Roger Donbavand

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Freelance not for profit consultant and formerly General Manager, Commercial & Quality Assurance, Mission Australia.

Roger Donbavand has over 30 years’ experience in strategic research consultancy and from 2011 until 2016 he lived and worked in Sydney, NSW, Australia.  Prior to this he spent eleven years as a board director at BDRC Continental, the UK’s largest, independent market research company.

Roger originally started his career in the City of London at the investment house, Flemings, and from there he has worked in leading research consultancies and agencies. He has a wide variety of experience of industry sectors, especially financial, mobile telecoms, but has also covered in his career fmcg, government, charity and other service based industries. 

What do you remember most about your time at Aber?

I think the friendships I made - five of us are still friends since the 1970s and we have re-unions to Aber. Everyone including the staff were very helpful. Also the weather - it certainly can be bracing in winter BUT I never got any illness. Doing a geography you are surrounded by great scenery which can be inspiring. 

What are you doing now career-wise and how has your Aberystwyth Degree helped? 

Having spent thirty years in marketing and strategy development leading companies here in the UK I now use this skills in the not for profit/charity sector as it is important to 'give something back'. 

What advice would you have for a student doing your course now? 

Work hard and play hard and you'll get most of that once in a lifetime opportunity Aber offers you. We had a marvellous geography department and it is a great one now. Far better to be in Aber doing geography than in a big city. I know because I came from Manchester!