Explore 50 years of RSM

Studying at RSM was a game changer for me. I was a technical guy in computer science when I arrived in the Netherlands, but my MBA gave me a new outlook on life.

It was a very international environment, there were 120 of us from various backgrounds and 30 countries made many lifelong friends. I moved to Rotterdam with my family and it was a great experience, we enjoyed getting to know the Dutch people and my wife even learned the language.

The professors introduced me to subjects I knew next to nothing about as a computer scientist, such as financial strategy, organisational behaviour and negotiation. I came to use them all in my career.

When I came back to Iceland, I started an RSM alumni association. There were three of us in the country at the time, now there are 20. We all have happy memories of our studies in Rotterdam.

Thirty years ago, I promised myself I would retire at the age of 60. Although I’m nearly that age now, I will never stop working as I love to take on challenging projects. For example, I’m involved in an organic farming company in the Netherlands with some of the best people in the world.

Business education is changing. I’m now taking a course on digital business because you always have to stay up to date. Although we are used to working online, it’s not the same as meeting up in person. I look forward to the return of those days.

Hjörtur Grétarsson

Full-time MBA 1993

Head of department of Real Property Registration, Iceland

My fellow students were outstandingly smart. They were ambitious and competitive, especially in the negotiation module, but at the same time there was a lot of mutual support.

We had a great time together and, now we’ve moved on all around the world, we keep in touch and we’ve formed an amazing and diverse professional network.

There were hundreds of memorable moments. We had a series of parties celebrating our cultures. There was an Indian room, a Russian room, and rooms from European countries as well. You could go from one to another, learn more about different perspectives and meet new people. 

When I was co-president of the Women in Leadership club at RSM, I brought the HR director of Microsoft to our meeting to talk about diversity and inclusion. I was delighted I managed to bridge the gap and involve men in our discussions as well. My argument to them was that, once they have families of their own, wouldn’t they want their daughters to have the same opportunities as their sons?

I was very proud of graduating summa cum laude, I was also one of the first to find a job and the first in my batch to be taken on by Amazon – it was fantastic to lead the way and inspire others in their careers.

Looking ahead, I hope RSM will become a beacon for the advancement of women in business through the power of networking.

Tatiana Kirillova

MBA 2020

Senior financial analyst, Amazon

Carolien Buijs graduated from RSM's business administration programme in 2005. Specialising in marketing management, she is now global marketing manager at New York Media Group, leading the marketing team and thriving on her company’s positive can-do mentality.

“I have many fond memories of my time at RSM. I won the Marketing Thesis Award and was  part of scientific research on consumer behaviour. I loved being a part of the university, studying in the library, drinking ‘Mellow Mornings and Heavenly Hazels’ and walking around campus in all seasons. I remember drinking beers at café In de Smitse with my fellow students and members of the ‘Introductiecommissie Bedrijfskunde’ where I fulfilled the role of Commissaris Bedrijfskunde’

“At RSM, I learned to persevere and go the extra mile. I now apply this both to my work and my love of travel. I’d advise anyone starting at RSM today to do the same. Always be critical and think for yourself. And when times are difficult, look for the sparks that can give you that little extra energy you need. If you do that, you’ll get the results that can push you even further.”

Carolien Buijs

Global marketing manager, New York Media Group

There were many exceptional professors at RSM. I was impressed at how the lectures were organised and the thought-provoking case studies we examined. One of the modules on operational management was focused on ethics and morals; we ended up in a situation which went badly wrong and were challenged to make the right decisions.

I went to Rotterdam to study for an MBA straight after my master degree in geology. This is quite unusual as most people have some experience in the workplace. My brother had done the same degree when he wanted to change career. He recommended it and I was inspired. I wanted to have more options in my life than just using computer software to find suitable rock formations.

I moved to Africa because of my job in oil and gas, and spent time at a work camp in the jungle. Then I decided I wanted to do something different with my life. I moved to Zambia in 2006 to work as a finance manager in a national park, then worked for Philips for six years. I’ve built my life here, I got married and have children and I’m going to stay. Among several other ventures, I’m enjoying running workshops on African art.

The climate is fantastic. There are a couple of months of rain, the rest of the year is sunny and the nature is beautiful. It’s a huge country and people are friendly. I’m in the right place and feel RSM helped me to find it.

