Danah Lee, a Korean marketing professional from Seoul, is this year’s recipient of the €5,000 MBA Sustainability Scholarship at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM). Danah is a participant on RSM’s International Full-Time MBA programme and her background includes a bachelor degree in Japanese Literature and English Literature from Korea University, and five years’ of marketing experience in her position as Sales Planner for Nikon Imaging Korea. Danah began her MBA studies at RSM in January 2015.

“To become a marketing specialist, understanding and experiencing sustainability are invaluable to me,” says Danah. “Especially the experience of working at Nikon made me aware of sustainability in business; since more consumers consider sustainability in their transactions, I believe that sustainability will become the norm for companies in the near future.”

Her experience at Nikon also emphasised the fact that Europe is ahead of Korea and other Asian countries in the area of sustainable business. As a sales planner managing sales promotions, Danah purchased around €200,000 worth of goods each month. “To begin transactions, I asked to make ‘Green Procurement’ agreements with suppliers. This contract involves regulations on hazardous chemical substances in products, and while they were used to doing this for European customers it was less common in Asia,” she says, adding that “it was while at Nikon that I began to consider studying and working in Europe.”  Why RSM?  “Sustainability is one of the core values of RSM and I am confident the RSM MBA degree programme will help me to pursue my career goals of working in sustainable business.”

As a recipient of the RSM MBA Sustainability Scholarship, Danah intends to act as a ‘sustainability ambassador’ within the MBA programme, focusing on sustainable issues. Her plans for the year include:

  • Gaining as much hands-on experience  as possible, through consulting projects or internships related to sustainable business;
  • Networking with ‘people who are passionate about sustainable business’ by attending related classes, club activities and events; and
  • Sharing her experience by encouraging more Koreans to be aware of sustainable business practices.

“By furthering my knowledge of sustainability at RSM and working in a related area after the programme, I would like to eventually act as a bridge between Korea and the Netherlands,” she says.

“We are delighted that Danah has received the RSM MBA Sustainability Scholarship this year,” says Joey Johannsen, RSM Sustainability Coordinator. “The MBA programmes at RSM integrate sustainability effectively, and Danah is very focused on learning as much as she can from the programme and from her experience in Europe, and helping ‘bridge the gap’ in the sustainability concerns of Korean companies.”

Danah Lee is the third recipient of the RSM MBA Sustainability Scholarship. Other recipients were Vincent Zhang in 2014 and Maeve Quigley in 2013. There is more information about financing an MBA at RSM here.

Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) is a top tier European business school and ranked among the top three for research. RSM provides ground-breaking research and education furthering excellence in all aspects of management and is based in the international port city of Rotterdam – a vital nexus of business, logistics and trade. RSM’s primary focus is on developing business leaders with international careers who carry their innovative mindset into a sustainable future thanks to a first-class range of bachelor, master, MBA, PhD and executive programmes. RSM also has offices in the Amsterdam Zuidas business district and in Taipei, Taiwan. www.rsm.nl

For more information on RSM or on this release, please contact Marianne Schouten, Media & Public Relations Manager for RSM, on +31 10 408 2877 or by email at mschouten@rsm.nl.

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Alumni , Homepage , International , Newsroom , MBA , Sustainability