Master in International Sustainability Management (MSc)
Meet our alumni: Theresa Gerdes, Class of 2019
Since graduating in 2019, Theresa Gerdes has built her career at BearingPoint, a management and technology consultancy, where she now leads global SAP sustainability projects. Since joining the firm, she has worked on a variety of topics at the intersection of IT transformation and sustainability, developing innovative digital solutions for carbon accounting, decarbonization, and sustainable business processes. Read more about her journey and insights on her ESCP experience below.
What were you doing before the programme? What attracted you to ESCP?
I studied Business Administration at the Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht Berlin (the Berlin School of Economics and Law). After working several years in a variety of business functions in the railway industry in Berlin, I decided to study my master’s degree in international Sustainability Management.
I was looking for a master’s program in sustainability with people who were as passionate and eager to learn about the topic in a business context as me, rather than just chasing the master’s degrees. The international background of my fellow students and the extracurricular engagements together for sustainability were what drew me to ESCP’s programme.
Can you share what your career trajectory has been like since graduating? What kind of topics are you working on?
I wanted to pursue a career in consulting, adding sustainability to the agenda of IT transformation projects. After meeting various consultancies at ESCP’s career fair, I joined BearingPoint at the end of the programme and have been there since.
I’ve been part of a team that developed software for carbon accounting together with SAP, one of the world’s largest technology providers, and have taken over the role of our global lead for SAP sustainability projects at BearingPoint.
What do you enjoy about working in consulting?
Consulting offers you the chance to continuously grow: You learn so much with each new client and project but also can stay ahead of new topics and create products – such as software solutions – or business models from your own ideas.
What aspect of the curriculum did you enjoy the most?
Overall, the network and friendship we developed in our class and beyond. Some of my closest friends today were my fellow classmates at ESCP.
What was your experience with the Company Consultancy Project (CCP)?
The CCP was a great chance to test my plan of a career in consulting and confirmed even more that this is the right path for me. So yes, it was not only useful, but one of the most fun and insightful group projects of the master programme.
To what kind of person would you recommend the programme?
If you are passionate about sustainability and eager to learn as much about it as possible in the context of business, but also your personal life, this program offers you this chance and more importantly, the right community of like-minded people from across the world.
What kind of impact do you hope to have on business/society??
My professional goal is to ensure sustainability is part of every digital transformation journey companies undertake, thereby contributing to our global decarbonization goals.
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