“I come from Bogota, the capital of Colombia, where I pursued my bachelor in International Business at Polytechnical Gran Colombiano from 2002 until 2007. After my studies I landed a job at a logistics company that operated in the USA, Canada, and Mexico. I worked in the office in Bogota, but the headquarters were situated in Miami. After two years I realized that logistics was not my passion and decided to switch to finance, and so I became a financial analyst at a Colombian credit company. A few years later I wanted to specialize, and went to the UK where I obtained a Master's in Financial Economics at the University of Leicester in 2014. Once I returned to Colombia my previous employer offered me a role as Business Director, overseeing not just financial analysis but also commercial relationships. I embraced this new position for nearly four years, and when my boss left I was asked to step up as general manager. I accepted but only for 9 months, because I had already planned to pursue an MBA at KU Leuven in Belgium.”

KU Leuven as a standout choice

“Since I had quite some working experience and a certain level of stability, people often ask why I wanted to be a student once more. My experiences in both my business director and general manager positions led to this personal decision. I always wanted to be a good leader and to manage people may sound mechanical, but I believe it to be one of the greatest challenges. Understanding different potential approaches is key to make the most out of each team, so through the MBA I was looking for more knowledge and skills in order to become a better manager.”

“In my search for a university to further my education, I wanted to do better than my previous academic experiences but without breaking the bank. So I looked at the rankings, compared quality and affordability and found KU Leuven to be a standout choice. Ranked within the top 50 globally, it offers a compelling combination of quality education and reasonable tuition fees. As a finance professional and student who had to fund his education himself, I would say I received excellent value for my investment.”

“Compared to other universities where I studied, the educational level at KU Leuven is very high. You really need to study. I found combining the master’s thesis with the courses challenging in a good sense. It is a matter of staying focused, attending classes and doing the coursework. Students who come straight from the bachelor’s programme, already have the right rhythm and know the methodology, the required depth to pass an exam… When you have been out of university for some time like me, you need to find the right approach again, but overall it was a really good experience.”

“As a finance professional and student who had to fund his education himself, I would say I received excellent value for my investment”

The flexibility of the MBA programme

“The MBA programme is interesting and flexibly adaptable as well. Many masters offer a fixed curriculum but at FEB KU Leuven you can tweak your programme to your needs. With plenty of tracks to choose from and several electives you can either take a broad view or get very specific. I, for example, took the change management and leadership track, but I found it too human resources oriented. Luckily I could add courses about strategic investment, innovation management and SME entrepreneurship to the mix to balance it out. I really liked that you can adjust a track and the main idea that you are going to work on by adding other subjects that you want to dive into.”

“Initially I planned to do a double degree with Montpellier Business School in France, especially since I wanted to do an internship but that did not work out because of the pandemic. Still, I remained focussed on studying and working in France and enrolled at SKEMA Business School in France, another partner of KU Leuven. That extra master in corporate financial management also included an internship, which landed me a new job in France.”

“After I obtained my degree I stayed to work in Paris at AXA Group, where I have been moving up since. I started as an intern in the credit team and did analyses for corporate firms in specific sectors like transportation and building materials for six months. When my internship ended, my team leader proposed a position in the SSA (Supranational, Sovereigns and Agency)team, which handles credits for the public sector. About 18 months later, I moved from the investment department to the risk department, and that is where I currently work, making risk analyses since June 2023. I like my job and Axa. It is one of the largest companies in France and well known. The benefit of working for such a huge organisation, is that you can explore different departments through internal mobility. Connecting by working together with colleagues from other departments creates opportunities.”

Friends for life in Belgium

“I also have the best memories of Belgium despite COVID, which was a difficult time. I arrived in September 2019, and by the time I finished my exams China was in the news. By the end of February we were in lockdown. The online classes were ok. Not meeting other people than the ones you worked with was the hardest part for me. Nevertheless, I return to Brussels and Belgium whenever I can, because I have friends for life there, mainly from other faculties.

A characteristic of the MBA is that it has only two courses for the entire student group, ‘Research Methods’ and ‘Business Ethics and Leadership’. Students are scattered depending on the many tracks they can choose for the rest of the programme. In addition, we had less opportunities to get to know each other because of the pandemic. But in general I had nice contacts and definitely made good friends.”

“My arrival in Belgium was more complex than at the University of Leicester in the UK. KU Leuven shares the Brussels campus with another school and the main language is Dutch, so it took some time to find my way around the buildings and services there. In the city of Leuven, where I had to register in the university’s main building, things felt more structured and clear. The Brussels campus is less straightforward and the city’s administration can feel somewhat like a vicious circle. For instance, I wanted to rent an apartment, but to rent an apartment, I first needed to have a bank account, but to get a bank account, I needed a local address. In the end it worked out for us because we had friends who already lived in Belgium.”

“I return to Brussels and Belgium whenever I can, because I have friends for life there.”