Mark Brown, MBA in Social Enterprise, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, Great Britain (Rotary Club of Calgary and Rotary Club of Faringdon & District), Global Grant Scholarship, 2015-16
Mark Brown graduated from Western Canada High School in Calgary and received his BSc from the University of Victoria in 2010. After working with Engineers without Borders, he founded an agricultural investment fund in Ghana to assist small farmers in developing their businesses. Too large to benefit from microcredit financing and too small to access conventional bank loans, these small farmers are unable to develop the full potential of their businesses. In 2015-16, Mr. Brown held a Global Grant Scholarship from District 5360 to study social entrepreneurship at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.
In February 2016, Mark wrote about his experience at Oxford:
I have decided to design my career to work on the world’s most important problems. The first chapter drew me to economic development in Ghana through agriculture. After consulting with Engineers Without Borders for a few years, I started...
Kulemela Investments, a first of its kind agricultural investment fund. I have had the opportunity to work with amazing people and I have learned some incredible lessons. I also reached a point where I had to take my business skills to the next level and synthesize the work experiences which I had accumulated over the years in order to tackle the next level of challenges. I applied to the best social impact-focused MBA in the world – the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School.
My experience at Oxford has been incredible. It is truly a world-class group of students and lecturers, both in the program and in the wider University. I have developed a global network of new incredible colleagues and have had some fantastic personal opportunities. My highlights thus far include being selected to co-chair the Oxford Seed Fund, which invests university endowment in early-stage businesses and innovations founded by Oxford alumni and students. I was among six students to be invited to the Skoll World Forum, the largest social enterprise conference in the world. I am already interviewing with some of the most world-renowned international development consultancies. I am even representing Oxford on the Varsity Blues ice hockey team. 
The entrepreneurial and social impact-focused electives in my program have helped me understand the business landscape in a way that matches my values instead of just emphasizing shareholder profits. This degree is having a truly transformative impact on the trajectory of my career and I will be so much better equipped to continue to work on the world’s most important problems when I am done. None of these amazing opportunities would have been available to me without the help of the Rotary Global Scholarship from Calgary Olympic District 5360 in my hometown of Calgary. The local host Rotary Club of Faringdon District 1090 has also been incredibly welcoming and helped my wife and I settle in and acclimatize to Britain. They have also arranged visits with fellow scholars, taken us on outings to historic sites and invited me to speak at local club meetings.
See where Mark Brown’s career has taken him since his Global Grant Scholarship by visiting his Linkedin page.