Written By, Ruxandra Ștețca, EMBALJ2025
Mesmerised by the British Museum’s exhibition “Michelangelo: The Last Decades” during the final weekend of school in July, I found a new drive for intellectual engagement which helped solidify my thoughts: this EMBA programme will profoundly shape my passions for the rest of my life. Witnessing Michelangelo’s torments at the age of 80, when he could no longer draw a straight line yet continued working because his art was his life, left a deep impression on me. Seeing his trembled signature on a letter he dictated just four days before his passing underscored his astonishing life dynamism, his renewed energy and his perpetual desire to challenge himself. Truly, is he not an inspiring role model?
Trotting down with deep thoughts and mixed feelings after the exhibition, my footsteps simply took me to St. Martin in the Fields where I enjoyed a baroque concert – Mozart, Pachelbel and Vivaldi’s Four seasons. With a smile in my heart I decided that Michelangelo and Vivaldi are actually my favourite Italians.
The school’s brilliant idea to have a BBQ with our families brought us closer as a cohort and made it possible for our loved ones to experience firsthand where we spend every second weekend during this year of study! A real pleasure! As we are a family with various interests, a prolonged weekend in London meant that each family member had put something on the agenda! June is a splendid month in London and we started off with Henry the VIII and his six wives and pleasures and lifestyle in the impressive, and some say haunted, Hampton Court. We absolutely love King Henry VIII who, when not allowed by the Pope to divorce Catherine of Aragon, divorced the Pope in order to pursuit his interest. Thus the Anglican Church was born. We checked out every corner – indoors and outdoors – and what we will do next time, for sure, will be to look for transportation on the Thames to and from London – to commute exactly like the king!
As we all are history lovers, Legion, the temporary exhibition at the British Museum, left us bouche-bée with its only Roman shield that still survives and the organisation and exhibition of all artefacts and in-depth knowledge. I still do have to find an answer as to why we are called a cohort since a cohort has 480 soldiers, while our London and Dubai streams have only 84 members.
One amusing fact is that 1900 years ago almost all of us, colleagues from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East were all in the same empire. We read Latin inscriptions, played Roman games and were frightened about the tough life lead in the army.
I cannot think of something more fulfilling in the motherhood journey than when the 16 year old daughter invites her mother to enjoy watching ballet together – The Swanlake with Natalia Osipova, at the Royal Opera House. We loved it so much that we will not miss Cinderella in December, as per dear colleague recommendation.
Beginning of June brought an encounter with a contemporary art gallery that has a hidden garden, blessed with wildlife, connecting the two buildings of the gallery. The Victoria Miro contemporary art gallery in Islington, on Wharf Road, hosted a trailblazing exhibition of the Holder brothers – Boscoe & Geoffrey. My first time encounter with artists from Trinidad – the works opened a whole new world, so contrasting to our European art traditions, patterns and quests.
After enjoying the exhibition and the hidden garden of the gallery, I continued with other gardens that were on the London Open Gardens track – namely the Barbican Wildlife Garden plus the entire gardens of the Barbican, the 25 Cannon Street garden, along the Tate Modern and digested all the iconic architectural pieces that London has – preparing thus for next day’s strategic management presentation of winners and losers in the architecture industry.
Chelsea Flower Show is THE event in the landscaping business worldwide and I was more than happy to link one extra day of show to the school weekend.
Moreover, visiting the show with the new skills and business knowledge acquired during this half year in school only improved my understanding of where our family business is and where it is heading. I was content to see that what we do in Romania for our customers, private or public, aligns from an ecosystem point of view with what is happening internationally and that my aim for starting this EMBA is close to be achieved.
May was quite a busy month and I was fortunate enough to find time to meet my dear old friend, Ofelia Heffron, alumna of LBS, who was, is and will always be available for my questions and anxieties. Actually, she also plays a role in instilling in me this sense of belonging to London Business School. And I am very grateful for that!
Getting to know the EMBA Global cohort at their party after orientation week was a great opportunity to meet new colleagues and to be inspired by a cohort that has, for the first time in the LBS history, 52% women and I was excited to share my passion for art history with one of them at the National Gallery in the intense exhibition.
“The Last Caravaggio”.
Caravaggio, who took the chiaroscuro technique to its fulfillment, had a dramatic life that can be read in his works of art as well as in his letters and others’ descriptions of him – some documents were present in the exhibition. Caravaggio was brilliant in bringing to his present times all the sins, torments, pleasures, revenges, desires of the old stories with contemporary faces – showing that each and one of us can be St. Mary or Judith or St. John the Baptist or Salomee.
This complements Oscar Willde’s Picture of Dorian Gray which I saw the night before at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. The one-woman-stage adaption was brilliant in bringing all forever and ever human traits, summoned by St. John Chrysostom in the IV century, painted by Caravaggio in the XVI century and described by Oscar Wilde in the XIX century, in contemporaneity and future. It was a stunning tour-de-force and I fell in total admiration for actress Sarah Snook who had all that it takes to run such a performance for a little bit over two hours.
In keeping my true North, I am confident that I can neatly knit family life with business, school and cultural pursuits. It is all intertwined and it is what defines me. I am taking everything as an opportunity and I am grateful for all moments – be they happy or stressful or challenging.
Useful links:
https://www.britishmuseum.org/
https://www.stmartin-in-the-fields.org/whatson/
https://www.hrp.org.uk/#gs.datxp2
https://www.rbo.org.uk/tickets-and-events
https://londongardenstrust.org/
https://www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/rhschelsea-flower-show
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/
For more information on the Executive MBA programmes, please visit our website here.