Claire Mahony
“When I decided to join the Global Executive MBA at Monash in 2020, I knew this was going to consume an extraordinary amount of my time and my energy and my focus. And I still underestimated it! But it has undoubtedly been worth all the effort”.
Monash GEMBA alumna Claire Mahony is Head of New Ventures and Innovation at Australian Agriculture Company, a 200-year-old, $800 million-plus integrated cattle and beef producer. With a Bachelor of Agriculture Science from the University of Queensland, she has held managerial and directorship roles within the Australian and international communities, spanning animal nutrition and biotechnology firms in her twenty-year career.
“For several years I had wanted to move into more strategic and more commercial roles in this industry. I had been doing business development work as an extension of my technical positions and knew I could make a greater impact on one of the most critical sectors in our economy; I definitely wanted to stay in the agri sector”, she says.
“The GEMBA gave me the knowledge and capabilities I needed for executive-level responsibilities and helped set me up for my current role. I am responsible now for establishing an innovation portfolio for the business. I am exploring new models for corporate venturing, including strategic investments that have evolved from venture client relationships. That requires appropriate governance to de-risk investments as well as transparent information on value creation and capture and ROI.”
Claire commenced her GEMBA in September 2020, when Australia was starting to understand the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, but had no idea how long the crisis would last and what its effects would be. The lockdowns meant many weekend classes were conducted over Zoom, but Claire and other interstate students flew in as often as permitted. “The travel was challenging, but the excitement of meeting and working with the others on projects and assignments was well worthwhile,” she says.
“One of the great attractions of the GEMBA was its fast-paced and highly-intensive schedule. I knew I could complete the course in fifteen months and that my work colleagues and my family could support me during that time”, says Claire.
“Sometimes part-time MBAs can drag on for years, which I could not have managed”.
The GEMBA program at the time was scheduled on three-day weekends (Friday to Sunday) once a month. “That smart intensive-block design meant we could have classmates from Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia, making it a genuinely national cohort.”
Claire Mahony lives with her family in regional QLD.
Claire and her family live a couple of hours from Brisbane in country Queensland. She and her five daughters have enormously busy lives filled with school, sports and social activities.
“The girls did miss me at times, but they are pretty resilient young women and just got on with their own lives. To be honest, they were amazingly supportive throughout – and, I think, somehow inspired by my continuing to study like that”.
Having studied at the prestigious Texas A&M University as an undergraduate exchange student, and having worked with an American life sciences company for several years, Claire was particularly interested in the global aspect of the GEMBA program.
“It was disappointing not to be able to travel to such renowned international business schools as Stern in New York and Insead in France like earlier classes, but we got the very best experience we could with the international professors on Zoom. I guess everyone was studying online when travel was so restricted”, she explains.
“Much of my work now on innovation systems and my understanding of strategy ecosystems has been directly influenced by what I learned on the GEMBA. I am endeavouring to establish an ambidextrous organisation that values return on learning and enables innovation to drive diversification of revenue. These are entirely new business models in agribusiness”.
“My GEMBA class was an outstanding cohort of fellow students. We came from such a range of industries and backgrounds I got new ideas and new insights from every single class. We were under quite some pressure to provide hard-nosed strategic advice to our project sponsors throughout the course, but our professors and supervisors brought amazing experience and expertise, and that was such an important and valuable way to learn at this stage in our careers”.
Claire believes the Executive MBA experience as a mature candidate has distinctive challenges and opportunities:
“A new MBA student should be present as much as possible”, she says.
“Put some effort into building relationships with teachers and guest presenters. Try to let go of your identity and preconceived ideas when you start and be open to the real learning.”
“An MBA is much more than a qualification and career move. I keep in touch with my class all the time and we have formed genuine friendships – it’s one of the great joys of my Monash experience”.