Morten Siggaard

“As a Merit Scholar I was expected to participate actively and stand out, so I was very happy to graduate from the Masters in Management programme with a distinction”

Morten Siggaard is loving working with international clients in his role as an Associate at Boston Consulting Group. “From Monday to Thursday we sit at the client side – I fly out from Copenhagen or London on Monday morning and fly back on Thursday night. We work directly with the clients, trying to solve whatever problem they have. Right now I’m working with an industrial company where we’re developing a 5-year strategy and this involves me flying to Sweden and Germany on alternate weeks.”

He says the key learning from his Masters in Management (MiM) at London Business School (LBS) was how to work effectively in a highly diverse team. “I sit down with people I don’t know and work on difficult problems for many hours,” he says. “I learnt how to deal with different personalities and a range of cultural backgrounds at LBS.” 

In Morten’s study group at the School there was one student from Haiti, one from Thailand, one from Kazakhstan and one from China. “It’s a truly multinational group and that is challenging sometimes because you have different approaches to work, to life and to solving problems. That diversity was one of the reasons I chose LBS.” 

Morten was attracted to LBS by the quality of the MiM programme – “I knew I wanted to learn as much as possible” – the strength of the LBS brand and its location. “It’s in the middle of London. It makes a big difference, compared to being on a campus somewhere outside a city,” he says. “It’s Europe’s main city and you’re close to some of the world’s biggest companies. London is an amazing city with many opportunities – being in the midst of that is really valuable.” 

While at LBS, Morten enjoyed taking an academic approach to problems he had witnessed first-hand during internships with Morgan Stanley and other private equity firms. “The professors always take the practical perspective – how is this applied in the real world?” He took a development-focused elective, World Economy Problems and Prospects, after having already spent time at an investment firm in Zambia. “It was interesting from an academic perspective, having already been there and seen the obstacles they faced,” he says. 

Morten was awarded a Merit Scholarship, which covered part of the fees: he found out a few months after being accepted on the programme. “I was in the process of applying for various scholarships, but this is one that’s based on merit. It was a great financial support. As a Merit Scholar I was expected to participate actively and stand out – you’re expected to deliver. So I was very happy to graduate from the programme with a distinction. That made me even more proud, because you have to be in the top 10% of your class.”

As a MiM student ambassador, Morten attended many coffee chats, gave a speech at The Nordic Study Abroad Conference and was the point of contact for prospective students. “I was quite honest and told them you really get a true international experience; if you want to meet clever people from around the world this is the place to be. LBS is well-recognised globally and you get to meet people from high-profile companies.” 

He considers it a privilege to have helped shape the next cohort of MiMs. “I recommended a few Danish people and they got in,” he smiles. “That was a personal goal.”