News from Alumni
A good cause and a great adventure - interview with Carel Weijand, Executive MBA 2007-09
 Carel Weijand |
When I started the school promised me a learning experience. During the program I found out that the ESMT holds the philosophy that one can learn only by being taken out of the comfort zone. Well, two years after graduation I’m still looking for my comfort zone (laugh). The school stood up to its promise and I loved every – well, almost every – minute of it!
And what have you been doing since graduation?
For a short period of time I’ve been supporting manufacturing companies on their journey to continuous improvement until I ran into a metal processing company that fits me like a glove. The position of Site Manager challenges me to apply both my experience and the valuable lessons I got from the ESMT. Besides working towards being a good leader, I also try to become a Best Fellow for my employees: listening once is learning twice.
Where are you heading?
Actually towards a new challenge! I’m heading for the Alps to climb 6 peaks of 4000+ meters within a week to raise money for KiKa, a charity that aims at helping kids with cancer. After all the great things that happened to me during the last years I’ve found an opportunity to give something back. What better cause could be possible than offering children a better chance to survive this awful disease and with a treatment that is much more child-friendly? And that’s exactly what KiKa is aiming for, without money-burning campaigns or an expensive overhead. They manage to spend more than 91% of their fund-raising on scientific research. At the end of August I will engage in this adventure with 17 other ‘mountaineers’ with only one target: raise more than 100,000 euro for this great foundation. So far we already passed the 50,000 euro mark …
So I really would like to hear from many readers wishing to support this initiative and make a contribution. Never mind my comfort zone, help these kids to return to theirs! weijand@emba2007.esmt.org
ESMT European School of