Joost Hugo van Son

MBA 1994

Founder, owner and partner at Milete Management Consultancy, Zambia

Business education in Italy is theoretical. You read about the subject in books, and you’re not working in teams on real assignments. I wanted to study abroad to gain a more practical approach to management and I certainly got that at RSM.

We took on an internationalisation project for a solar energy start-up and I also worked with Coca-Cola on a data-science project. It was a challenge to start with, but the hands-on experience is really helping me now.

I loved the informal Dutch culture. You would finish your lectures at six then you could have a beer with your fellow students at the pub. I made so many friends and have now got a worldwide network of valuable contacts.

In my spare time, I got involved with a business incubator which helps refugees. Many of them came from Syria, they had been successful professionals in their own country but needed to gain the skills and the knowledge to do well in the Netherlands. We introduced them to how to draw up a business plan, test their ideas, get their first customers and so on. I’m pleased to say one of the women I supported went on to become a project manager for a recruiting company focused on empowering women.

I’m now head of sales and marketing for a tech start-up in Kenya. We work with small businesses in the consumer goods industry and with financial services providers to help them optimise the way they run their sales and distribution processes. In Africa, retail is dominated by very small corner shops. Owners find that systems like accounting and distribution are difficult. Our mobile app does the work for them.

Most people don’t think of Africa as a place for career opportunities and professional growth. Graduates tend to travel to Latin America or Southeast Asia if they want to work in an emerging country but that’s what attracted me to come here. In truth, there are many fast-growing countries in Africa with great job opportunities, and I wanted to be here before the rest of the world catches up.

Lucrezia Pirani

MSc Strategic Management 2019

Head of enterprise sales, Marketforce 360, Kenya

If I think about the happiest memories at RSM, then it is definitely all about the people. Our cohort was an international and truly diverse group of smart people. When you finish the RSM MBA experience you will have friends all over the world. When we had the five-year reunion two years ago, it felt we just left RSM yesterday.  Many of us would love to go back to RSM and do the MBA all over again.

The staff at RSM is amazing, not only the professors but also all supporting staff. Especially Maria Croes she was like a mum for all of us, nothing was too much for her and always there with a smile.

During my stay at RSM I made sure that I did not miss out on anything. I was one of a group of 20 students who did the Master in Financial Management in the weekends and evenings, on top off the MBA programme. Next to that I was elected as the student association treasurer, and founded and became president of the Banking Club. As banking club we organised the first business trip to Zurich that led to jobs opportunities for my classmates in Zurich.

It was not all hard work. I was captain of the RSM’s poker team at the MBA sport tournament in Paris. This was a good excuse to organise small tournaments to take our mind off all the presentations and assignments we had to produce.

All the hard work did not go unrewarded next to graduating with two degrees, my fellow students voted for me to win the prestigious RSM leadership award for that year. I am very thankful that they awarded me this honour.

In fact, I enjoyed being at RSM so much, I stayed on after the MBA was over to help the new batch settle in. It does not matter where you come from or what your background is, whether it is finance, marketing, consulting, or IT. At the end of your studies at RSM, you are a member of one big family with alumni all over the world.

Every autumn the RSM Leadership Summit gives us an opportunity to not only talk and learn about the topics off today and tomorrow but also allows us to all come together again. I look forward in seeing you there!

Vincent de Wildt

MBA 2014

Head of Sales and Market Strategy,

Global Management Team Member, International Europe Market
BNP Paribas Wealth Management
Luxembourg / Switzerland / Monaco

This love story started in the summer of 2006. Maartje Schoolderman (BSc Business Administration 2009 and MSc Marketing Management 2011) started her studies at RSM. Stefan Bernards (BSc Business Administration 2008 and MSc Finance & Investments 2010) was her mentor in the introduction weekend of RSM STAR student association.

“Sparks were flying between us from the first day, when we flirted without reservation during the Bavaria Brewery tour,” says Stefan. The two shared their first kiss that night. And now, 15 years later, love is still in the air.

The pair enjoyed their studies, including lectures and exam stress, followed by drinks at the Oude Haven or catching up with friends at campus pub In de Smitse. “We both loved the international vibe on campus and the vibrant city of Rotterdam, which allowed us to connect with fellow students from all over the world,” says Maartje.

