Andre Koch
Paul Roos Gymnasium, 1998
2nd BA Economics & Management
MBA
Brasenose & St John's College
Currently studying at Oxford
My ‘life story' has been an interesting and windy one through a number of different geographies and fields – very significantly enriched by the Rhodes Scholarship. At school in South Africa, I kept myself busy with numbers academically and, of course, on the rugby field in the afternoons. At university in lovely Stellenbosch, I continued pretty much in the same vein, studying an analytical actuarial degree, and practising rugby, tennis, squash, cricket or running whenever I got the chance. There was, naturally, also a good deal of wine tasting going on.
Shortly after graduation, I was offered the fantastic opportunity to study at Oxford with a Rhodes Scholarship, and it was a great chance indeed to expand my horizons. It gave me the opportunity to do something much more conceptual than Actuarial Science – in fact, I had the extreme luxury of spending lots of time debating the finer points of economics in one-on-one tutorials with experts in their fields. It also of course afforded met the opportunity to explore Oxford's ‘dreamy spires', to punt on the Isis, to drink warm bitter with fellow students from all over the world, and to do some European travelling. To be sure, it was certainly not all plain sailing, but I probably won't trade a moment of it for anything.
Oxford was also the start of something of a career shift. I arrived in Oxford a little disillusioned with the field of Actuarial Science - in between Stellenbosch and Oxford, I completed the professional actuarial examinations, and worked for an insurance company in a role that sometimes made me feel like the proverbial ‘back room number cruncher'. When a fellow student at Oxford introduced me to management consulting, I was therefore quite attracted to the idea of dealing with more strategic business issues. I decided to explore it through McKinsey's Summer Associateship programme in South Africa.
I enjoyed the first taste of consulting, and in a sense being a management consultant for two or three years seemed like an appropriate extension of university – a chance to see the practical side of concepts I was introduced to in the Economics and Management course I read at Oxford. As it turned out, I started with BCG in Melbourne after finishing at Oxford, and Karin (my wife) and I very quickly settled in to a city with a wonderful blend of great restaurants, sports madness, art, and really good coffee.
After three years in Australia, I returned to Oxford to take up a third year of Rhodes funding to allow me to pursue the Oxford MBA – and again I have most definitely not been disappointed. Even though the course is still quite new, I am thoroughly enjoying the experience of studying with students from 41 different nationalities! The Oxford experience is slightly different now that I am 29 years old, and married with an 8-month old baby, but nonetheless equally rewarding.
If I had to choose two words to summarise my experience in Oxford, they would have to be ‘horizon broadening'. One cannot help being shaped and challenged through the exposure to a group of truly remarkable lecturers (not all of them are equally good, but many are), fellow Rhodies, and other Oxford students from all over the world. I am increasingly becoming aware of the tremendous responsibility I have to use the insights I have gained through this experience to act as a truly positive influence on the world around me.