Life before MBA - Fawad

I moved to the UK in 2003 after completing my Bachelors degree in computer engineering from Pakistan. I started working for BP Oil Retail in Milton Keynes and over a 3 year period worked in various roles from manager to systems analyst. I made a lot of friends over the years and took the oppurtunity to travel around europe a bit visiting Spain, France and Italy. The MBA has been an immensley rewarding experience so far and I have met some very talented and unique individuals who I am happy to have as friends. Thanks to everyone in Scafell for making this MBA a great experience.


A picture from Spain:

And a picture from Milton Keynes, with fellow MBA students (left to right - Fawad from Pakistan, Prashant from India, Kinu from Japan, Atul from India)

Life before MBA - Grace

Before came here for MBA, I lived and worked in Beijing in a bank. I love Beijing very much, I enjoy its brilliant culture!

I got both of my bachelor degree and master degree of Money and Banking from Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing and made friends from all over the country.


Picture with my classmates in University (1993). Third row down from the top, eighth from the left.


Ten Year after Graduation Party 2003 (Classmates came back to our University in Beijing from all over China and the world. It was a pity I couldn’t attend it for being on business in HongKong at that time).

I hope I can have such kind of photos with my MBA classmates in my album in the future. It would be exciting, isn’t it?......

Pictures of the Forbidden City (left), Tian'nnmen (centre), The Temple of Heaven (Right)

Life before MBA - Vincent

Before coming Lancaster, I have worked in two companies, Tripod tech. and BASF Electronic Material Taiwan. As a senior engineer and a representative of Tripod tech., I joined the TPCA (Taiwan Printed Circuit Association) show in Taipei. To get more advanced technological information, I went to the stand of our best ink supplier, Taiwan Taiyo Ink.

Left: Taipei 101: It locates in the heart of the Taipei City, the capital of Taiwan. With the height of 508 meters, it is the highest building in the world. Not only is it a landmark in Taiwan, but also a centre of fashion and shopping.

Below: It was summer time in Kenting, one of the most famous resorts in Taiwan. We, my close friends and I, enjoyed the lovely sunshine, beautiful beach, and, of course, delicious sea foods here. I also tried the parasailing, scuba-diving, Jet-ski in Kenting. If you love water activities, just come here to have some fun.

The Southpark Photo (Left): In 2000, I got my master degree from the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology. After finishing our master thesis, my classmates and I stood in front of the department of Chemical Engineering, which was my major. The funny thing is that four of us formed a stupid group, “The four stupid in South Park”. Therefore, we put on the cute T-shirts and celebrated our graduation. Ha!!!

Life before MBA - Chandni

Before the MBA, I worked at an ITeS company in Mumbai, India. As Head, Knowledge Initiative, I spent a year setting up a new e-business division called the Center for Research Writing Resources. I enjoyed doing all the abstract obscure stuff that was floating around.

Left:The office reception area

Life was good back then when I didn’t need to count pennies and pounds. I would have coffee at The Marriott on Sundays without a worry in the world. Life before MBA had a lot of family in it—Day trips to my sister’s house all the way to town, spending time with my nephew, Harsh…watching TV with my other two sisters, shopping, movies (the 5 multiplexes near my home…I miss u), plays, dinner at Vie lounge (that was a superb farewell!) Sunday mornings at the beach…what a life!

Right: Supastaz-My sisters-Turiya and Karishma

Since coming to UK and being (in a sense) jobless, this new life seems surly different. There are days when the country charm of Lancaster makes me feel like I am living out of this painting or an episode from Travel and Living (Discovery). Then there are days when the wind blows so cold … that’s when I think…what the hell am I doing here!! And finally, there are some days when I actually miss working. How crazy is that?!

Why MBA? It’s funny how I tend to think of it more now than ever! Still searching for that ever elusive perfect answer…

It’s been fun being s student so far…meeting people from different countries and getting back to books. Making few good friends and spending a crazy amount on quality education and toward a brighter future. So let’s hope the sun keeps shining :)

Chandni

A video on our fundraising activities!

Feb 7 is Charity Day at the Lancaster MBA. Each syndicate team has a job to do- help any charity of their choice. We chose The Children's Society. Read more about what they do at www.childrenssociety.org.uk/

We started the day at 10:00am. Of course, we didn't actually start at 10, because a few of us were late!

Got together to plan the morning. Kunal and Ashish brought the donation boxes and poster etc. from the Charity. The pack had some balloons as well...!

Ashish and Kunal were typing out their messages to send back home. Dawn got down to setting up the blog, while some of us started out with the donation boxes and moved toward the MBA Office. We targetted another MBA group in the MBA Foyer (Helvellyn) on our way and then gradually just started asking all the students around. MSc students contributed as well.
You'll see Joseph, Yasmine, Fawad, Luis, and Grace collecting donations and giving each donor a sticker :-)

Dont believe us...See our Video!

New Venture Challenge - Ashish, Fawad, Grace, and Kyriakos

Left to right: Fawad, Ashish, Grace and Kyriakos at Print to Canvas, photo taken by their client.
The team developed a business plan, and gave some advice on the new 'print to..' website: http://www.print2group.com/ Print2Canvas specialises in bespoke interior design products including canvas prints, photographic wallpaper and custom made photo blinds using client's own photos and digital imagery to help transform people's living or work space.

New Venture Challenge - Chandni, Dawn, Joseph and Joong

(Left to right) Chandni, Dawn, Joseph and Joong worked with floorwarming UK - an underfloor heating system company that is looking at moving in to renewable energy systems. They are based in Carlise (very northern end of England, and work all over the country. Here is their website http://www.floorwarming.co.uk/, and here is the photographic proof that we survived the presentation of the business plan that we developed for them :)

http://www.floorwarming.co.uk/