MX (Masters Extra) programme

The Masters Extra (MX) programme is designed specifically for taught masters students in the School of Management and focuses on careers, and personal and professional development. This series of talks, networking opportunities and activities includes guest lectures from leading academics and experienced managers.

Through regular attendance, participants can enhance their career opportunities and earn a Certificate in Career Development. To qualify for a certificate, students must attend a minimum of four MX sessions in each semester. There are 12 sessions in all, following the introduction that is held in Orientation Week.

MX is an integrated programme between the School of Management, CEED (Centre for Educational Enhancement and Development) and the University Careers Centre.

During 2022-2023, MX sessions will be presented in one of two formats, with each week's format according to the speaker's preference, either:

in person at the School of Management, or
online on Microsoft Teams.

Speakers will give a talk at 4pm on Wednesdays, and this will be followed by 30 minutes for Q and A.

The outline schedule is provided below and includes speaker profiles.

Outline schedule 2022-2023 Semester 1

Thursday 8 September 2022 3:30pm On Teams
Wednesday 14 September 2022 4pm In person

Gilbert L Chang, Assurance Associate, Ernst and Young

Gilbert Chang graduated from the School of Management, University of St Andrews with a Masters in Finance and Management in 2020. Originally from Indonesia, Gilbert spent a significant time growing up between the UK and Germany. Following his studies in St Andrews, he joined Ernst and Young and can now share his story and insights about working in the Big Four with an insider's perspective.

Gilbert is an assurance associate mainly focusing on the oil and gas sector, where there is a continuous evolution of regulations and a global spotlight due to the war. He has also worked in projects of growing businesses looking to burst into the IPO scene and addressed some of the due diligence requirements necessary within an IPO. Outside of work, he has an avid interest in motorsport and has taken part in international competitions.

In this session, Gilbert will discuss more about the Big Four across the different service lines, and provide insights into his everyday work. In addition, he will provide insider tips on how to best prepare for the application and interview process. The session will include student Q&A.
Wednesday 21 September 2022 4pm In person

Gemma Boothroyd, Investment Writer, Freetrade

Gemma came from Canada for her Masters in International Business at the School of Management, University of St Andrews. She had no clue where the degree would take her career, but she hoped it would open doors in the UK. With roles in tech sales, fundraising and community management under her belt, she wasn't sure what she wanted to do. She just knew what she didn't want to do.

With her sights set on working in London, her first post-grad role was as a data analyst for a consulting company. It sounded like a great opportunity to pivot into strategic analysis, something (she thought) she'd enjoy – or at least, that she assumed would look good on a CV.

Turned out, she didn't love it – let alone like it. She never felt fulfilment – and certainly not her passion. She burned out, quit her job in the middle of lockdown and decided to give herself time to decide what next.

Working backwards, she focused on the elements of her degree that she truly enjoyed. She knew her favourite part of school was writing essays and exploring topics through written mediums. But how could that become her job? She took some time to consider how that could become a career. Reaching out directly to the companies and brands she knew and respected, she found the role of her dreams.

Cliché as it may sound, Gemma is working at a company and in a role that feels tailor made. As an Investment Writer for Freetrade, Gemma earned one of the fastest promotions at the company and doubled her salary within six months. She took on the role at a pay cut and a title cut too. But it turns out, passion helps you get better pay, greater connection with colleagues, and it's the reason you stay.
Wednesday 28 September 2022 4pm On Teams

Dr Stephan Rinck, Business Development Executive, IBM

Artificial intelligence is redefining the very meaning of being an enterprise. The rapidly advancing artificial intelligence (AI) capability is on its way to revolutionising every aspect of an enterprise. The ability to access data has leveled the playing field and brought every enterprise a unique possibility of progress.

Stephan Rinck's MX talk will refer to recent research from IBM's Institute of Business Value (IBV). Stephan will illustrate the presentation with examples from several IBM clients – showing the context and relevancy of AI for enterprises.
Wednesday 5 October 2022 4pm On Teams
Yvonne Tindal, Category Manager, Mowi Consumer Products

Yvonne Tindal graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a Masters in Business Studies & Law. She has ten years of experience in in the Scottish food industry, in roles including:
- commercial reporting
- market analysis and insight generation
- development of consumer brands
- online content management
- working with food producers and supermarket retailers
- category management
- shopper marketing.
Yvonne works at Mowi Consumer Products UK, the world's largest producer of Atlantic salmon. This discussion will focus on her career in the food industry, with an emphasis on marketing.
Wednesday 12 October 2022 4pm In person

Venu Raavi, Senior Manager Europe, Amazon B2B

Venu Raavi graduated from the School of Management, University of St Andrews with an MLitt in Marketing in 2006. Since then he has spent 14 years working in retail, FMCG analytics and e-Commerce across Europe and Oceania. He has helped accelerate Amazon Australia's growth leading home, kitchen, appliance and furniture businesses.

Venu currently leads and is helping scale Amazon Business (B2B) for grocery, health, personalcare and foodservice across Europe.
Wednesday 26 October 2022 4pm In person

Stephen Courter, Assistant Professor of Instruction, University of Texas

Professor Stephen Courter is an award-winning faculty member in the department of management at the University of Texas at Austin and a former top corporate executive with experience worldwide.

Following graduation from Penn State, Steve Courter served in the US Army, reaching the rank of Major. After stints at KPMG and IBM, he became Vice-President and General Manager of Sprint/Global One in Brussels, then was CEO of Enertel Communications in Rotterdam, and later served as CEO and Chairman of Neon Communication in Boston. In 2006, he became CEO and Director of Broadwing Communications in Austin, and led the organisation until its purchase in 2007 by Level 3 Communications.

