Before coming up to Oxford, Maxim Gerasimenko studied for a master’s in engineering from Moscow State Technical University and an doctorate in economics from the Lomonosov Moscow State University. His work experience was with multinational manufacturing companies, first as marketing manager for LG Electronics, then as product manager at Siemens, and finally as sales development manager at Hewlett-Packard.
He decided to study for an MBA in order to advance is career and to enable him to perceive business problems from a higher level. He decided on Oxford because of its world-wide reputation, the high exit salary of its MBA graduates, and the fact it offered a one-year programme. “The UK, with its traditions, green hills and old castles, London, and the oldest and most famous university in the English speaking world seemed absolutely the right place for me. I discussed my plans with potential future employers and found that they had enormous respect for places like Oxford, Harvard, MIT and Cambridge.”

Maxim joined the MBA class of 2007/08 which comprised students from almost 50 different countries, an experience he found rewarding. “I was already strong in sales and marketing, but the MBA gave me deeper knowledge in these areas. I also learnt financial understanding, organisation and team management skills. The strength of the network of other peers on the course smoothed down a process that was potentially difficult for me, moving from being a businessman to a student,” he says

Following the MBA programme, Maxim completed a month-long internship at Microsoft in Russia and the US before joining Microsoft as Product Marketing Team Lead in the Moscow office, in charge of developing MS Office. He is now putting all he learnt at Oxford into practice. “I use my MBA knowledge for market analysis, anticipating and meeting all demand changes with relevant actions, and focusing my team’s efforts on building correct perceptions of the product and the power of its capabilities,” he says.