I am from Ireland, and I came to business through an unusual door. My undergraduate degree, at University College of Dublin (UCD), was in philosophy, politics and economics, and for a long time I saw my future in politics. I was deeply in that world, I took part in a citizens’ assembly on the future of Europe and a leadership programme grounded in the UN sustainability goals. But the closer I looked, the more I felt it wasn’t the right path for the impact I wanted to have. I wanted a more direct path to change, and I had a feeling that through business, I could genuinely make the world a better place.
A gap year took me to Rio de Janeiro, where I studied Portuguese and discovered that everyday life, the rhythm, the people, and the way things work, looks completely different there, and I loved it. I already knew I wanted to build a life internationally, so when I found the CEMS Master in International Management, the choice was natural. I picked FGV-EAESP in São Paulo as my home school, and from day one it opened my eyes to what business could really offer. Thanks to them, I was able to take part in the G20, which they hosted. Then CEMS took me to Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) - and to Esade in Barcelona. Three schools, three countries, and one community running through all of them.
“When you’re around people who are different from you, you grow so much as a person.”
That community has a name, the CEMS Club, and it became the backbone of my journey. In São Paulo I joined the social team to help organise events, and from the inside I saw the potential of a student organisation that runs its own events, its own social media, and its own relationships with alumni and Corporate Partners. We study international management, and the club is exactly where you practise it. So I stepped up, first as head of marketing and vice-president in Brazil, then as president in Rotterdam, and now as co-president in Barcelona alongside Lukas. Everything the club does is done for the students, by the students.
Building a community where everyone belongs
Then Rotterdam taught me what inclusion means in practice. Sixty people arrived in one place, almost nobody knew each other, and everyone was there for the first time. As president, I felt a real responsibility to make sure every single person found their place, with no separate circles and no one left on the side. We organised mystery dinners, CV workshops with top consulting firms, and a charity run that raised money for a hospital in Rotterdam. By the end of the semester, those strangers had become a family, and our club won the CEMS Club Award. The recognition was lovely, but watching that community grow was the truly rewarding part.
The programme kept opening new doors, from a block seminar at the European Space Agency in Rotterdam to the Career Forum and CEMS Gala in Barcelona. It also opened my professional path. Through CEMS, I got to know Gartner, a CEMS Corporate Partner, and received an offer before I’d even graduated. I will start in July, in Barcelona, and officially graduate at the CEMS Graduation Ceremony in Seoul in November.
Ethical impact, as a daily practice
One idea from my political philosophy studies has stayed with me through all of this, John Rawls’ veil of ignorance. The idea is this: if you had to design the rules for society without knowing who you were, then you would make sure to protect the most vulnerable, because you might be one of them. For me, being an ethical, responsible and inclusive citizen comes down to that. You work to raise the floor, you build spaces where everyone belongs, and you take responsibility to make it happen. CEMS gave me the community and the platform to start. My values brought me here, and business is giving me the tools to live them.
