Women leading change: inspiring MBA alumnae share their story

Choosing to do an MBA

When Toni Thorne (MBA 2020) founded her boutique consulting firm working across several sectors in Barbados, from finance to marketing to appearing on Caribbean Television, she had reached a crossroads in her career and was looking for something more.

“I had reached a plateau and I wanted to do more and doing more required me to leave the environment I was in. I like to say I was like a barracuda in a bathtub.”

She continues, “I always knew I would do a masters and that masters being an MBA. I love business and I believe that business can be for the good of others and for society and that business learning, for me, could only happen on an MBA.”

Nigerian-born, Maxine Nwaneri, (MBA 2007) had instead spent a few years in banking and finance in the UK and was also looking for something else but she didn’t know quite what.

Maxine explains, “A colleague of mine said to me, “Sounds like you need to go and do an MBA and you will spend some time around amazing people and then you can figure out what you want to do”, that felt really right for me, at the time and turns out it was.”

Toni’s story: coming to the UK from Barbados

“For me coming to the UK was the best decision. I was able to start a new page and appreciate all that I came from and all that I came with.”

Toni was part of the COVID-19 class, bravely choosing to start her MBA, in September 2020, in the middle of a global pandemic.

“I was able to appreciate the opportunity to really sit in something and not have any distractions. I tried new things. I worked hard and I met so many people for so many different virtual coffee chats and coffee walks one-on-one during the UK lockdown at that time.”

“My close friend had just died, and I flew from the funeral straight to London. I felt like I had the opportunity to just start fresh and the world was my oyster, and that I really could make another path for myself and a new life for myself.”

For Toni the pandemic really kept her focused on Cambridge and on the academic requirements of the MBA programme.

“I felt like someone had given me a lemon and whatever I did with that lemon would determine the outcome. Cambridge for me was a lemon that I squeezed every possible bit of juice out of, that I could.”

The Cambridge name opening doors

Maxine Nwaneri has just recently published and launched her first book, ‘The Future is Greater: A working mother’s guide to finding balance.’

Now adding author to her list of coaching and public speaking credentials, Maxine explains how the name ‘Cambridge’ has opened doors for her.

“The book launch is also part of my Cambridge story. Cambridge was part of my initial pitch to the publishers and now with all the buildup to the launch and the PR it has all mentioned Cambridge in my bio and my career journey.”

“Cambridge Judge Faculty, Monique Boddington, even joined the discussion panel at the book launch event in London last month. The Cambridge brand and the experiences are linked to you forever.”

For Toni too, accolades have followed on from graduation in 2021. “Most things that I have now that I am grateful for, are because of my studies at Cambridge.

My role at J.P. Morgan Asset Management as Vice President – UK Funds – Marketing Strategy Lead. I also won the Women of the Future Award in 2021, I even met my partner in Cambridge!”

A career journey from Nigeria to Norway to the UK: Maxine Nwaneri

“Never in a million years would I have known that growing up in Nigeria, spending my whole childhood in a book and being an introvert, that I would now be where I am today – an award-winning public speaker, author and leadership coach.”

Maxine studied for her undergraduate degree in the UK and started her career in banking and finance.

“Coming to the MBA opened up an international career for me. I came to the MBA looking for something new, and I didn’t really know what and that just really opened me up – it opened me up to an international career.”

“After my MBA, I worked for IBM for a decade on their leadership rotation program and I was travelling all around the world in various leadership roles. It was mind blowing.”

Later moving to Norway with her husband and going on maternity leave in 2015, Maxine found a new path in her career.

It was as a stay-at-home mum that Maxine created a new role for herself, starting a business in coaching and mentoring, working around the demands of a new baby.

“When you are a Type A character with a high-powered career, I wasn’t coping with doing less and being at home for that one year. I was an accidental entrepreneur. I started to do some part-time studies for a coaching qualification. I started the coaching as something really for my own mental health and it grew from there.”

Maxine had clients and she was successful but upon returning to her role at IBM, along with the fledgling coaching business and a baby, it became too much. She left IBM. “I could see a future in my business and so I changed my path.”

Skills for life on the Cambridge MBA

Public speaking did not come naturally to Maxine, but the MBA helped her find her voice, “The public speaking came about through Cambridge. You were always asked to present with your team on the MBA and eventually I stood up in LT1 and did it myself.

