Alumni Testimonials
Lifelong learning is the cornerstone of UCD Smurfit Executive Development’s approach. No matter how far you have advanced in your career, there are always new insights to uncover, different mind-sets to explore and more opportunities for growth. Smurfit Executive Development’s transformational experience has made an impact on executives around the globe. Here are a few stories from participants who embraced their Building & Leading High Performing Teams journey and emerged equipped to grow themselves, their teams and their organisations.
Michelle Reynolds
Head of Fundraising & Marketing at DEBRA Ireland - The Butterfly Skin Charity
"From a professional perspective, the course brought out for me how important it is for a leader to be human and to open up; to admit to mistakes and look for learning and development opportunities from them. I’m not sure what my expectations were going in but I certainly wasn’t disappointed. I was curious about how they were going to combine business development with a sports team. It was fantastic the way they knitted it together. The way the course aligned sports team management to the business environment was fascinating. And of course, it’s not so much about what happens on the pitch, it’s what goes on behind the scenes.”
David Gracey-Keogh
Associate Director of Market Surveillance Project Management at Takeda
"Life lessons were a key element of the course. What caught my attention is the need to look at what really makes you happy and how you shouldn’t always focus on work. We were shown the wheel of life and how that breaks it up into sections like friendships, ambitions, health, and work. It helps you to step back and look around to see where you are. Self-reflection like that is very good. That’s just one aspect that I brought back to the team in work. The need to stop and take a look at what you are doing. Instead of go, go, go, we need to ask if we should make changes to get where we want.”
Keith Webster
Director at Pharma Talent and Engagement Specialist | Multi-Sport GB Athlete | EMCC Executive Coach Practitioner
"The programme met all my expectations. I would recommend the course to others. A lot of modern workplaces are quite flat organisationally and they rely on every individual to be at their best and the programme addresses that. There is a richness of learning for everyone on the course. There’s a lot of fun in it as well. It gives people a different lens to look at high performing teams. Whether you like rugby or not, it opens your eyes to how they go about being successful.”
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