TESTIMONIAL

For the past several years I have been an Architectural Designer in Canada, the U.S.A. and China. My Rotman MBA allowed me to combine my design background with management skills to return to China and work on an architect's dream: the innovative Water Cube for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I'm managing the design project and coordinating all the partners. It's exciting, but also challenging and exhausting to collaborate on such a scale.

I work with multiple clients and partners with varying work styles and approaches from different cultures. I often feel like a firefighter, coping with many unexpected issues. However, what I learned during my Canadian MBA at Rotman is the importance of understanding all perspectives before going forward, and that is very useful here. When I first took this job, I didn't think there would be much connection between it and my Canadian MBA. But the fundamentals I learned keep coming back to me, even when I don't expect it - that is really valuable when working with such different groups and trying to keep everyone focused on the same goals.