A Special Interest Group with a female focus

During my MBA degree as Cass, I served as the president of Cass Women in Business (WiB); a very active Special Interest Group (SIG) within the Cass community. The reason I joined this group is because I am passionate about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for women in business. In addition, I wanted to contribute to the student life and make a difference.

The group which was formed in 2009, encourages constructive debate between male and female students, as well as leading professionals from a variety of sectors (e.g. investment banking, marketing, consulting, etc), in topics related to women in business. WiB’s mission is to explore the challenges women are facing in the workplace and promote awareness among the future managers, directors, and board members.

Equally important for WiB is to create mentoring and networking opportunities as a way to inspire and support the next generation of high potential women. For this reason, we worked hard to create an effective business leadership network connecting Cass students and the business professionals in the City.

As the president, I was responsible for the communication between the WiB team, the high-profile speakers from the events we hosted and our supporters within Cass. My main concern was to organise impactful events. Part of my job was to select interesting topics and attract inspirational speakers who were willing to share their insights. For those professionals, WiB events offer an opportunity to share their career successes and knowledge with the next generation of managers and directors and also to get exposed to new ideas.

Women in Business is the biggest of the SIGs at Cass but there are plenty of other great and very active groups that offer an exciting environment to share ideas and refine leadership, communication and people skills. As a member of a SIG team, one has opportunities to work alongside students with similar interests as well as industry professionals. This platform is also a great place to put in practice all coursework. For example, tasks like securing sponsorship demand good marketing; clearly communicating what the group represents and what it aims to achieve, and strategy skills; who will be targeted and how the potential sponsor will be approached, etc. Being part of a SIG can help students gain business experience before they sail into the real world. Lastly, being involved with a SIG means you gain access to events organised by SIGs in other business schools, professional networks in the city or companies. Thus, your network expands quickly beyond the Cass community.

Maria Nikolou PhD, MBA.

President of Cass Women in Business (2010 - 2011)