After that you find you are doing it over and over again and I realised from the MBA I can speak, and I can speak well,” she says.

“I have gone from being forced to do it, to now doing it for a living. It was during the MBA that I lived outside of my comfort zone for almost an entire year, and I was challenged (and supported) by really really smart people to do really scary things that have now become normal things. I thank the MBA for that.”

She concludes, “Be open to what’s new and being open to new opportunities has been powerful. You never knew who you were going to meet or what was going to come next on the MBA.”

Women supporting women

“We were planning the Wo+Men’s Leadership Conference at Cambridge Judge in 2021 and we were liaising with speakers and panellists, and everyone was so very encouraging and supportive,” says Toni.

She continues, “I still have relationships with many of those women today. I still have the network, to have that great sounding board when I need it. I don’t have any family here in the UK, only in Barbados, and now I am building a friends network here in the UK.”

“So many great women (and men) supported my Cambridge MBA journey, not only the academics but also in the MBA Programme Team and also the Cambridge Judge Careers Team.”

“So many great women, that I do feel that I was standing on their shoulders to achieve my success.”

For Maxine, handing the baton on to the next generation of early career women came about a little while after her MBA year.

“I was so busy doing ‘stuff’ that I didn’t think anyone would be looking up to me for guidance or inspiration. But then I was asked to speak at Cambridge Judge events and conferences, and I got really involved. It was only then that I realised that young women were struggling with things that I could help with, I had experience based on my own career and with my insights what took me 3 years could now take them 6 months!”

Maxine also explains how the whole community at Cambridge Judge and on the MBA supports you and nurtures you, even after your MBA year.

“What I love about Cambridge is that it is a genuine community. You are always encouraged to come back. It is such a warm community, and it feels like home coming back.”

“You really do stand on the shoulders of giants, in the whole community. You don’t just have the students and the staff, all the faculty and the people who are linked in some way are all equally invested in Cambridge and your success is part of that. It is quite powerful and amazing.”

Taking up space for Black women

“There is nothing to gloat or be happy about being the only Black person or Black woman in the room,” Toni says.

“I was the only Black woman in my cohort and the only female Nigerian in my class at the time, in the Class of 2007,” says Maxine.

Despite the diversity on the MBA cohort in 2007, where there was a cohort of 150 and 45 different nationalities, “It was unlike anything else I had experienced,” explains Maxine.

Toni’s MBA cohort was equally diverse, made up of 174 class members from 38 different countries. She was the only student from the Caribbean that year.

“I am from the Caribbean and proudly so, I am happy representing Black people, representing Barbados and representing the Caribbean,” continues Toni. “As a Cambridge Trust Scholar, as well as a Chevening Scholar, I receive a huge number of requests for insights into my experience. It can be very time consuming, but I try to respond and support as many MBA candidates as I can!”

Maxine has similarly supported and responded to requests since graduating, passing the baton on from one woman to another. “Recently an MBA candidate had read an article about me and reached out to ask about my Cambridge experience. Eighteen months later she started her own MBA journey at Cambridge Judge, and I was so pleased for her.”

Being your authentic self

For Toni stepping into the Finance sector in London was not without its challenges, “Finance is still a very conservative industry. It is traditionally very risk averse,” she said.

“Yes, I feel inspired to make a change, but it can also be tiring sometimes. But if we don’t do something about it then who will? Ask yourself: ‘Do you want to be comfortable in silence or do you want to speak up?’”

She continues, “Is change happening? Yes. Is it fast enough? Never. Progress is never happening fast enough. There is change but there is still a long way to go.”

Maxine explores her own experience moving to the UK from Nigeria, aged 11, “I literally said nothing at school until I could open my mouth and speak with an English accent. Thankfully I learned quickly at that time.”

Now Maxine no longer feels the need to be anything but herself, “I walk into these spaces, and I am literally the only woman or the only Black woman, and I think, “Oh you really need my perspective in here!,” I can tell them something that no one else can and that was a real win for me.”

For Maxine, “I come here knowing what value I can bring. I am now helping other women to take up space, to own the room in the way that you can.”

She concludes, “My pursuit is, when my time comes, that I have done what I am here to do.”