Ove Lund, MBA '07

RU MBA prepared Lund for success in his native Denmark

Ove Lund, MBA '07 was born and raised on a farm in Jutland, Denmark. The experiences and knowledge he gained from his farming youth are beneficial in his position as a consultant for an agriculture knowledge center.

Lund also credits much of his career success to the masters of business education (MBA) degree he earned at Radford University.

Before enrolling in RU's MBA program, Lund worked 24 years as a finance manager at a paper mill in Denmark. The mill closed "due to competition," Lund said. "Then I thought I needed something to build on top of my rather huge experience. I thought an MBA would be nice to put on top of it and it would make me ready to go back and find another job," he said.

Lund chose RU on the recommendation of a friend. He liked RU's size – "it's not too big or too small," he said – and the beauty of the campus. He also liked the idea of earning his MBA in a year.

"It was a great opportunity to take this one year MBA program on top of my previous education," said Lund, who recently toured RU's new College of Business and Education Building during a visit to the United States.

Lund credits many of the COBE faculty for helping him achieve his academic and career goals.

"Ove was a student who sat in the front row and brought his business experience to bear in our MBA class," said Accounting Associate Professor Mike Chatham. "He didn’t sit meekly back and soak up material, but became rather engaged in the course. I have always appreciated his contributions to that class."

After earning his MBA, Lund went back home. "My MBA from RU helped me in getting a job back in Denmark," he said. "It's a really good thing to have on your curriculum vitae."

Lund worked three years as a finance manager for a seafood company and then moved on to his current position as a consultant for Videncentret for Landbrug.

"I'm in a department with special knowledge, and my special knowledge is the financial side," Lund said.

His financial knowledge was earned during his many years working as a finance manager and through earning an MBA at RU, he said.

"But, of course, you need to know a little about agriculture, and if you don't know it, you have to learn… and that's in a way an interesting part of this. You get to learn a lot of new knowledge within agriculture."

"In comparison to the people working at the knowledge center, they have an education in agriculture behind their job," Lund explained. "I have the other side of the coin; I have knowledge in business and a lot of it came from Radford… a knowledge within business and strategy and human resources and finance and economy that I can bring into the discussions and the development of the company."