Thomas Frénéhard (BBA, 2002, Grizedale) tells how his BBA in European Management tells how his study in Lancaster and France landed him with his current Vice Presidency role with SAP, Australia.

"I’ve always been a keen traveller, and this is one of the reasons I chose Lancaster: it was part of a dual program where I could study half of the curriculum in the United Kingdom and half in France.

What I appreciated the most from my time at Lancaster was meeting people from various countries, backgrounds, and of course, different university programs. Being able to understand how different people look at things from various angles truly helped me in my professional career.

Armed with a dual Bachelor and a Masters in Competitive Intelligence, I was fortunate to start my career at one my dream companies: Google. This was my first real exposure to the software industry, and I caught the virus. And I don’t think I’ll be going to any other industry after that!

After a short stint at Google in Ireland, I went back to France to take part in the creation of a new type of software offering that was getting some traction: Governance, Risk and Compliance. Not the most appealing topic you may be thinking, but one that continues to evolve, year after year. New regulations, emerging risks, changing business landscapes are just a few of the topics that this area focuses on.

When joining a start-up company in this area, I was tasked with building new tools on top of their nascent offering. This meant researching the needs of companies in different sectors, the requirements of the decision makers, the concerns of the end-users, but also current and future market trends, etc. In essence, looking at things from different perspectives. As you may recall, this was one of the aspects I enjoyed the most during my time at Lancaster.

From there, I was privileged to follow the growth of the start-up and lead new software offerings, try out different roles, manage teams across geographies and even open an office back in the UK. I then decided to move from the start-up that had reached a reasonable size to a software giant: SAP.

Leading a software offering at SAP is something completely different but is remarkably rewarding. And it is at SAP that I learned another lesson: choose your boss. They are the ones who will make your career path. Personally, I have been lucky to be managed by the same person for many years now. A great boss. My role is simple: deliver on what he expects from me and suggest new initiatives.

His role is much more difficult: create opportunities for me and know when to push me out of my comfort zone, but also when I need support. With his help and guidance, I relocated to Australia and I am now Vice-President in charge of a team of individuals across Asia-Pacific. I simply can’t wait to see what’s coming next!"