The first ever female recipient of a national farming scholarship is nearly halfway through her MBA at Cranfield School of Management.
Sarah Wells, a business support manager at Countrywide Farmers, started studying at Cranfield in January 2014 thanks to the MBA Agrifarm Charitable Foundation.
Says Sarah: “The Cranfield MBA provides an excellent grounding in all the essential subjects, from marketing and business strategies to finance and logistics. I’ve always known that I wanted a career in agriculture and I’m keen to demonstrate that, in agriculture, women do just as well as men. It’s really interesting that other students on the course are surprised by just how sophisticated and well developed agriculture needs to be, and has become.”
The MBA Agrifarm Charitable Foundation was established on his retirement by John Beckett, the outgoing chairman of Genus, a business selling products to cattle and pig farmers.
The scholarship is granted each year to the candidate who can demonstrate not only that they will benefit from studying at Cranfield, but also that the leadership qualities that will enable management change in the UK agricultural industry.
Sarah works for Countrywide Farmers, the leading UK business in the supply of products and advice to the rural community. They employ more than 1000 staff and specialise in agriculture, energy and retail trading.