John Tucker was 50 when he completed his Waikato MBA and some of his classmates were of similar age. Today, the average age of people studying for an Masters of Business Administration at Waikato University is 35 and Tucker, who went on to become director of Waikato Management’s School's MBA programme, thinks mid-to-late 30s is a good age to study for an MBA or similar qualification.

"You've got some work experience behind you but you're not too set in your ways. There’s also plenty of time to make more than one major career move," he says.

Last century, John Tucker was manufacturing manager for the plastics division of Carter Holt Harvey, which at one time had 700 staff and was the biggest plastics manufacturer in Australasia. He left CHH in 1998 and a year later was asked by the then director of Executive Education Dr Ed Weymes to work part-time at the Management School. Part-time led to full time, and in 2003 John was appointed director. He retired on June 30 this year.

Executive Education at Waikato is now known as the Centre for Corporate and Executive Education, and that's not the only thing that’s changed during John's time at the helm. "We used to teach the 'hard' subjects – finance, economics, strategy," says John. "Now, we still cover those things, but there's a much bigger emphasis on what we call 'soft subjects' like organisational behaviour, interpersonal relationships, effective leadership, critical thinking, ethics and cultural interaction – things that can mean the difference between adequate and excellent leadership."

Student numbers, or participants as they prefer to call them, have been increasing each year for the last five years and they now have 43 enrolments on the MBA programme which they offer in Hamilton every second weekend. So John feels he’s leaving Executive Education in good heart. He'll return periodically to supervise the participants working on their major research projects.

"I'll have to watch that I keep my sticky fingers out of the day to day running of the place. But I think the new director, Peter Sun, understands the way things need to be done differently in CEE. Of course he'll want to make changes, but I think he'll keep some things that have always worked for us – appointing teaching staff who are practitioners that are academically qualified. We've stuck religiously to practice-relevance with an academic base."

John says Executive Education students first look for validation of what they’re already doing in the work place, they want to learn new skills and gain new knowledge and they want to develop the ability to go out there and add value. "And studying can become catching," says John. "One person in an organisation completes a qualification and others see the benefits and want a piece of the action too. In some organisations, management encourage and support their staff to study."

Some sacrifice is required to complete an MBA degree; financial and personal. Some participants travel from as far away as Whangarei and Hawera, and even Gisborne every second week. There’s a stack of reading and assignments to be done, individually and in groups. "A lot of people give up time with their families, at weekends and in the evenings, but the rewards, apart from increased knowledge, are a network of like minded people and an entree into international business. The MBA is a degree that travels."

John says he's going to miss working at Waikato Management School. He's a great gardener and he'll be doing more of that; he's a lousy golfer but is looking to change that. He’ll also step up his community work. "I'll miss the people – the staff and students at Exec Ed. I never thought I'd say this, but over the years I've got to like and respect academics."