Bart Knols
Student case study
In 2007, Bart Knols, a graduate of the OU Business School, won the prestigious MBA Student of the Year accolade from the Association of MBAs, sponsored by The Independent.
At the age of nineteen, Bart spent a year in Africa studying sleeping sickness in a Kenyan Maasai community. Since then he has devoted his life to finding solutions to combat insect-transmitted diseases, particularly malaria, and now works as an Assistant Professor in Medical Entomology at Wageningen University and Research Centre in The Netherlands. Bart’s MBA study led him to pioneer a new method of mosquito control and obtain $2 million in research funds for projects in Africa.
Collecting the award at a ceremony in London on Thursday (8 November), Bart said: “Whilst on a very healthy career path as a biologist, it dawned on me that management skills were equally, if not more important, than biological knowledge. My MBA has given me the tools to fine-tune my argument that scientific skills only will not deliver a healthier world. I am proud to represent The Open University, and particularly its Austrian branch in Vienna where I conducted all my studies over the last three years. I am delighted to win the award and will use the achievement to open up doors to further my work.”
I am delighted with Bart's success. He exemplifies the best of what The Open University stands for, especially with regard to our mission in Africa. As a working scientist who undertook our MBA programme to ensure he could be as effective as possible, Bart demonstrates the power of our specific world-class approach to management teaching: the OU Business School takes the ideas to where they can be directly and immediately put into practice.
James Fleck, Dean of the OU Business School
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