Why Marjolein chose the EMFC programme at the UvA

‘I studied Accountancy & Control at the University of Amsterdam because I wanted to become a registered accountant. But in the course of my career at Deloitte I realised that I much prefer looking ahead than monitoring after the fact. I’m interested in: what does an organisation need to achieve its targets, and how do you translate that into measurable numbers and data? I subsequently went to work at Connecterra, a fast-growing AI company where I spent 5 years learning a lot on the job about finance. On starting as CFO at Omnimap, a tech scale-up, I had already decided to pursue a registered controller qualification to broaden my financial knowledge. What’s happening in the finance profession? That’s what I wanted to know.

I chose the EMFC at the UvA because I enjoyed studying there before. But also because EMFC students come from not only corporates, but start-ups and scale-ups as well. This connects you to a diverse and interesting network of finance professionals. Working at a tech company, the programme’s emphasis on data, technology and digital transformation also appealed to me.'

Valuable insights and real-world business cases

'The programme was tremendously valuable for me. I learned so much about the finance field. Some topics, such as treasury, don’t figure into my day-to-day work as yet, but if they ever do become important, I’ll know how to approach them. The things I learned in lectures about management accounting and financial analysis and valuation, for example, were instantly applicable to my work. The programme also taught me a lot about leveraging technology to automate and optimise finance processes.

Lecturers in the EMFC are experts in various fields and together they offer an extensive wealth of experience. The team is a real mix of lecturers with more academic backgrounds as well as professionals who actually work in the business world. For me, it was inspiring to hear how finance executives at international corporations are handling things like digital transformation.'

Collaborative learning

'The way we collaborated as students was also very motivating. We worked together on assignments and you learn a lot from each other. You’re also pushed to actively participate in classroom discussions and share your own experiences and questions. There’s a student panel that I was part of which regularly gives feedback to the programme directors about our own experiences in the programme and with assignments. I think that’s a really great aspect of the programme: that it’s updated annually to reflect the latest developments as well as student feedback.'

Career benefits

'My colleagues are impressed that I completed the EMFC in 2 years. They know how much time and commitment it takes to do such a demanding degree alongside a busy job. For me it was especially important to get the RC title at the UvA because it speaks to your strong drive and high level of expertise. It shows you can handle the challenge of an Executive Master’s and that you’re ambitious about developing your professional knowledge, and that’s certainly beneficial for your career.’