Cindy Christensen, Manager of Customer Service, International & Domestic, Baxter Healthcare Corp., Lake Forest MBA Class of 1998
Four years at LFGSM transformed Cindy Christensen from a self-described "quiet worker bee" to an assertive leader whose mentor is now president of a global corporation.
Christensen started the four-year MBA program while a project leader in the database group at Baxter Export, where she had worked for 10 years. "I was a biology major as an undergrad and wanted a general background in business," she explained. She spoke with as many people as she could find who had MBAs to find out about programs at a variety of schools. Among her "interviewees" were a number of fellow Baxter employees who had attended The Lake Forest Graduate School of Management. Her research proved to her that LFGSM had the best general business program available.
In every class she took, Christensen was able to immediately apply what she was learning to her work. As a project leader, she felt her studies helped her analyze situations more thoroughly and bring people together in teams to get jobs done right. But, for this formerly quiet worker, one of the most valuable lessons was how to talk to people.
"Most of the courses encourage you to talk to other people in your organization...I talked to people all over the world and that helped me develop stronger relationships with people with whom I wouldn't have otherwise connected."
One of those people was the man she chose to be her mentor: Baxter's then-CFO Harry Kraemer. She was surprised, and delighted, when he agreed. Along the way, Kraemer's support helped her learn to communicate with senior executives. Now, she enjoys a close relationship with the president of the corporation.
"I became much better at challenging people in a politically correct way, even if they were higher up," Christensen stated firmly. "LFGSM helped me think about what people were saying and what points I wanted to bring up so I wasn't afraid to speak up in meetings." She also noted that 865 Strategic Management "brought into focus how important it is for everyone in an organization to be working in unison" in order to effectively achieve goals.
In April, just three months after completing her MBA studies, Christensen was named manager of customer service, international and domestic, for Baxter's Cardio Vascular Group. She now has responsibility for a staff of 27 in a new location - Irvine, California.
Now that she's graduated, Christiansen has realized an added benefit of her years at the School - her classmates. "While I was in school, being able to share information about what was happening with other people's jobs gave me lots of ideas," she commented. "More importantly, though, I now have lifelong friends from LFGSM."
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