Both of them went on an exchange programme as part of their studies: Stefan to Taipei in 2009, and Maartje to Nicaragua and Costa Rica in 2010. Now, Stefan works as a global sales director for technology company Nedap N.V., and Maartje is proud owner of Blik Insights, a customer insights agency that turns data into actionable marketing strategies. “Our years at RSM have brought us analytical skills, broad business sense and international experiences which we use in our daily professional lives,” says Stefan.

Stefan and Maartje got married on the beach in The Hague in 2014, where they celebrated with many of their RSM classmates. They have now moved to the more quiet, eastern part of the Netherlands, and expanded the family with a baby and a dog. The two enjoy the outdoorsy lifestyle they have here, but always remain on the lookout for new adventures. With their true RSM spirit, they’re internationally minded and eager to keep learning, by being open to move abroad for an expat life or to sail the globe. They both say: “We still have plenty of dreams that keep us busy!”

One of my happiest memories of studying at RSM was the vibrant culture on campus. When the sun was shining, everyone was outside on the terrace. Knowing that we all want to contribute to creating a better society together by being a force for positive change was truly heart-warming.

People give me the motivation to do everything. When I help others to grow, I grow myself as well.

At RSM, I was president of the Rotterdam Consulting Club, working alongside leading firms to give students real insights into the profession, one of the highlights was a great study trip to Lisbon. During my board year, I re-structured the club and brought in new members and corporate partners. It was so valuable to have that leadership experience at a young age.

When I moved to Ireland, I knew I wanted to keep up my links with the School so I established an Alumni Chapter in Dublin. Sixty RSM graduates travelled from all over the country to the launch event and we’ve got exciting plans to strengthen our network in the future.

Everyone I studied with is now doing amazing things all over the world. The RSM community lifts its members up and helps us all fulfil our potential. As a startup mentor at Google, I always try to pass on this feeling to the people I advise.
 

Cato Bui

Agency strategist and startup lead at Google, Dublin

MSc Strategic Management 2018

Beautiful paradoxes

“We live in a world of paradoxes. RSM is a social enterprise with a clear purpose around its education and research. But we also need to reach financial targets. Without the second we cannot work on our first, most important, goal. Somehow, we’ve found a brilliant balance.

I remember the feeling of immense happiness when a refugee-student on a scholarship in the Parttime Master Bedrijfskunde received his diploma and told his class about the confidence, the opportunities and the network that he gained at RSM. I thought that if this would be the one thing that we achieved, then our work already would be valuable.

I’m also really proud of organising a global leadership programme for the United Nations, out-competing many major business schools, and presenting a multi-million-euro project to the VP HR of a German-based multinational and winning their business. But we were the proudest when we offered an intensive one-week leadership programme to a financial services company in Gambia. The faculty didn’t want to get paid; we invested our time and the company paid a very modest fee as they could not afford our regular fees.

And there are other paradoxes. We create and disseminate knowledge, focus on impact for the Rotterdam region, and reach out to the world. We should be open to these beautiful challenges and opportunities around people, planet and profit to keep a balance and thrive.”

Klaas Wassens

Executive director Parttime Master in Management
Executive director Master in Customs and Supply Chain Compliance

More excited about research than ever

“You know, I’ve never felt comfortable being in the spotlight for big celebrations – I only invited three people to my wedding! But when my department head, Prof. Ale Smidt, insisted that I needed to make a big deal of my inaugural address, it turned out to be one of my happiest memories at RSM.

This milestone made me feel liberated and energetic. I started working on a totally different area in the subsequent years, and am more excited about research than I have ever been. The celebration was a great party, and I felt very much part of a community. As a foreigner, the option of moving to another international business school is always in the back of your mind. But the inaugural address and the new chair helped me feel grounded and rooted. At other academic institutions I rarely see an environment that is so supportive and pleasant as the one at RSM.

The field of marketing is going through massive transformations forced by macro-trends like technology and the climate crisis. I’m really proud of my achievements as academic director of the MSc in Marketing Management between 2014 and 2019. I wanted to ensure that our graduates can be successful right after university and 10 years from now. We changed the programme dramatically to reflect changes in society and marketing. Within a short period of time, the programme grew in both popularity and reputation. It was a very rewarding experience.

