“LBS was my dream because of its reputation as the premier institution in Europe”
Rakesh Mistry MBA2025, LBS Healthcare Scholarship
Prior to joining London Business School, I was working as an Ears, Nose and Throat (ENT) resident surgeon in London, treating adults and children with ENT problems but also treating patients with head and neck cancer. Alongside my clinical interests, I’ve always simultaneously held a deep passion for combining scientific knowledge with a broader perspective of the economy, the role of technology and a desire to make an impact at scale. Hence, during medical school, I took a year out to complete a Healthcare Management degree at King’s College London, and then, alongside my surgical training, I was selected for the second cohort of the NHS England entrepreneur programme which allowed me to collaborate with various founders within healthcare.
From the very beginning of my career, I’ve always had the vision of doing an MBA at some point as I saw it as the perfect opportunity to connect all my passions.
LBS was my dream because of its reputation as the premier institution in Europe with a 2-year programme which would allow me time to fully explore the commercial world whilst also providing me with unparalleled access to a diverse range of people to learn from.
The LBS Healthcare Scholarship allowed me to realise this dream and relieved some of that pressure of self-funding from my family. This is especially important given my professional background – as a training surgeon from the NHS, I remained on a set payscale throughout a lengthy training career and incurred large amounts of debt throughout training. Furthermore, employer sponsorship is never an option.
As much as you can try to prepare for business school, it inevitably surprises you with the sheer depth and breadth of experiences available. The scholarship has therefore allowed me to extract the most value out of LBS and take advantage of all the life-changing opportunities it offers.
For me personally, in my first year alone, this has resulted in me competing (and winning!) an Impact Investing competition at IESE business school in Barcelona, visiting NIKE’s headquarters in Europe as part of a consulting project, and even running the Vienna half marathon with a huge group of other LBS students! A particular highlight was the opportunity to study at MIT on MBA exchange for a semester in my second year. This allowed me to really drill down into my focus at the intersection of science, entrepreneurship, technology and business! If it wasn’t for LBS and the scholarship, I could never have dreamt of all of these opportunities!
I entered the MBA with a focus on healthcare technology. However, the programme has opened my eyes up and allowed me to explore different avenues – in particular Biopharma and Venture Development. I recently joined Eli Lilly post-MBA on their corporate MBA leadership programme and completed my MBA with a concentration in Private Capital, with the ultimate career goal of making a positive impact on society on a global scale.
To everyone who philanthropically supports scholarships at London Business School, I would like to extend a big thank you. I can tell you that the value that the recipients receive from the LBS course far supersedes the financial donation that is made. The amount of once-in-a-lifetime opportunities it has allowed me to experience is unlike anything that I could ever have imagined and being able to have your support on this journey is invaluable. Any support that can be given is hugely appreciated – you probably don’t realise just how much!
