My abiding memories of Wits Business School were late nights, early mornings, the tough task of managing syndicates as well as the balancing of family, friends, work and life in general.
I came out the other side a bit wiser, a bit tougher and an enduring appreciation of the difference that make us so unique.
The memory that will stay with me always will be the time that I spent in China.
I have fond memories of the Australian professor Gary Stockport who taught us Strategic Management. Anyone who was in that class would remember how he would take us through concepts developed by other authors or leading scholars and at the end would introduce his model/concept and say ‘”Gary Stockport says…..”’, at which point we would mostly…
We were the first class to complete this course part-time. A real challenge and motivated me to become a life long learner.
The beginning of a mind transformational journey with world class lecturers…!
Tony Norton, MD of Standard Merchant Bank addressed our MBA class. He talked about merchant banking and corporate finance- stock exchanges, raising capital, mergers, acquisitions financial instruments, risk and reward, and corporate valuations. I knew definitively that I wanted to go into investment banking. When the first opportunity arose I fortuitously joined SMB. Most merchant…
I had asked Prof Patrick McGraw to borrow his teaching notes to copy, intending to return it the following week. Over the weekend my car was stolen, with his notes, my course materials, and text books. Thank you to Douglas Jung and friends who helped me with copies of their files so that I could prepare for the exams. The MBA program taught me that you can survive any hardship if you have a strong support network.
“The MBA was indeed an occasion in my life!” I remember Buzz, the resident cat, who often adopted interesting poses at the front of the lecture theater while grooming himself. Mark Addleson once commented during an Economics lecture, “Cats have no sense of occasion!” The MBA was indeed an occasion in my life!