Made to follow a path of striking evolution

I received in 1977 as a citizen of Luxembourg a Government of Canada award from the Canada Council for study purposes. My aspiration was to enhance my higher education with an MBA program. McGill University in Montreal offered that fascinating opportunity to me in a cosmopolitan city with a large array of business and cultural ties between North America and Europe. Furthermore, I could benefit from the accommodation and dining facilities of the residences on campus.

During the two years of that program, I was able not only to deepen my understanding of topics in finance and furthermore in business and information systems, but also establish worthwhile relationships, some of which were long-term. As part of one course, I got directly involved in a rather large analytical project with the company Trust Général du Canada.

After returning to Luxembourg, my professional career was shaped in different companies by the tremendous evolution in the area of business information systems. I gained experience in the company IEE, which is a global operating manufacturer and supplier of intelligent sensing solutions, notably in the automotive sector.

For many years, I have been an associate lecturer at the University of Luxembourg for the course Business Software Systems. It is a challenging task for the students to become acquainted with advanced Enterprise resource planning systems which are largely used by companies to integrate their business processes and to connect their locations.

In civil society, I am assuming a leading role in an association as president of the United Nations Association of Luxembourg. Urgent global issues – like tackling the climate crisis and the waste of natural resources and strengthening international collaboration for more inclusive, equal and just societies – need a great impetus everywhere.

As an alumnus from the MBA’79 class of McGill University, it has been an important endeavor for me to express my gratitude for the support which I received during my years at McGill and to give back, including significant multi-year financial commitments. At the occasion of McGill's Third Century Celebration in London in 2022, a comprehensive and rewarding meeting took place with Dean Yolande Chan of the Desautels Faculty of Management about certain focus fields and personal milestones.

In these times, companies are expanding their business scope in areas like strategic planning and enterprise risk management where many components, including environmental, social and human rights concerns, have to be taken into consideration. This makes a deeper understanding necessary when it comes to channeling large amounts of information under different forms and from multiple sources and to setting up the corresponding linkages with business information systems.