Simon Bering

Solving problems in an array of industries, EQT Associate and BSc in Retail Management alum Simon Bering thrives on the diversity of his days. Working on digital topics within the EQT portfolio leveraging a toolbox from his past experiences within Facebook and Google, Simon supports growth initiatives for businesses with very different characteristics, opportunities and challenges.

Describe your role and what it is that you do overall and on a day-to-day basis.

First of all: Hi! Hope you’re having an amazing day :-)

I work at EQT, a purpose-driven investment organisation as an Associate in the Digital Business Development team. The team works with the wider EQT platform throughout the full investment lifecycle, bringing domain expertise within all things digital, and the associate role supports the platform both throughout due diligence as well as in helping businesses under the EQT umbrella leverage digital & IT to extract maximum value for growing.

As part of the role, I’m taking part in a program intending to bring digital expertise (my background is within tech) into investment teams directly, and will over the course of a year transition into an associate role on the investment team. So far I'm really enjoying it!

What interested you about the field/company/role you are currently in?

I’ve always been super interested in solving difficult problems and working with a wide range of industries and businesses (I think I’m too scattered to “choose” a focus area), and the private equity industry presents a plethora of such opportunities, given the nature of investing. EQT’s strong presence in the digital space, and just generally the incredible people in the team was something I valued in particular when I decided to join!

What is most exciting about your work at the moment? Where do you think your role/field is going in the next 5-10 years?

Given EQT’s wide coverage of industries, geographies, sizes of businesses, and various stages of growth, I find the most interesting part of my job at the moment getting exposure to a wide range of needs which the digital team caters for. For example, a SaaS business has very different needs of working with digital tools in comparison to an infrastructure player. Arguably, getting tech and IT right has been one of the most important aspects of running a business over the past decade regardless of industry, but what is “right” will vary a lot. Helping the companies we work with win in this domain today & future-proof for tomorrow is what I’m most excited about!

What has it been like to work at such large (and popular) companies such as Facebook/Google/EQT?

I’ve been very fortunate to work within organisations that are at the forefront of what it means to innovate, and have had the opportunity to learn from a both peers, leaders, and coaches that are incredibly passionate in what they are doing, which for sure is the two main reasons why I’ve enjoyed it. At both Google and Facebook, I worked primarily with growth topics for clients using the respective platforms. Being a consumer myself of many of the platforms the two oversee, getting the opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes view of what goes on was super interesting, and a great learning opportunity.

Having had direct exposure to some of the tools many business I work with are using (such as advertising) is very helpful in my current role at EQT. Being able to layer this with other topics EQT supports businesses with (e.g. sustainability efforts, growth investments, etc.) is a space I personally find both challenging and rewarding!

How did your time/education at SSE help guide you to the career journey you have embarked on?

I studied the BSc in Retail Management and absolutely loved it! In particular, I really liked the courses where we got to develop an analytical toolbox to tackle quite central topics in running a business. Naturally, I have had more use of some courses compared to othters in my current role, in particular the ones touching on digital topics, analytics and finance. That said, I very clearly recall a guest lecture with alum Peter Wolodarski my first year at SSE where he answered a similar question with: SSE will not help you learn from the courses themselves, even if this is of course a key element of the education. SSE will mainly help you learn how to solve problems. With this in mind, I think it’s important to consider that whilst SSE gives a good toolbox for working with a wide range of interesting topics through the coursework, most importantly the education helps you learn how to think critical & solve problems you’ve never seen before!

In particular, the time at SSE helped guide my career journey in distilling down what I’m actually passionate about, which to a large extent is just that - solving interesting problems! I have many of my professors to thank for helping me figure that out, but probably most important in this regard - the friends I made.

Following your time studying, do you have any words of wisdom or advice you would like to share with our current/prospective students?

Yes! Find a group of people you first and foremost enjoy spending time with. Studying, projects and other work are all important aspects of your time at SSE, but what I’m most thankful that my BSc program led to was meeting some of my best friends. It is a cliché, but I really think you’ll find the same, so don’t miss out!

What are three words that sum up your time at SSE?

Friends. Panini. Laughter.