ÐÓ°ÉappÏÂÔØ

Alumni

Solomon Osagie

General Counsel, Cashplus Bank

ÐÓ°ÉappÏÂÔØ invited me in - the University showed interest and enthusiasm in me as a lawyer wanting to study for an MBA. I came out of ÐÓ°ÉappÏÂÔØ as one of the first MBA-trained lawyers in the UK.

Memories of ÐÓ°ÉappÏÂÔØ

What I remember most was the excitement and initial bewilderment studying concepts that I had never come across before - whether it was about general management, financial management, accounting or even my favourite - strategic marketing - it was quite fascinating. There were of course the long evenings spent at the pub behind Meridian House with my cohort - it was hard going but a lot of fun.

I wanted to study for an MBA and there were not many universities that offered the flexibility that I wanted as a young lawyer - to be able to juggle the demands of private practice and undertake an MBA at the same time.

I had never been to business school and I fell in love with the ethos of management and development. I would say to current students, take time to enjoy university life. ÐÓ°ÉappÏÂÔØ is much more cosmopolitan now than it was in my time there and the quality of university life is considerably more varied. I have studied at a number of institutions and the library at ÐÓ°ÉappÏÂÔØ is comparatively better equipped than most. Make use of it. I found the library to be of immeasurable value to me when I undertook my doctoral studies many years after I left ÐÓ°ÉappÏÂÔØ.

Life after ÐÓ°ÉappÏÂÔØ

I studied Law and International Relations at Cambridge and after ÐÓ°ÉappÏÂÔØ I was appointed Practice Manager at my law firm and later managing partner. Much later I went on to obtain a doctorate in management and law. My work has taken me all over the world leading the negotiations of transactional agreements with most of the world's leading banks. I wrote my first book in 2018, what is now one of the leading books on financial services regulation and the GDPR and I have worked as a General Counsel now for many years in the financial services industry. In January 2021 , my second entry in the list in recent years. I work for a UK Bank that has just obtained a full banking licence from the PRA and I lead the legal team. It has been a very busy career, but I am clear that at ÐÓ°ÉappÏÂÔØ I fell in love with business and management - in particular the importance of strategic management for organisations regardless of their size.

  • Solomon Osagie
  • MBA, 1997

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