MBA

Babak Alnasser (MBA Energy Management, 2016), Managing Director

Having attended Aberdeen to do my undergraduate degree (an MEng (Hons) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering) I had a great deal of respect for the University of Aberdeen as an academic institution. Given that the University is one of the oldest universities in the UK it holds a high stature as an academic institution, and as an Aberdeen native it was a natural choice for me.

I chose the MBA in Energy Management in 2014 to boost my eligibility to undertake managerial roles in the Energy sector, which is prominent in Aberdeen. At the point at which I applied for the MBA course, I had successfully honed my skills as a technical engineer/consultant across a multitude of areas and wanted to support businesses that I was working for by effectively managing teams and developing their businesses. I have always had aspirations to move into managerial/leadership roles and I felt the MBA was the perfect stepping stone to prepare myself for roles of that type.

In terms of my postgraduate experience, I loved every minute of returning to the University over eleven years on from graduating with my undergraduate degree. I found that with several years of work experience under my belt, I was able to actively engage in interesting discussions with other students doing the MBA course and it was very interesting to hear about the experiences of other students in the workplace and the differences in management roles between sectors.

Doing the MBA while working as a manager at Xodus was excellent and gave me a lot of appreciation of what working as a manager entails and how to overcome the challenges that managers face. In 2019 I was approached by Safetec who was looking for a Managing Director to lead the UK arm of its business. After a series of interviews, I was provided an offer and decided to resign from Xodus to pursue the MD position at Safetec.

The MBA in particular gave me a lot in terms of the commercial awareness side, mentoring and people development and supply chain management. I have most definitely utilised the knowledge conveyed through the MBA [in my career since graduating].