Oxford MBA student Peter Chauvel has excelled by gaining a unique internship at X, The Moonshot Factory – formerly Google X.
Peter is the first candidate to be selected from Saïd Busines School - traditionally, candidates for the scheme are from US business schools.
X, The Moonshot Factory is seen as a hub of diverse inventors and entrepreneurs, by owner Alphabet. The ambitious aim is to build and launch technologies that will improve the lives of millions, if not billions of people, over the next ten years and into the future. The name ‘Moonshot’ takes inspiration from the 1960’s Apollo missions to land humans on the moon. Tackling the world’s most pressing problems, overcoming the seemingly impossible and creating viable business solutions, are core themes of X.
Peter, from Vancouver Canada, worked as a commercial fisherman from the age of 13. He then went onto develop his career globally: In India as a strategy consultant and Norway for a second master’s degree in energy, natural resources and environment. He spent two years as a sustainable strategy consultant, focused on how to improve the livelihoods of small farmers, which took him to Africa, Asia and South America. He also worked with large firms in the agri-food sector and engaged with investors including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the MasterCard Foundation, to find solutions to improve outcomes for small farmers. In Indonesia, he explored systems to prevent plastic from flowing into the oceans.
Peter was encouraged to apply for the internship at X, by his brother. Initially dismissing the possibility, he made an application as a result of a bet with his sibling.
Peter commented: ‘I was at a formal dinner and I received an email from ‘A name’@ X.Team’. I thought it sounded like a junk or a spam email!’
It turned out to be from an early pipeline project manager at X, who thought Peter’s CV was well aligned with the company’s ambitions. A series of interviews followed.
Peter added: ‘They came back months later saying, ‘we would love to have you join!’ It was a shockingly quick, surprisingly very fun process, because it wasn't a series of case studies and tests. They tested my fit for the role, without me knowing what the role was. They went deep into my CV, questioning what I actually did in various previous roles.’
An important part of the alignment with X’s vision, was sustainability. Peter says as a commercial fisherman in Vancouver, he witnessed a dramatic increase in plastic waste and debris in sea waters, akin to the film ‘Mad Max’, after the Japanese tsunami in 2011. This had a major impact on his approach to business.
‘The last question I was asked in my interview was: ‘Why Oxford Saïd?’. My short answer was that the school had the pre-eminent programme in integrating sustainability as a core element of business. Here, it's about the integration of it into traditional business learnings. It was a unique question and sustainability was of high importance in the project I would be working on.’
Peter reflected on how he hopes to apply his knowledge and experience in the future:
‘I’m not going on vacation to see a garbage patch, but I’d love to be able to see a beautiful reef or wonderful forest. I think people are starting to appreciate these things. Covid showed us that we don’t know what we have until it’s gone, and now ‘gone’ is not that far into the future.
‘You need innovative approaches and these quirky weird hippies like me, who are trying to make a buck doing it, aren’t so outlandish anymore.
‘You have to find your pathway and define it for yourself, your kids and their kids: hopefully in a manner that they will look at you and be proud of the change you made.’
Matthew Conisbee MBA Programme Director commented: ‘It’s a joy to see Peter overcome his doubts to be validated as a recipient of one of the most prestigious internships in the world.
The development of fresh thinking and new approaches to sustainability, are key to the Oxford MBA. I hope Peter can continue his career journey as part of a vanguard team, to tackle global issues through the creation of technology which will become available in the next half decade.’