Prior to coming to Lancaster, I completed a company-sponsored three-year dual degree with IBM Germany in BA International Business and a subsequent one-year assignment as a financial services consultant.

In order to shift my strategic career direction towards a more quantitative role, I chose to enrol on the Finance MSc at LUMS. Key reasons for selecting LUMS were the CFA Program Partner status, the FT ranking and the high value-for-money of the programme itself as well as the School’s triple accreditation and the study abroad opportunities.

My expectations of my experience at Lancaster have been more than exceeded. The integrated CFA training package helped me to pass the Level I Exam alongside my Masters study. In my role as a course representative, I could interact with a great number of students from all over the world on a frequent basis and thus build up a strong network which will be invaluable in the future. Moreover, the Lancaster University Confucius Institute offered Chinese language courses which I decided to take in my free time.

Study abroad experience

From the start of my Master programme I worked hard to get selected for the Study Abroad scheme at Renmin University in Beijing. In addition to being able to list another prestigious institution on my CV, going abroad provided several advantages:

• I had the dream of continuing my career in Asia which is why studying for one term at an Asian university would make applications easier as I would be closer to the market.
• I also believed that taking courses at an MBA level with students with several years of work experience in one of the current world’s emerging markets would be a very enriching challenge.
• Staying in China gave me the possibility to greatly enhance my Chinese language skills.

After completing the Study Abroad scheme at Renmin University in Beijing in 2013, I landed an internship at a German Bank in Singapore which was exactly the market I was targeting after my graduation. From there I was fortunate to be able to convert the internship position into a full-time Financial Analyst role in the Ship Finance Asia-Pacific team of that same bank in 2014. In 2015 I then switched to another German bank to become a Relationship Manager for Corporate Banking

In 2016, Leo earned his CFA charter.