Since completing the MBA he has also had a promotion at Eastland Port, where he is now the operations project manager.
The couple met in Hawke’s Bay in 2016 through work. Mark was project managing the construction of a water bottling plant and Kate was working for a forest management company.
Romance blossomed but Kate returned to Gisborne to begin a job at Juken in 2016. They had a long-distance relationship until Mark moved to Gisborne to begin a job with Eastland Port as contracts project manager in 2018.
The couple said they were very fortunate to have the support of their workplaces, which also paid for their course fees. This was a considerable investment by their employers, who could see the value in supporting their academic endeavours.
The MBA programme consisted of 12 papers subsequently completed one after the other, every six weeks. The papers were structured with two, three-hour interactive evening lectures a week as well as assignments, group work, reading and presentations.
“It was probably about 20 hours a week and some of this we could do during work hours,” says Kate.
“Sometimes you’d have to join a group study meeting while at work and they were really supportive at Juken.”
Kate and Mark were driven to complete their MBAs by the desire to further their careers and formalise some of the learning they were already doing in their jobs.
Mark was already in a programme for future leaders at Eastland Group where they were assigned a senior leadership team member as a mentor and had a presentation each month from one of the senior leadership team on what their job entails.
“The MBA appealed because it gave us a rounded exposure to all aspects of business,” Mark says.
“We both had a lot of exposure to a lot of different areas of business in our jobs but nothing formal.”
“So the MBA allowed us to cement some of the learning we were already doing at work,” adds Kate.
There were papers in accounting and finance, strategy, law, human resources, sustainability in business, marketing, organisational leadership and international business.
They both particularly liked the accounting and finance papers.
“Our lecturer was excellent — he ran a lot of businesses and lectured as a side job. Some of the subjects were quite academic but this teacher brought real world examples to our lectures and made it really relatable,” Kate says.
After completing and passing all 12 Phase One papers, Phase Two was the professional consulting engagement which provided the opportunity to work with a real-world project. This engagement was made up of 12 weeks being devoted to writing a thesis.
Fortunately both Mark and Kate were able to do their theses on subjects that were relevant and useful to their employers.
Kate’s thesis was on the economics of catchment restrictions and harvesting operations within Juken’s estate.
“We are looking to implement changes based on the outcomes of my thesis, so it’s great to know it will be utilised,” she says.
Mark wrote an Asset Management Plan for Eastland Port for his thesis which is also being used.
“The port had an Asset Management Plan but it was becoming out of date. I produced a new one which has brought it in line with an international standard.
“The Asset Management Plan looks at how you use your assets, how you make decisions about when to replace them — it looks at environmental sustainability. I think it has been well received and is being applied.
“We were lucky that both of our companies had projects they needed us to do that could be pulled into our MBAs,” says Mark.
And they both received As for them.
They said the last stretch of writing the theses was when the going got particularly tough.
“I had our son after we began writing our theses, so we were fully in new-born stage with a toddler in tow. It was quite a juggle and we couldn’t have done it without mum and dad’s help,” Kate says.
They had agreed during the application stage that they would only do the study if they could both do it together at the same time.
“It would have been too hard if only one of us had done it because we had to make so many sacrifices, so it was easier to be in it together.
“We could also push each other when needed and encourage one another,” Kate says.
So what’s next for this ambitious couple?
For now they are both happy to take the pressure off and take a breath. With their MBAs completed, promotions at work and their little family growing rapidly, they can finally take their foot off the accelerator and cruise for a while. Until the next project at least.
