Corporate Sustainability & Employees' Engagement Manager at OMV

Jasmine Böhm, MBA Alumna: The program as a whole leaves a lasting impression on you. Of course, everybody will find different aspects particularly valuable. I, for one, have strongly been influenced by the international residencies. They allowed us to look at countries such as Russia, India, China and the USA from a special perspective. We were students, but we also gained deep insight into the ways of doing business.

What stages in your life have had the greatest impact on you and why?

There were several. Basically, two influences have always shaped me particularly strongly: first, people who served as role models for me, either positive or negative, in terms of how things should or should not be done; and, second, challenges I had to cope with, such as my first executive position. Back then, I joined a company and became the leader of a team of nine who cooperated with many external partners. And as the subject matter was relatively new to me, challenges were coming at me from all directions. That was tough but provided a great opportunity for me to learn a lot—about myself, my job, the subject matter and my strengths and weaknesses as an executive.

Did you originally want to pursue a career in a different field? If so, why is it that nothing has come of your plans?

Yes, I had very romantic ideas! When I was about seven years old, I wanted to become a "researcher" for the first time. I had a wildly romantic image of researchers—David Livingstone, Indiana Jones and Jane Goodall all rolled into one. I wanted to visit foreign countries to discover something or someone. As a university student, I was lucky enough to be involved in some small-scale research projects. Because I was passionate about my research, I was successful at doing it, and, as a result of that, I got a job at the Academy of Sciences immediately after graduating. In reality, however, being a "researcher" is much less exciting than you would imagine.

How and why did you come to work for OMV?

When I joined OMV, I was still studying for my MBA degree. I had previously worked on EU projects as a project manager for several years and was freelancing as a diversity consultant and trainer.