Mattias Pak

Why did you choose Cranfield?

Having been trained extensively in Operational Safety I wanted to enroll in an academic program to give me more insight into aviation management issues as an add on to the expertise that I already had.

In 2004 I had my first contact with Cranfield, attending the Flight Data Monitoring Short Course. Having been impressed by the quality of the course it became clear to me that it would be Cranfield if I ever should decide on a full academic program. In hindsight this was the right decision.

What was Cranfield's impact

The last 2 years at Cranfield have helped me in strengthening the knowledge I had acquired with work experience by adding academic knowledge on top of it. This has allowed me to see things from a different angle and especially in the Safety and Risk management area where I am working in, it has given me the add on knowledge to help strive for a better production versus protection balance, which is essential for a sustainable airline business. I do understand a lot better now the organisationa/financial issues within an airline – this makes balancing the safety/risk initiatives a lot easier.

Finally the contact with other people from the industry, but also with people of other industries attending the course has given me not only a lot of insight into different managerial issues but has created friendships which are invaluable for life.

I hope to be further involved with Cranfield after finishing my studies and look forward to contribute if possible.