Skollar 2007/08
Prior to completing the MBA programme at Oxford University's Saïd Business School, Lindsay Miller provided technical assistance to a federal initiative in rural Oregon working for the development of a coordinated service network to meet the complex needs of children with mental health disorders and their families. She has also worked in substance abuse treatment, early childhood education, and international infrastructure development.
Lindsay decided to do an MBA after experiencing first hand the management and financial challenges that prevent social services from being delivered effectively. "I wanted to learn the skills necessary to improve the current systems and have a more significant impact on peoples' lives," she says.
She selected Oxford because of the distinctive academic experience it offered and because the one-year MBA programme would enable her to focus on social entrepreneurship. Highlights of her year as a Skoll Scholar included attending the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. "It was a fantastic opportunity to be inspired, challenged and supported," she says.
Lindsay now serves as the Programming Lead for the 2009 Skoll World Forum and as a Social Enterprise Consultant for Virtue Ventures. She is specifically interested in social enterprise design, developing tools to support effective management of social ventures, and disseminating this knowledge to a wide audience of social entrepreneurs.
In the future she hopes to start her social enterprise focusing on education and mental health issues for children. "The MBA has totally prepared me to go through the start-up process with my own social enterprise, from business planning to financial projections to raising capital."
She has also found that the programme has opened doors to commercial and third sector networks. "I wasn't very good at the 'networking' thing when I came to Oxford," she says, "but have since learned how valuable good relationships with smart, proactive, like-minded people can be."
Lindsay now serves as the Programming Lead for the 2010 Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. She is interested in highlighting best practices in the field of social entrepreneurship, developing tools to support effective management of social ventures, and disseminating this knowledge to a wide audience of social entrepreneurs.