Professor Courter joined the University of Texas in 2007, having taught at the University of Maryland and Bryant University. As an academic, his areas of interest include corporate diversification; mergers, acquisitions and divestitures; turnarounds; and venture capital. He teaches graduate courses in strategic management, entrepreneurship, new venture creation, and an elective on turnarounds, restructuring and bankruptcy.

In recent years he has conducted MBA Global Connections work study programs to Viet Nam, Indonesia, Thailand and India, facilitating consulting projects for large companies in those countries.

Outline schedule 2022-2023 Semester 2

Wednesday 18 January 2023 4pm In person

Cathy MacDonald, The Art of Communication

Cathy MacDonald served as a police officer for 32 years. For over a decade, she was responsible for training hostage and crisis negotiators both across the UK and internationally, and she held responsibility for the national training portfolio for Police Scotland.

The full title of her MX talk is 'Communicating differently: connect, understand and influence – communication tactics from the world of hostage and crisis negotiation'.

When Cathy was a police officer, she deployed operationally and advised commanders in respect of negotiation incidents, including kidnap and extortion, firearms incidents, suicide intervention, protests and any incident where communication friction or barriers were present.

Cathy completed her police service in 2015 and set up her 'one woman business', The Art of Communication. She now offers individuals, teams and businesses a structured and alternative approach to all things communication. Her work is conveyed in a way that is fully professional – also light-hearted and interactive.
Wednesday 25 January 2023 4pm On Teams

Daniel Bayram, Policy Analyst in the Social Economy and Innovation, OECD

Daniel Bayram is a development practitioner with more than eight years of ground experience in solving economic and social challenges through employment, skills training and entrepreneurship projects. He currently works as a policy analyst at the OECD headquarters in Paris.

In his career, Daniel has worked as a project manager on development issues from different perspectives and in a range of organisations, including the public sector, youth associations, social enterprises, start-ups, foundations, international NGOs and multilateral bodies.
Wednesday 1 February 2023 4:30pm On Teams
Stephen Ingledew, Executive Chair, FinTech Scotland

Stephen Ingledew is the Chief Executive of FinTech Scotland, which was established by industry, Scottish Government and universities to drive economic growth in financial services through innovation, collaboration and inclusion.

Fintech Scotland has grown the innovative fintech SME community from 26 in 2018 to nearly 200 today, supported by 30 strategic partners. It was formally recognised by the European Secretariat for Cluster Analysis as the UK's first accredited fintech cluster of excellence, only the third in Europe to receive this recognition.

A focus for FinTech Scotland is bringing together a number of key drivers for the sector, including:
- ideas and creativity of entrepreneurs and innovators
- resources and experience of the established financial sector
- capabilities of technology firms
- citizen and consumer engagement in innovation
- economic and social objectives of the public sector
- innovation environments of accelerators and incubators
- capital of investors
- expertise of professional services firms
- people development by skills agencies
- research and development from the universities.
Throughout his career, Stephen has implemented customer focused, technology enabled, profitable initiatives in financial services organisations including Standard Life, Barclays and small innovative enterprises. He advocates making financial services more open, creative and inclusive through:
- using new technologies
- encouraging diversity and progressive ways of working
- improving collaboration across stakeholders and participants.
Stephen's current roles include:
- member of the UK Government's Innovation Expert Group, advising on how innovation can improve productivity across all sectors of the economy
- co-chair of the Scottish Tech Ecosystem Advisory Board
- non-executive member of the University of Strathclyde Court
- member of the Scottish Government's Financial Services Advisory Board.
Wednesday 8 February 2023 4pm On Teams

Rie Schimmell, Entrepreneur

Rie Schimmell (MLitt Marketing 2014) went to Kuala Lumpur to work as a C-level recruiter. But only two weeks after arriving in Malaysia, she almost died from dengue fever. This was a turning point, which led Rie towards working with her passion: food.

In 2016, Rie started her first company, Syltet (meaning 'pickled' in Danish) where she pickled vegetables and sold to over 300 shops in Denmark. It was six years of ups and downs as an entrepreneur until Syltet unfortunately had to close in 2022.

This MX talk will be about entrepreneurship and Rie's journey with Syltet. How do you go from having a good idea to actually starting your own company? And what are the top ten things that Ria has learned?
Wednesday 15 February 2023 4pm On Teams

Dr Jose Godinez, Assistant Professor in Management, UMass

Jose Godinez is an assistant professor of management at the Manning School of Business at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. His research centres on strategies of firms operating in locations characterised by unstable institutional environments, especially those that present high corruption levels. He is also interested in understanding how institutional voids affect the development of strategies of firms targeting populations at the bottom of the pyramid within the CSR conversation.

Jose earned a PhD in Management from the University of Edinburgh Business School, an MSc in International Business from the University of Manchester Business School, and a BS in Business Administration from the Johns Hopkins University.
Wednesday 22 February 2023 4pm On Teams

Tamara D Plocher, Programme Manager Bachelor, CBS International Business School; previously, a strategy consultant at Accenture

Tamara Plocher graduated from the School of Management, University of St Andrews with a Masters in Finance and Management in 2016. After her time in St Andrews, she worked for a start-up company and spent five years in strategy consulting before moving her career to the higher education industry. She is currently working as a Program Manager for Bachelor students at CBS university in Cologne, Germany.

Outside of work, she is a passionate tennis player and had the pleasure of experiencing the real NCAA student-athlete college life while she was an undergraduate in the USA.

In this session, Tamara will provide insights into her former job as a strategy consultant with Accenture and will share her experiences on how working in consulting has helped her in her new role and industry. She will give advice on how to best prepare for application and interviewing processes and will answer any questions that students interested in consulting might have.