All magazines from February 2016
Waiting for the new Board – Interview with Roy Someshwar, MCAA Treasurer Waiting for the new Board – Interview with Snežana Krstić, MCAA Chair Waiting for the new Board – Interview with Axelle Viré, MCAA Vice-Chair Waiting for the new Board – Interview with Kiran Kumar Chereddy, MCAA Ordinary Board Member
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Waiting for the new Board – Interview with Roy Someshwar, MCAA Treasurer

You have been the Treasurer of the MCAA Board since November 2013. How would you describe this experience?

It has been a phenomenal experience and I am enjoying every bit of this journey. MCAA only took shape into a Member-run democratic association in November 2013 at the first General Assembly in Brussels. I am humbled and honoured to be elected as the founding Treasurer of this association. Sincere thanks go to all the MCAA Members for their trust and confidence in my vision and action-plans to develop the association into a self-sustainable non-profit body catering to the needs of Marie Curie Fellows and Alumni spread across the world.

As Treasurer and a Member of the Executive Committee (ExCom), me and my Team are responsible for developing the strategy, policy and vision of the association and ensuring its day-to-day implementation at the operational level. Additionally, being the founding Members of the association, we had the unique opportunity (read this as ‘challenge’!) to build the association from scratch.

In spite of limited funds and several administrative constraints, our core financial strategy has been to:

  1. support career development of MCAA Members;
  2. foster regional networking among MCAA Members;
  3. empower our Working Groups in areas of strategic interest to the association (e.g. Policy, Gender, Grants and Awards, Bridging Science and Business etc.)

Over this time, MCAA Chapters and Working Groups have grown in number and in strategic areas. Now, we have MCAA Chapters around the globe from ASEAN to Argentina and the Nordics to Africa. For the career development of Members, we designed Micro-Travel Grants, Micro-Media Grants and Micro One-World Grants. Through these grants, we have assisted hundreds of Marie Curie Fellows and Alumni in their career endeavours and we will continue to roll-out such exciting schemes in future.

Today, looking back, I feel extremely proud to be part of this journey to transform a newly found association into a thriving international community of 6 700+ Members from across the world.

What did you learn?

Running an international association like MCAA comes with a lot of unconventional challenges, including the challenge of leading, steering and decision-making among an 11-Member Board consisting of eight nationalities J. Graduating through these challenges teaches an individual the essence of emergent leadership, one who knows when to lead by stepping in, helping solve it — and then relinquishing power if necessary so that someone else can handle the next challenges.

Working in such an international team also helps you develop a great deal of patience, open-mindedness, a bias-free attitude and a positive outlook that enables everyone to effectively listen and understand each other for efficient decision-making. The ability to lead and work together in a cross-cultural team is probably the most important skill I have learnt during my tenure at MCAA.

Which tasks did you deal with?

People often hesitate before applying for the position of a Treasurer because this post comes with immense responsibility and an extra bit of hard work. After all, being answerable for the fund management of hundreds of thousands of euros of EU public money is no joke!

To answer your question more specifically, I am responsible for the MCAA Financial Strategy, Budget Management, Strategic Allocation, Reporting and – on a day-to-day level – overseeing its effective execution.

I also co-founded the Working Group on Financial Affairs with the vision to make MCAA self-sustainable and financially independent in the distant future. This WG is responsible for fundraising and building win-win corporate partnership.

What would you like to say to encourage Alumni to put themselves forward as candidates for this position?

This is a voluntary position that comes with no remuneration. You can expect a cumulative workload of about six to eight hours a week. Most of the work is done through online collaboration with other team Members. So don’t be surprised if you receive 20-30 e-mails every week loaded with different sorts of action items to deal with.

If you have the passion to contribute back to the MCAA community, love finance, have a basic understanding of accounting and budget reporting, and you don’t mind being held accountable for hundreds of thousands of euros of EU public money, then welcome to the Treasurer Club. J

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