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Raquel de Paiva Seroa da Motta (EMBA F&A cohort 2018)

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1 september 2018

The Executive MBA in Food & Agribusiness is followed by ambitious and talented professionals. What motivates them? How do they manage work, private life and study? And why did they choose for this specific MBA? Learn all about it by reading their testimonials.

Name: Raquel de Paiva Seroa da Motta
Job title: International & Interdisciplinary Researcher Livestock and Environment at Wageningen University & Research
Previous degree: MSc in Biology – Water, Environment and Innovation, Radboud University

Raquel completed her undergraduate education in Brazil then she decided to continue her studies in the Netherlands. Since then she gained a lot of experience by working in international and multicultural environments. While managing research projects at Wageningen Livestock and Environment department Raquel showed keen interest in being more involved in innovative business and new market opportunities. To this end, an MBA in Food and Agribusiness appeared to be the next step in realizing her future ambitions.

Why did you choose the Executive MBA in Food & Agribusiness?

For me, it was always a wish to follow a programme offered by the organization which I am currently working on. Beyond that, I choose the EMBA due to a number of reasons:

  • The executive set up and schedule of classes allowed me to combine it with my full-time job;
  • The unique value proposition with a focus on Food & Agribusiness;
  • The strong focus on leadership and entrepreneurship;
  • The international modules: first year in an emergent economy outside Europe, and second year within Europe.

What is your future goal?

To develop my business and leadership skills in order to reach my professional and personal ambition of bridging F&A markets and innovative solutions between BENELUX and Brazil.

How did people around you react when you shared/decided to embark on an MBA?

My family, friends and closest colleagues were very supportive. They appreciated my decisiveness and were proud of my decision. Nevertheless, they were naturally concerned with the future workload in combination with my work and private life. But none of them thought was a bad idea. Especially, after seeing how much energy and inspiration I got from each MBA module. 

What is your impression about your MBA peers?

Having had followed and hosted some education programs before starting the MBA, I was positive that my peers would be of great importance for my MBA experience and learning process. Our class had surpassed my expectations! We are a diverse, multicultural and innovative team! Each of us has a unique path and set of skills to add to the group. Plus, the immersive proposition of the programme allows us to become quite close, quite fast. I am sure we are building a network of not only best in class students and professionals, but also real human beings and possibly a number of good friends.   

How will you manage to balance studying with work and personal life?

First, I simply embraced the fact that the next two years will be an extremely demanding period of my life. Having acknowledged that I adapted a bit my usual workload, working either an extra hour a day and moved my biweekly days-all to the end of the month. In that way, I can have a free Thursday and Friday every 4 weeks. Precisely what I needed for our face to face classes. In addition, I planned a full evening per week on which I can catch up with the content and assignments of each MBA module. 

For my personal life, I saw that this was the best moment to start the MBA, my familywise demands are not that high. For instance, I don’t have kids yet and my boyfriend is planning to start an MBA as well. The frequency on which I see my friends or dedicate to my metal and body fitness hasn’t reduced so far. I am aware that this might change in the next two years. So I am still investigating strategies to support finding balance on my journey.

The Executive MBA (EMBA) in Food & Agribusiness is developed for
mid-career professionals, with the ambition to grow further in an executive function in the Food & Agribusiness sector.

Interested in the EMBA in Food & Agribusiness, click here for the full overview on all content, or download the brochure.

For more information you can
contact study adviser Agnes Kiss.