Barbara Cornelissen was a qualified interpreter – and loved her job organising conferences in developing countries. In 2015, she approached her company about setting up an office in Latin America.
“It is an area of the world that I love,” she says, “And I was working for a company that had no presence there.” So in early 2016, Barbara was given the go-ahead to set up and run the company’s first office in Latin America.
She says: “When I moved to Colombia, the company had a lot of faith and trust in me. I had a language degree so it was a very steep learning curve. I learned a lot on the job – including finance and managing – but it was clear to me that I had gaps in my knowledge.
“Also, I realised I was good at being a colleague, but not at being a boss. I learned, of course – but I thought that if I was serious about taking a leadership role, then I should do an MBA.”
Barbara then also began to think about changing sectors. She says: “I loved my job – but I realised that the conferences I enjoyed organising most were about healthcare, and it was a sector I wanted to move into. But how does an interpreter begin to think about working in healthcare?
“For me, an MBA was the way to move forward, to be able to change sectors and to be able to learn all the skills I would need to progress in business.”
Barbara briefly considered staying in Latin America to study – but then decided to come home to Belgium and Vlerick. She says: “Vlerick’s triple accreditation was an important factor. The school also has a hospital and healthcare focus, and it’s very good value.”
Another very big plus for Barbara was Vlerick’s diversity. She says: “I thought I already knew everything about diversity because I had lived in different countries and travelled a lot – but actually I learned more from Vlerick. ”
“On my MBA there were people from different backgrounds and cultures – and I learned a lot from them. But there’s also the aspect that you learn from people with different professional backgrounds – so someone with an engineering background will tackle a challenge differently than someone like me with a language background.”
“We learned about international business – and how time management, for example, might mean different things in different cultures. These aren’t stereotypes, but useful insights to help you lead teams efficiently and successfully.”
“You learn to identify different profiles of people so you can see when someone is more of a creative person or an analytical person – and you can communicate in the best ways for them. Different professional backgrounds, cultures and personalities all impact the ways we think and work – and Vlerick teaches you how to navigate this to build strong teams. I use these skills a lot in my current job.”
For Barbara’s knowledge-in-action project, she worked for two months in a large organisation, devising and developing new digital business models and products. The company offered her a business development role in Colombia… but she had her sights set on healthcare.
She says: “Careers coaching at Vlerick is really valuable. Our careers coach encouraged us to approach alumni in companies we were interested in, to ask their advice over a coffee. It wasn’t something I was comfortable doing at first, but it helped me to understand which career routes were most interesting for me. Your careers coach at Vlerick is really invested in your outcome. I actually got my current job through reaching out to a Vlerick alumnus.”
Barbara is now in her dream role at Unizima, a Univercells company. It sets up facilities for producing biologics and care infrastructures in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). These include treatments for cancer and autoimmune and rare diseases – and vaccines to prevent communicable and pandemic diseases.
Barbara says: “Access to healthcare can be challenging. We design and set up equipment and facilities to be able to produce biologics at smaller scale and cost for LMICs – these are turnkey solutions which are sometimes accompanied by care and diagnostic centres.
“We originally started with biosimilars, but with Covid, there is now a lot of interest for vaccines too. The solutions we deliver differ from project to project. A private pharma company is different from a local university or national health institute, for example. We help them to identify the gap and then set up the design and facility. We offer training and we help with tech transfer, licences for products – everything. It’s a one-stop shop.
“We make an impact, which is why we get so much traction from organisations that want local bioproduction – like foundations, development banks, governments and private pharma. And ultimately, this means better treatments can be delivered to LMICs.”
Barbara says everything she learned in her MBA prepared her for this role. She adds: “One of the real highlights of my MBA was creating a company as a team and pitching it to a board of “investors”. This single exercise contained so much of what I still use in my role today – the entrepreneurial focus, writing business plans, creating strategy, communicating and pitching. It’s everything you need to succeed in a start-up.
“Leadership was one of the biggest learnings of studying at Vlerick. Now I don’t think in terms of being a “boss”. I think of being a leader. Currently, I don’t officially have a team, but I have the leadership skills to manage relationships across the company and with stakeholders. I have the right communication skills to engage people.”
“Doing an MBA opens up a lot of doors. You are surrounded by faculty and coaches who want to help you learn, but also make the right connections and have the hard and soft skills to succeed. Because of my MBA, I’ve been able to switch sectors – from hospitality to healthcare – and I’ve been able to gain the skills, confidence and frameworks to work at a strategic level. I also have the soft skills I need to be able to lead and build the relationships my organisation needs to succeed.
“The MBA definitely prepared me for the role I have now – and I don’t think I would be able to do it if I hadn’t studied at Vlerick.”
Barbara Cornelissen graduated in 2019.
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