The world is changing rapidly, and we all need to be prepared to learn new things, take new directions and question old ways. It’s scary but, with the right mindset, also exhilarating. We need to keep learning and changing throughout our careers. The only way to be successful in the long-term is to learn to not fear change, but embrace it.”

Stefano Puntoni

Professor of Marketing

"Greetings from Kyiv, Ukraine!

I studied at RSM from 1985–1991, with two semesters abroad – in Vancouver at the University of British Columbia, and at Bocconi University in Milan. RSM was known then as the Bedrijfskunde and there were only 150 students in our bachelor year so almost everybody knew your name, especially in the bar In de Smitse. We spent a lot of time in the F/G building working at the RSM computers. I remember students were only just starting to buy personal computers that had only floppy disks as memory.

Our study trip to China in 1987 was a great adventure. At that time the highest building in Wuhan [now a city of 11 million people] was the six-storey Wuying Pagoda.

I was also part of the team that made the first SVIIB Almanac. We had to collect a printed photograph of every student but we did at least have the latest software for making the layout. The memories always come flooding back when I look at those pictures. 

RSM really opened my mind and creativity through its scientific and broad approach to management. In my first year I took the toolmaking course in Delft, which showed us what it was like to be a machine operator. We also had courses in practical applications of high-level philosophy, and many of our lectures were given by the professors who had written the books we were studying. I have special memories of Professor Henk van Ruller, a really fantastic mentor who really represented the spirit of Erasmus to me, and Linda de Vries who is still, I understand, the energy behind the programme!

RSM made me go abroad: I had the opportunity to do the International Management CEMS programme and two exchanges. I remember an incredible rhetoric course on persuasive skills, and after a traineeship with five other students in Curaçao, we even set up our own course on the managerial aspects of small islands. 

I ended up working and living in France. CEMS actually helped me to get my first job when the director of HEC Paris explained to the company that hired me that my RSM CEMS degree was equivalent to HEC’s CEMS degree!"
 

Willem Coppoolse
Director of the Naftogaz Group Commerce Division in Kiev, Ukraine.

Exciting international journey

“From first setting up exchanges for master students to celebrating the fall of the Berlin wall – my time at RSM has been an exciting international journey ever since I started working here in 1986.

We welcomed the first 19 students in Rotterdam from our 10 partner schools in 1988, and we sent out a similar number of students abroad. Now, we receive and send hundreds of bachelor and master students for an international exchange to and from our 175+ partner schools!

On my first business trip abroad to the PIM conference at the Stockholm School of Economics in 1987, I met so many international colleagues. The first plans for CEMS (Global Alliance in Management Education) were being discussed and I’m proud to have been a part of that. CEMS was founded in 1988. Together with Henk van Ruller, we applied for RSM to become a member of CEMS. RSM was admitted to CEMS in 1989 in Barcelona. In the same year we got accepted to PIM (Partnership in International Management) when we were in Brazil. When celebrating, the wall fell in Berlin. I remember it all so vividly.

I’m so proud to have contributed to being the first in both the CEMS and PIM network which opened up so many doors to top business schools in the whole world and enabling RSM to send our students to these schools!”

Linda de Vries

Head International Office

“I had already planned a summer vacation when we found out that RSM had an interview to become members of CEMS, the global alliance in management education. We had applied for the membership in the spring of 1989, one year after CEMS was founded.

Henk van Ruller, a strong protagonist of RSM’s internationalisation, had arranged this interview with the founding members of CEMS (ESADE, HEC Paris, Bocconi, and Cologne). This interview was to take place at the premises of HEC in Paris and was scheduled for a specific date in July. Henk, with a nice smile, let me know that I, as the Dean of RSM, was supposed to be there. So we decided to include this event in our vacation schedule and made a camping stop near Paris.

That morning, the camping folk were very surprised to see me stepping out of our tent in a three-piece suit and tie for the meeting at HEC. The admission interview was very serious, and I, together with the Dean of Louvain-la-Neuve, another aspiring CEMS member, had to wait outside for the verdict. At some point, they finally called us in, and I got the message that RSM was accepted as member of CEMS. I was very proud.”

Read Prof. Wierenga’s memoir.

Berend Wierenga

Former Dean of RSM
Professor Emeritus of Marketing
Founder of the Department of Marketing Management