Categories
A Yank at Oxford

Getting Tough at Oxford


Tune in every quarter to learn how David Simon, a 53-year-old lawyer from the US, navigates the ancient world of Oxford University in pursuit of an MBA. David is a Partner at the white shoe law firm Foley and Lardner, who has dedicated his career to white collar compliance with a heavy international focus. “My practice touches a lot on some of the sanctions and international trade issues that typically come up on international matters,” he says. In A Yank in Oxford, David and host Tom Fox will talk about what inspired his decision to pursue an Executive MBA, and his hopes for where the journey may lead.
In this Episode 4, David discusses beginning his academic journey through his third quarter in the Oxford MBA program. Highlights include:
1.           You are now about 9 months into your EMBA program. How is it going?
 2.           Working with your classmates. Are you finding interesting collaboration opportunities?
 a.         working with a classmate on a proposal to the State Department for an anti-corruption project in sub-Saharan Africa;
b.         some nascent legal tech projects involving AI; and
c.         required Entrepreneurship Project.
3.          What substantive stuff what you been learning.
 a.      Global Rules of the Game.
b.     Strategy Class.
c.     Accounting.
d.     Technology and Operations Management.
4.           Fun stuff – matriculation 
The Ceremony was in the Divinity School, one of the oldest university buildings. Very formal – Latin incantations and subfusc? As Oxford as it gets.