David Whiting (MA Marketing,1972, County) recalls how his year at Lancaster broadened his horizons in every aspect of his life during his 12 month stay.

"My first degree was in Industrial Economics at Nottingham University. A couple of my housemates took the Marketing option in their final year, which – although I took the Politics option - intrigued me. My friend then mentioned an MA in Marketing at Lancaster University (the only marketing degree course at any level in the country at the time), which he was thinking of applying for. I wanted to travel in North America, so the two of us decided to do both. To cut a long story short, Rick went to Canada and I went to Lancaster.

I loved my year at Lancaster. The course itself provided the guide rails for my career, clarifying the philosophy that lies behind good strategic marketing (unlike the ersatz, tactical, version widely practised and depicted.) It facilitated the ability to answer questions such as ‘Is this really marketing?’, ‘Does this organisation/person really understand marketing?’, etc.

I’ve never lived life (academically and socially) so intensively, before or since, as I did during my 12 months at Lancaster. I made a lot of good undergraduate friends, in addition to my MA postgraduate colleagues, lived on the sea front in Morecambe and then in a big shared farmhouse near Cockerham, saw gigs by artists such as Free, Paul McCartney & Wings (their first ‘just turn up unannounced’ tour), Amazing Blondel and Al Stewart, and took part in the student demos surrounding the ‘Craig Affair’.

My career took me into marketing roles with Boots, Nestlé, Knorr, Duracell (as Marketing Director during the brand’s explosive growth in the 1980s), Saatchi & Saatchi and Added Value. Subsequently, I’ve worked as a consultant and course director/trainer (much of it for the Chartered Institute of Marketing) and taught on an MBA programme in the Far East. I was also a school governor for 9 years at a successful progressive boarding school, driving the development of its strategy, so was able to apply the same marketing skills further than just my career."