In 1999, I embarked on an MSc in Business Administration and Mathematical Business Economics at CBS. I would have liked to say that I was a dedicated student, but in all honesty, enjoying social life took up a great deal of my time. However, five years at CBS taught me to be serious about my studies and even more importantly ignited my passion for math. I brought some knowledge of math with me to CBS, but the majority I acquired at CBS, including an incredible toolbox and the awakening of an analytical mindset.

At CBS, learning is your own responsibility. I learnt a craft and its many related aspects and features. It made me eager to use my new knowledge in real life, but many times I found myself going back to the books. Only following real life, hands-on experience and revisiting the books did I truly learn. And how great it is to experience how learning gained in the past is revived when you get to apply it in real life! As an example, we learnt a lot about organisational management at CBS. However, it was not until organisational management recently hit the agenda at my company that I grasped the actual ins and outs of it.

I majored in applied math which is now my livelihood too. Not everyone gets to use what they have learnt while studying, but math is in everything I do, every day. My vision is to make every child in the world better at math. Why? Because I know how important it is to master your math. Not only as a student at CBS, but in business and life too.

CBS gave me the desire to learn and the enthusiasm for passing on my learning. I soon ventured into lecturing at CBS, not forgetting the importance of social life: five times I put on the cap to guide new students through induction week! Upon graduating, I continued as an external lecturer at CBS for another 10 years which created the perfect personal platform for me to simultaneously set off into entrepreneurship. Something I had dreamt of long before embarking on my MSc, and in 2006 I started my own business. Only in 2015 did I cease lecturing at CBS, only to focus 100% on my now rapidly growing business.

When I look back on my years at CBS, for me personally it was as much a social experiment as it was about studying. Indeed, I learnt about applied math and how powerful it is, but I also made the most of everything within my reach when it came to my social life. I call it my social experiment, and it turned me, a very young adolescent, into an adult, in thought as well as in action.

CBS provided the perfect setting for me to learn and grow professionally and as a person during some of the most important years of my life. The years who shaped me into the man that I am today. My hope is that the CBS alumni network continues to exist as many of us would not think twice about stopping by to share our great experiences of applying learning at CBS to real life practice.