Amit Pattnaik Senior Business Development Officer Informit RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) University

1) Why did you choose Anaheim University?
Anaheim University was an obvious choice for me as they were the only one who were in the sweet spot of affordability, flexibility (being completely online) and most importantly offering a MBA in Sustainable Management. I didn’t want to do just another generic business degree as I already had a master’s degree in international business and was aware of the traditional business concepts. I was looking to learn more about how the social and environmental aspects work together with business and hence I chose the Green MBA from Anaheim University.

2) Can you tell us briefly about your career?
I have worked in the knowledge industry since 2010 and have been in various managerial positions in both for-profit and not-for-profit organisations. I currently work at informit – a business unit of the prestigious RMIT University in Melbourne, where I look after the digital library resources. These resources span from journals and databases to training assets used in teaching and learning throughout Australian universities, colleges, and government institutions. I have always been passionate about teaching and learning, and I believe that if we can change how we teach today, we can change how we will be treated tomorrow.

3) Why did you choose to earn a Green MBA?
I opted for a Green MBA because I believe that it is tomorrow’s MBA, which prepares you as a business professional for the next generation. While a traditional MBA degree provides you with a thorough understanding on business concepts like finance, accounting, marketing and management, it fails to touch on the real soul of business, which is to create value on three fronts of profit, people and the planet. This sustainable approach towards business is what attracted me towards the Green MBA, where all the traditional concepts were examined and debated from a social and environmental lens.

Read more: MBA in Global Sustainable Management Graduate Interview - Amit Pattnaik

Clayton Mwaka, ME, CPA-U Director Clayton & Company

1) Why did you choose Anaheim University?

I must say that I came across Anaheim University much later during my search, after spending several weeks considering options and even writing to some Universities, before making a decision. I had been considering doing a Master in Entrepreneurship for about two years before but had not gotten around to making a decision. The focused search commenced after I made a decision to proceed with the program. Principally, I found Anaheim fees affordable in light of several issues, and the online approach also could enable me to study from whichever part of the world I was in. The profiles of the faculty also greatly impressed me.

2) Can you tell us briefly about your career?

I have been working in various roles for the last 27 years, since 1992, when I concluded my Bachelor of Commerce degree (specializing in accounting), at Makerere University in Kampala. I later studied ACCA (which I did entirely with home study without a single lecture) and became a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA), and also a Certified Public Accountant of Uganda (CPA-U). The Anaheim ME program followed my M.Sc in Professional Accounting with University of London.

I began my career as an accountant, and later worked in positions such as Group Accountant, Principal Internal Auditor, Financial Controller, Managing Partner (in external audit and consulting), and Finance Director/Chief Financial Officer. My work history has covered industries such as chemicals and pharmaceuticals, food (FMCG) and animal feeds, building and construction (steel industry), external audit and consulting, and commodities (coffee). I worked in several Groups of companies in Uganda, and also did expatriate assignments in Nigeria and Tanzania.

Beyond my core accountancy profession, I’m also a Certified Business Mentor under ACCA, Youth Business International (YBI) and Enterprise Uganda partnership, and in that I mentored a few young entrepreneurs. I have also written and published two books so far. I enjoy tapping from great minds of other people through reading books. I enjoy doing several things beyond core accounting, since I like developing capacity in people and organizations. I thrive in challenging and multi-tasking environments that provide solutions and change, so in reality my career and activities go way beyond professional accounting. I sometimes find pure accounting boring, but I’m not a boring accountant.

3) Why did you choose to earn a ME?

I have always believed that entrepreneurship can provide various solutions to the challenges of humanity; hence my keen interest in it. That partly resulted into the book entitled ‘The Wise Entrepreneur’ which I published several years back (available on Amazon), and also blogging on various entrepreneurship issues. I have also been involved in several start-ups and mentoring young entrepreneurs as mentioned earlier. The Anaheim ME to me was like sharpening my skills further: to be able to add more value to entrepreneurship globally, whilst also positively impacting other enterprises and entrepreneurs generally towards creating value as well as having better societies and providing solutions to some of the challenges of humanity.

Read more: Master of Entrepreneurship Graduate Interview - Clayton Mwaka