Not for profit – but for the love of it
by Rebecca Gill
MBAs
are often perceived as a key to the top floor office with a view. But for
UniSA MBA graduate Brian Lund, getting his hands dirty in a poverty-affected
Cambodian village is the definition of job satisfaction.
As regional director for Oxfam America’s East Asia Regional Office based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Lund is delighted to be working in the not for profit sector.
"Everyone in my team is there for the right reasons. They believe in social and economic justice, and our motivations for wanting to see poverty reduction through encouraging change are the same," Lund said.
"Right now my team is working on a program that teaches people in poor villages how to manage their meagre savings. Through a community savings mechanism they are able to pool their money – creating a financial safety net and instilling great trust in each other. When you see this happening, you don’t need much more motivation."
Lund manages a team of 12 people who work with government, non government and local organisations. He and his team constantly consult with Oxfam regional offices around the world, particularly in Australia, Europe and the US.
"Interaction and feedback between the different offices is important," Lund said. "It provides the opportunity for shared learning and greater effectiveness given the complex environments we must succeed in."
This entails plenty of international travel. The Graduate caught up with Lund on a rare visit back to Adelaide.
"From here I go to China, then The Hague, then Laos and Vietnam. I have started to realise that two thirds of the year I am away from home. I love the work. It’s personally rewarding but very demanding. Every day my team deals with great challenges, frustrations and disappointment when confronting the complexity of poverty, corruption, human rights violations, even gender inequity and natural disasters," Lund said.
"I decided on an MBA because it’s the ultimate in management. In a role such as this, you can’t just wing it; you actually have to learn to do it properly. So the UniSA MBA was a logical choice for me. It’s a reputable program and I could complete it online."
Working in an industry that did not centre on generating profits was always a long-term ambition for Lund. His first volunteer role was with Australian Volunteers International in Indonesia.
Previously, Lund was a business manager for Greening Australia in Queensland, where he was responsible for developing a business unit that provided natural resource management services and consultancies to the public and private sector.
"This combined grounding was invaluable when undertaking the MBA. It certainly drove home the value of pursuing that level of qualification," Lund said.