Graduate success story

Name: Everton H. Flemmings
Course: HNC Business Finance, BA (Hons) Business Administration and MBA.
Year of Graduation: 2007

Not everyone has a set career plan when they enroll at University – but successful businessman Everton Flemmings knew exactly what he wanted to do and where he wanted to be in 10 years time.

Everton completed three courses at the University of Wolverhampton Business School, culminating in a Master in Business Administration (MBA). He drafted a programme of academic study, eventually leading to a PhD in Management.

“I knew the route that I must take in order to achieve the necessary skills and learning tools. Having completed the first stage of my HND in Business Finance, I entered my first degree on a path towards my academic goals,”  he explains.

“I spoke with my tutors at the University of Wolverhampton about my career plans, and that I would not want to do straight management, but a mixture of Business Administration modules that would widen my academic capacity. I selected all the modules and subjects that I knew would help me to build the right mix of skills that I now use.”

After graduation

After graduating, Everton established the West Midlands based Ethnic & European Enterprise Network. The aim of the organisation was to develop, implement and encourage UK small and medium enterprise best practices within emerging Slovakian, Kurdish, Polish, Lithuanian, Bosnian, Persian, Iranian and Iraqi businesses. This was then developed into a policy framework which was used as an advisory to Advantage West Midlands.

Eventually he sat on the European Regional Development Fund’s (ERDF) advisory committee to assist with the West Midlands’ regional strategic framework budgetary controls and spend for 2007-2013.

Current role

He is currently the Director of Global Strategy to one of China’s largest solar energy firms.

This involves developing and implementing global energy management strategies and advising on energy policies with global country leaders in the Caribbean, Middle East, Australia, Seychelles and Nigeria.

He also advises on corporate management design, energy investment portfolio within China and the global alternative energy sector.

Everton says: “I am very strategic in my approach to any project that I am involved in. I enjoy seeing progressive success throughout my administration of any project, whether it is an in-country project or one that involves regional and global partnership. The ultimate goal of my projects is success based on evidence through performance. I am not a perfectionist, only a strategist.”

'An inspiring institution'

Having studied three courses at the University, Everton is extremely positive about his experience at Wolverhampton.

“The University of Wolverhampton is a truly inspiring, motivating and academically prosperous institution. As an institution of change, it embodies the exacting academic ingredients that were necessary to spur my career.

“The courses were also true to the changing national and regional market environment. I thought it was a truly academically inspiring institution of the 21st Century.”