Alumnus testimonial
Ioana - Business Developer
Ioana was looking for an established university and master’s programme. She found just that with the master’s Forest and Nature Conservation in Wageningen. Now she has a job as an independent business developer.
Both of my theses and my internship inspired me to become a business developer in the environmental sector.
Why did you decide to study Forest and Nature Conservation in Wageningen?
“When I told my friends back home in Romania that I got accepted at Wageningen University most of them looked at me with a blank stare. For those not familiar with the life sciences sector, Wageningen rings no bells. However, after completing a Bachelor that existed for just four years at the time I started, left me craving for something more established. And Wageningen was just that.”
“Forest and Nature Conservation was the natural choice, no pun intended, for someone growing up in between two worlds. On one hand the wild, wolf-and-bear populated forests of the Carpathians and on the other the grey soulless monotony of concrete blocks, legacy of the communist rule.”
Could you tell us something about your job?
“Both of my theses in water ecology and my internship in the more economic aspects of the water sector opened a door to a bigger ocean. At the beginning of 2012, a few months after graduation, I started working independently doing business development in the environmental sector.”
Isn’t business development unrelated to your master’s?
“Though it might seem that my study, nature conservation, and my work, business development, have nothing in common. However, they are more related than you’d expect. Developing a business can mean improving the water quality of the Black Sea coast for example, by bringing waste water treatment technologies to the communities living in the Danube Delta (picture).”