Aerospace design specialist Sinead O’Sullivan is one of nine young engineers to share £270,000 worth of Sainsbury Management Fellows scholarships to study for an MBA at a leading business school.
The Sainsbury Management Fellows (SMF) scheme enables awardees to add business skills to their engineering expertise. Each candidate passed a rigorous interview panel comprising Fellows from the Royal Academy of Engineering and SMF by demonstrating a wide range of attributes including leadership skills and the potential to achieve senior management responsibility early in their career.
The other awardees are John Collins, William Jones, Pierre-Nicolas Queyroux, Olubusola Yejide and Christopher Hughes who chose INSEAD; Eirini Koukaki, Evridiki Giamouzi, Mohammad Saquib who selected LBS. Sinead O’Sullivan is taking her MBA at Harvard.
Applications Open for Next Round of Awards Valued at £300,000
The Royal Academy of Engineering has opened the next round of applications for engineers who want to expand their career into business. Ten scholarships are available and applications can be made individually or in conjunction with an employer. To apply, candidates need to complete the online application form. The application deadline closes on 6 June 2016.
SMF President, David Falzani, said: “Lord Sainsbury’s vision and investment in the scholarship has produced more than 300 SMFs. These SMFs have created 220 successful new businesses, raised £1.8 billion in investment, generated 18,000 new jobs, and 260 support and mentor young engineers.”
Awardee Case Study – Sinead O’Sullivan
O’Sullivan has a first degree and a Masters in Aerospace Engineering from prestigious universities, and a Certificate of Space Studies from the International Space University in France.
Before applying for the SMF scholarship, O’Sullivan was handling projects such as the Mars Mission design for NASA, and creating new technologies for the Navy and the Federal Aviation Administration. She still holds the position of co-lead for Space Technologies for the Space Generation Advisory Council and is a Research Fellow in Space Technologies for the United States Center for Climate and Security.
O’Sullivan said: “I’m planning to return to the aerospace industry after graduation. The MBA will help me advance my engineering career by enabling me to learn hard skills such as financial modelling and soft skills like the art of negotiating. An MBA is a great way to leverage my engineering background to enable me to commercialise a lot of the technology that I’m working with.
“The scholarship means I can have an unparalleled learning experience whilst being able to stay true to my passion for the aerospace industry and be able to follow a career in engineering afterwards. The MBA will allow me to move into the C-suite faster and give me the core competencies to make a difference in my field.
“Since starting at Harvard I have set up a US-based company specialising in space technologies which has already received significant funding. After my MBA, my goal is to open a UK office to serve the European market. The UK has incredible potential for STEM start-ups.”
