The Guldin Family Scholarship: Multiplying positive impact
“I believe that in life, there’s a period where you plant a seed, grow your plant and then you can harvest and enjoy the fruits of your labour. Afterwards, it’s time to help someone else with their plant, because just harvesting is not very sustainable. Understanding this beautiful cycle of life motivates me to support current students through scholarships.”
I trained as a psychologist and initially worked as a consultant in management and organisational development. After a few years, I realised that even though I enjoyed my work, I really missed the wider business context and felt limited in my abilities to make a difference. I was also tempted to leave my home country, Germany, for the first time and get a taste of the world. Thankfully, in 1991 I was accepted into the MBA programme at LBS, and this is where the transformative journey began.
People often say that the main perks of LBS are the wonderful culture and meeting a diverse range of people. But in addition, you also acquire a lot of hard skills and genuinely useful knowledge. LBS completely transformed my knowledge base which allowed me to pivot into a career as a venture capitalist and corporate executive. It was also the first time in my life I had lived in a different country which was a very important experience for me, sometimes rewarding and sometimes challenging. Having that feeling of being a stranger was useful for my personal development, but I believe it also made me a better, more empathetic leader.
When reflecting on where I would be without LBS, I realised it truly changed the trajectory of my life. For this, I am very thankful. I would assume this is the case for almost all alumni, even though the effect may not be obvious immediately. Even though many self-driven and confident business school students and graduates may believe their success is entirely in their hands, there are a lot of variables in the equation of our lives. Sometimes you can do everything right and things go wrong. Luck, people and circumstances play a part in who you end up being and the school you went to is one of them. I think it’s important to stay humble and understand that being able to attend LBS was a great gift.
The Guldin Family Scholarship, set up by myself, my wife and my daughter, supports people with a family history of migration. The reason behind this is very personal to me. During one cold winter night towards the end of the Second World War, my mom, 12 years old at the time, was forced to flee from East Prussia to another part of Germany. Even after reaching safety, a new life as an unwelcome immigrant was not easy. Thankfully, my mom shared these stories with us, and our family history of migration became a big part of my identity. There is a dark side of migration, but also a positive one – an opportunity to start again from scratch.
When deciding on the criteria for our scholarship, my family and I didn’t feel the need to support people who are already on the right track to a C-suite role. The interesting thing is that people who preach disruption have rarely lived through it themselves. I believe that those who manage to overcome obstacles have a high chance of making a positive difference in the world. By supporting ambitious students who will go on and do great things, donors embrace to multiply their positive impact on the society and by doing so, the total future effect goes far beyond the supported student.
To date, the scholarship has supported 12 scholars and most likely it’ll be 15 by the end of this year. It has become a very nice community of thoughtful and incredibly diverse people.
In addition to my personal reasons for giving back to the School, there is also a very rational one. Ultimately, for us as alumni, it’s a very simple equation. My brand is LBS’s brand, and LBS’s brand is my brand. The success of LBS has helped me in the past and it continues to do so today. Therefore, I am directly invested in the School’s success and I am happy to support it through philanthropic giving.
