Freddie Allen

• Programme: Masters in Finance Part-time
• Nationality: British
• Job Pre-programme: Associate, MetLife Investments
• Job Post-programme: Vice President (Investments), Temasek

“The part-time Masters in Finance has been immensely rewarding.” 

Having completed an undergraduate degree in American and English literature, Freddie Allen chose to pursue the Masters in Finance at London Business School (LBS) to enhance his analytical skillset for his role in corporate finance.

Freddie began his career in private equity with an investment trainee position at Hermes GPE, which evolved into an investment analyst position. He spent four years on the EMEA team investing in funds and direct co-investments. In October 2015, he moved to MetLife Investments, the investment arm of MetLife, the global life insurer, where he works on the Private Equity team, with a primary focus on Europe.

“I get a lot of satisfaction from my job. I work on a small global team, it’s dynamic and no two days are the same. One of the things I enjoy most about it is that we get to look at a lot of different strategies, companies, and business models – I really find it fascinating,” he says.

Freddie joined London Business School’s (LBS) Masters in Finance (MiF) just after starting at MetLife. He wanted to gain a thorough grounding in finance. “It was a choice between the MBA and the MiF. I felt that, given how highly regarded the MiF was, and because it was highly analytical, it would put me in the best possible position to do my role effectively.”

Some people go to business school to pivot into a different role or sector; for Freddie it was about career acceleration. He didn’t pursue the full-time MiF because he didn’t want to take time out from his career and then have to re-enter the workplace. 

“The part-time programme, as tough as it’s been, has been immensely rewarding. It was a great opportunity to do the two things in parallel.” He was able to tailor the programme to his needs – he will graduate with a concentration in corporate finance.  

Part-time MiF students have classes on Friday nights and Saturday daytimes, so an extra advantage is that it attracts people based in other European cities as well as London. “It’s very intensive when you’ve had a long work week – but it’s really well put together. You get guys flying in from Switzerland, Germany, Russia – a broad array of nationalities, which is of great benefit. 

“London is cosmopolitan and finance as an industry is immensely varied, but adding that additional layer of different nationalities – that’s why you go to a top business school, you want that diversity. That’s a great strength of LBS.”

Among various electives – open to masters students from various programmes, providing further opportunities to mix and learn – Freddie’s highlights have been the Distressed Investing elective and a block week in Managing Corporate Turnarounds in Dubai.
 
“I was the only part-time MiF student taking the elective and there was a great mix of students from other programmes and business schools such as Columbia, HK School of Management, as well as LBS. It was case study based and highly immersive with a lot of visiting industry practitioners, which added a strong networking component to the class, and made for a really enjoyable week.”