WINNER | Tom Verity
TOM AIMS TO TAKE CAREER TO NEXT LEVEL THANKS TO MBA SCHOLARSHIP
A curious mind and a love of nature has driven one engineer to tackle the world’s biggest problems.
Tom Verity, 29, grew up on the Holderness coast in east Yorkshire and saw the effects of climate change first-hand.
With a desire to understand how he could contribute to tackling this problem, Tom saw engineering’s role in decarbonisation as his natural route to making a difference in the world.
He is now ready to take his career to the next level after being awarded a Sainsbury Management Fellows (SMF) scholarship to study for an MBA at one of the world’s leading business schools.
He said: “Growing up, I loved trying to understand things. I liked picking things up and understanding how they worked and applying that to problem solving. I liked maths and science, particularly the physical application of them both, so engineering provided the thing that brought all of my passion points together and opened doors for me.
“Growing up in east Yorkshire, I saw first-hand the impact of flooding and coastal erosion and the need to protect our environment.
“With bp at Salt End (near Hull) close by, it provided me with an early interest in how process engineering could be used as a vehicle for problem solving. It was clear that a technology-first approach would be required to help slow moving sectors to decarbonise.”
After graduating from the University of Nottingham with a Chemical Engineering degree, Tom went to work at a range of companies, picking up his skills set from a number of different verticals, most recently addressing decarbonisation in sport at Formula E and SailGP.
Tom is one of the latest five to be awarded a scholarship and will be studying for his MBA at IESE in Barcelona.
He added: “The main driver for undertaking an MBA is to widen the application of my skill set and problem-solving acumen across sectors.
“My goal in the near-term is to go into leadership to help scale these technologies that are going to make a difference to the world. The leadership skills obtained through an MBA will hopefully allow me to do that, before exploring enterprise opportunities in off-grid renewable technologies.
“The unique toolkit that an MBA provides, combined with the global outlook and network, will enable me to scale the impact of my career.
“The SMF provides an invaluable connection to a network of business leaders working to tackle some of the UK’s greatest challenges. I would hope to utilise this network to collaborate on the development of cleantech solutions to accelerate the UK’s energy transition.
Find out more about the Sainsbury Management Fellows’ Scholarship.