From the Olympics to Cambridge: an ‘MBA to watch’

Tom, who hails from Cheshire in the UK, won a gold medal in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris and a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 for Team GB, and has been a member of the University of Cambridge rowing teams.

Asked by Poets & Quants why he chose Cambridge Judge Business School, Tom said he was “really attracted to the chance to gain some ‘real-life’ experience through the structure of the MBA programme at Cambridge Judge”, including the Cambridge Venture Project and Global Consulting Project, which form part of the curriculum. He also highlighted the diversity of the Cambridge MBA: “With many different nationalities and backgrounds, I was excited to learn from and seek different perspectives from a wide range of people in the cohort.”

Asked about the Cambridge community, Tom said: “Cambridge is steeped in history. I love the College culture and setup whilst being able to feel part of something so historic. The whole city is geared around the University, and being a student here makes you feel so embedded in this community.”

Cambridge Judge ahead of the trend on AI

On the use of artificial intelligence (AI) at Cambridge Judge, Tom told the publication that the Business School “is doing a great job of making AI part of everyday lectures and applications in business, to ensure they stay ahead of the trend rather than playing catch-up” – so “being able to use it and see how it can be integrated in a strategic way has been extremely eye-opening”.

Learnings from sport applied to business

While he is an elite rower, Tom cited the film Moneyball – which is about professional baseball – as an educational movie that “reflects strategy, innovation and overcoming industry resistance to change”. The film underlines the importance of data in analytics, while presenting interesting “parallels of how learnings within sport can be transferred to business, and this is something that I am aiming to do”.