DA alumnus Severin Broucek on his career since graduating from DLG 37 in 2001

DA: You have recently taken over the position of managing director of Teach For Austria. What exactly is Teach For Austria doing and what about it is especially important to you?
Severin Broucek: Teach For Austria is an Austrian non-profit organisation founded in 2011. We recruit committed top graduates (also at the DA!), train them and place them as teachers in challenging schools and kindergardens for two years. With this, we aim to create educational opportunities for socio-economically disadvantaged pupils in Austria through top talents from different fields that become inspiring teachers and leading actors for social change. And that is what I like about it - it's about fair chances, it's about leadership, it's about working with top-motivated people from different backgrounds.

What was your career path and how did you get to where you are now?
After the Diploma Programme at the DA, I joined an international bank (Deutsche Bank) where I moved through different roles in Corporate Banking, Advisory, as COO and as manager of Corporate Banking coverage teams across 14 countries in Europe and the Middle East. The different roles gave me wider management experience that, in combination with my non-profit activities in my student days, allowed me to make a mid-career move from financial services to a non-profit organisation in education.

In what ways has the DA influenced your career?
It was a great way to prepare for an international career. It enabled me to quickly connect to different cultures, governance systems and gave me a better understanding of both economic and political factors.

Besides your studies, what are your fondest memories of your time at the DA?
The DA was a mini-UN, and the debates we had on different foods, customs and traditions were always enjoyable and normally solved at the latest at the DA bar!

What advice would you give young students at the DA?
There is no reason to believe that you will have only one career path - so start somewhere but be prepared to change later on. Some of the acquired skills should be transferable to other areas and hence potential future workplaces.

Photo: davidblacher.at

[July 2021]