2016 EMBA alumna Juliana Mardon has worked for NATO for almost a decade after serving seven years as a French Navy Officer, and now holds the position of Budget Officer for the civilian alliance’s Science for Peace and Security Programme. ‘I enjoy working in defence because you can see the results of your actions very quickly – it’s very rewarding in that way,’ she said.
Mardon believes there are both strong parallels and distinct differences between an organisation like NATO and corporate companies. ‘At NATO we still have budgets and are subject to financial regulation, in the same way a company would be,’ she explained. ‘But unlike a corporate company, we are an organisation that is governed by consensus between our member countries. We also have to be mindful of the geopolitical environment, which as we have seen in recent years, can change very rapidly.’
Like Ormiston, Mardon enrolled at Saïd Business School because she had reached a crossroads in her career. ‘I needed to make a decision – whether to look for a higher position in finance, or to branch out,’ she said.
‘The way the EMBA is setup, you are exposed to many new ideas and fields, and it helped me discover some areas of business that I would never have known about. Now I’m very interested in moving into cyber security in relation to finance, which is not something I would have considered without coming here,’ concluded Mardon.