relations Director.

Jobs

We are happy to let you know that Hudson Sandler, a PR Consultancy, who recently advertised on our website, have just recruited a graduate from the MBA programme in the role of PR Account Executive. So, if you are looking for a job opening, be sure to check out our alumni website.

Current vacancies include a Junior Producer for Bouche Media, a video production company based in London; Prospect 33 are actively seeking Junior Financial Sales Professionals in both NY and London, and are keen to get more applications from Mountbatten's; and Cognolink, a primary research company has openings in both London and New York for Research Analysts, and an alum just alerted us to an events coordinator opening at The Guardian (for GLabs) in London - tight deadline on that one and Prospect 33 so get applying now - details on that and other job openings are on our alumni website.

Jo Harvey: jharvey@mountbatten.org
Vicki McCordall: vmccordall@mountbatten.org
web: http://alumni.mountbatten.org