Gerald Meyer-Waeterling

I chose CQU because I worked for a company with a plant in Rockhampton (QMAG) who encouraged me to engage in tertiary education. QMAG was acquired by Sibelco in 2012, a multi-national group headquartered in Belgium, who downsized QMAG in 2015/2016. My degree contributed to a promotion and secure employment within the Sibelco group. My job title became “Strategic Business Line Manager Metallurgy”. It involved leading a team of 24 sales and technical managers across Europe, and responsibility for a budget of EUR 120M. 

Since then, the company underwent several restructures and my responsibilities evolved to global roles as "Commercial Leader Steel & Refractory Global" and "Commercial Director" for a cluster in Norway. Unfortunately, the difficult macro-economic climate in Europe resulted in my role being made redundant in late 2023. 

My degree certainly contributed to my career; having said that, it was not just the study content itself. Even more important were the difficult conditions under which I studied and managed to graduate with a MBA with distinction. I had a demanding full-time job (60+ working hours per week and a lot of international travel) and looked after two teenagers at the same time. Graduating with distinction under such conditions made me realise that I can take on almost any challenge. I managed various challenging positions since then and despite my redundancy in late 2023 both my experience and qualifications help me to be pretty relaxed regarding my future.