Alumnus Fernando dos Santos Ramos (MSc Information Management, 1999) tells of the skills he learned whilst studying at Lancaster and expresses his gratitude to the staff that helped him carve out his career.

"I still remember when I was approached by Susan Lucas in 1997 and she said…”It will be an incredible experience…”. After almost 22 years, that was a wonderful prediction.

Lancaster had three characteristics that built what I am today. The very first one is quality. Lecturers, alumni, library and so on allowed me to go deep in themes and lessons in such a manner that I could exploit the best of my learning.

Second, my classmates. They had come from all over the world; insights from everywhere enlightened my understanding of global complexity. There were people from England, China, Canada, US, Continental Europe, Middle East, Latin America... Amazing, it is so impactful when a strategy discussion was in place and my classmates could in fact show their own points of view, largely enriching the session.

The third thing is, undoubtedly, friendship. It was so good to go to a college and have some pints of beer!!! A lot of fun and really good discussions! I have made friends that I still meet and talk today…

Since then, my life and career have changed substantially. I joined ABN Amro Bank and became part of a global committee. I was very comfortable with that as I had plenty of practise in talking with people from everywhere.

Also, I had executive positions in consultancy firms including Accenture and Ernst & Young. Strategic lessons, tools for thinking and Soft Systems Methodology, helped me structure and address clients' issues and provide a rich, comprehensive and impactful solution.

Today, at IBM, I am responsible for offering innovative solutions to clients and I am still applying conceptual frameworks I learned at Lancaster University.

I would like to thank so many of my professors, my colleagues and staff for providing me with an extraordinary experience that definitely changed me deeply.

Thank you all."