Kym Pfitzner CEO, Australian Red Cross

MBA, Deakin University Business School, 2018

“After 30 years of work experience, mostly in senior executive roles across Asia Pacific, I believed work experience trumped academic theory. But after I semi-retired at an early age, I reflected on a desire to seek answers to questions on effective organisational leadership. I enrolled in a Master of Leadership degree at Deakin and after the initial shock of the workload, it dawned on me that there was lots I didn’t know.

The academic learning was joining the dots of my work experience. This drove me to undertake an MBA and I’m now at the helm of an amazing organisation of more than 30,000 people that touches every part of Australia. It’s undergoing a strategic transformation but, thanks to my MBA learnings and past experience, it isn’t daunting – rather, it’s an exciting time to help steer the organisation. The MBA learnings tied in the importance of people, strategy, how culture enables or hinders, and the need for the organisation to be fully aligned to its primary customers.”