To celebrate its 20th anniversary, Sungkyunkwan University SKK GSB organized a series of "Where are you now?" interviews with alumni to find out how they are doing in their careers and what life has been like since graduation.

SKK GSB Full-Time MBA Class 1st Graduate: Pawel Rokicki

Pawel currently lives close to Warsaw, Poland. He is the leader of the Foundation of Consumers, a non-profit organization that advocates for consumers' rights, a husband, and a father of five. Since he earned an MBA from SKK GSB, he worked at Samsung Electronics' headquarters. Why did he return to SKK GSB for an MBA when he already had a degree in business?

Pawel recalls the day he received an e-mail announcing the recruitment for the program of studies at the newly opened SKK GSB’s full-time MBA. He says "My dream was to gain more business knowledge together with international exposure. I had never been to Asia before, and it sounded like a great adventure. Also, SKK GSB was collaborating with MIT Sloan School of Management, so there was a real chance for me to study in the US as well."

Pawel realized what it meant to study at the world’s top-tier MBA program. He emphasizes "The studies were hard but very fruitful." One of the skills that he strengthened was to be persistent with his goals and not to give up. He remembers one weekly course in finance when students were asked to prepare a valuation of a merger of two companies. After hearing what was required to do he seriously had no idea how to do it. He started to talk to other students, they went back to the professor to ask additional questions. With this extra support, they were in the end able to prepare the right solution. "Eighteen years have passed since my graduation and this skill of being persistent is still with me and it’s a real blessing in both my professional and private life", he says.

He adds that while living in South Korea, a completely different culture from Poland, he learned how to question himself before acting based on intuition or emotions. “Because my intuition was Polish and not Korean. And my emotions could be a response to a wrong interpretation of reality”, he says.

Back in Poland, Pawel founded and runs the Foundation of Consumers – a non-profit organization with a mission to protect consumer rights. He states, "I have consumer rights advocacy in my blood because my mother spent her professional life in that area." To strengthen consumer rights the foundation recently created a digital tool that helps consumers quickly resolve disputes with companies online. Pawel says "Via our platform, consumers can send a message to the company and decide to make the case public - then both the content of the case and the company's responses to it are visible to Internet users. For the company, a quick solution helps maintain a good reputation." Pawel's professional dream is to build a well-functioning social business for consumer empowerment in Poland.

Pawel works from home and with his wife, they homeschool their children. “It is thanks to the engagement of my wonderful wife. She’s the real worker in our family!” he says. How does he balance family life with professional aspirations? “My strategy is simple: my work is supposed to serve my family and not the other way around. And a family – that is a real enterprise too. Your young 'associates' often don’t listen to you. We try to teach them how to behave, calmly but firmly, rebuke them with love, create clear boundaries, and establish a daily routine of assigning specific tasks so that kids can help us.” And he concludes: “I think we have a rather well-organized 'family enterprise'. I wouldn’t change it for anything else!”

What advice would Pawel give to current students or entrepreneurs? He stresses the role of setting the right goal in life. “In my early 30s, I realized that I had not found happiness in life. Something was missing. And that something was… God. So my number one priority is my relationship with God. Then comes my marriage and kids followed by my professional life. Eventually, there is a space for all other activities e.g. hobbies. So, the advice that I could give to myself and others is: don’t overprioritize work and other activities over your relationship with God and family.”

 Pawel concludes our interview by saying: “I wish I could visit Korea one day with my family to show them the country, the culture, and the awesome business school that I attended.”