Lil Bremermann-Richard, CEO, Oxford International Education Group

Published 03/04/2019

Lil Bremermann-Richard was promoted from group commercial director to group CEO at UK-based Oxford International Education Group in January. She spoke to The PIE about her own professional development and how she approaches the top job at multi-dimensional OIEG.

The PIE: Lil, what made you excited about taking the CEO role? 

LBR: I think I’ve been preparing for this role for 39 years! My mother is in education. My grandparents were in education. I’ve always worked in the education sector. And I love this company. I think it’s brilliant.

We deliver what is a complete ecosystem for kids from the age of eight, nine  until they’re 18 – in a global environment. And I was ready. I’ve gone through the whole career journey from a very junior position sending information facts to kids in Japan from a post room in a small college in London.

The PIE: Where did you first work?

LBR: I worked at Cavendish College, part of a David Game College group. So I’ve been an admissions and recruitment officer, an international recruitment director, an operations director,  commercial director.. it was time.

“He would not allow me to stay in the background because of my accent”

The PIE: That’s pretty impressive career ascendancy. Did you always think you’d end up being CEO?

LBR: I always wanted to be a CEO but I think I have had great leaders. I owe a lot of my progress to the outstanding leadership and mentorship of Carl Lygo and the culture that him and the senior executives then drove at BPP.

Carl would not allow me to stay in the background because of my shame around my accent or background, he taught me to stand tall for my talents.

I was given opportunities. But I have also been eager to seize my own opportunities. So I haven’t left it to others to open it up for me throughout my career. And that’s what I would encourage people to do.

The PIE: Tell me more about Oxford International. I was reading your bio – a 70% increase in recruitment to your university pathways division is amazing. How did you achieve that?

LBR: First, it wasn’t about: Is the market growing? It was: what is it that students need?

Do we have what they need? So we did our portfolio review and and we looked at our products and we said OK this is what we have. This is what we can do. This is what the market needs and where they need it.

“Look at what the market needs and what you have and see where you match it rather than try and do everything”

And I think that sounds very strategic and it is –  I think it’s something that everybody needs to look at. Look at what the market needs and what you have and see where you match it rather than try and do everything.

Second, [we looked at] our next set of stakeholders, that’s our agent partners. We’ve put quite a lot of investment in our processes to ensure that the right information gets to the agent quickly, effectively, and as a result, they are very keen on working with us.

The PIE: The pathway market in general, do you think it is growing or not? Because I’m hearing varying reports. 

LBR: In general, I think it is growing. Is it growing just for the UK and UK universities, I think is debatable. I think it is debatable and I think it’s only marginally growing.

I think what is definitely growing significantly is that overseas delivery of of pathways.

The PIE: Do you have plans in that area then?

LBR: We have plans! [laughs]. We have a lot of them.

The PIE: Oxford International is fairly unique in that it has this huge experience and longevity in summer seasonal operations. And now it’s becoming a name in university pathways. You obviously have d’Overbroecks, you have sixth form colleges. What are the challenges around managing all these different brands and making sure they all have their own identities?

LBR: Now, 18 months into my role(s) at Oxford International, we are clear that whilst they are separate divisions they are somehow interconnected. We understand the ecosystem and we’ve positioned each of our products accordingly. 

There is no overlap. For example, a student that goes into pathways do not want or need to do A- levels, yes? We have different people supporting those different divisions but they are somehow in a chain with different customers.

The PIE: You obviously have had enormous success in growing business. Where do you see future business coming from?

LBR: If I was going to paint with a very broad brush, I would say the future is in Asia. I think it’s that broad; everybody’s constantly pushing China but we shouldn’t lose sight of Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar. 

Truly, I think Africa is a market that we need to look after. The size of that population is incredibly big. There are some economies are trying to come throughAnd South Asia and the Middle East. So I would like to give you a very straight answer, right now it’s Asia. But yes we as a business are investing in Africa, investing in the Middle East, investing in Europe and the Americas.

“Truly, I think Africa is a market that we need to look after”

The PIE: Tell you about how you ended up in the UK from Uruguay.

LBR: I thought you would ask that! My dad was in the army and at the age of 13, we started spending time in Argentina and in Brazil and then we came to the UK. He was military attache to the embassy.

I fell in love with the UK so and and I wanted to study here. So I stayed, my family went back after two years, and I did my higher education. And I was working at [Cavendish College] part-time while I studied, on my 20 hours per week!

The PIE: Do you often think about those days when you were an international student?

LBR: I always think about that. I think a big mistake that professionals make as they go up in their careers is they forget where they come from and what they’re trying to achieve and they’re just focusing on that revenue bottom line figure.

And I am a great believer that that bottom line figure is easily achieved if you’re doing the right thing for the right people, with the right intentions ethically, and it has never been a problem, it has never been a problem to get to the numbers if you’re doing the right thing.

The PIE: And how do you inspire your team?

LBR: I believe that I’m very approachable because even when I get angry, I have a big smile on my face! And I think I spread myself across the business. So there isn’t anyone who is so junior that they don’t get an interaction with me. 

The teachers are the ones who have first-hand experience with the students, so I need and want to understand what they do, how they do it, why they do it in that way. And then the next question is, I say, ‘how are you preparing yourself for the student of tomorrow’?

The PIE: You started as CEO in January, didn’t you, and at that time you had a four-month-old. How is the juggling going?

LBR: I’m really enjoying it. It’s my third child and I have always returned to work quite quickly. This is the way I know how to be a mum, being happy overall as a person. I love what I do. I love being a professional, a mum, a wife and a friend. I wouldn’t say that it’s easy. By all means it’s challenging. It’s challenging to get out of the house in the morning with my dress clean!

 

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