«Board check or bank check…

«Many find it hard to believe that as an ice hockey pro, I found time outside the rink to study. However, that’s exactly what I did — up and including my Master’s degree — thanks to the HSLU’s openness and flexibility.

When I started at the sports academy at sixteen, becoming a professional ice hockey player was my foremost career goal. At seventeen, I already played in the top national league with the pro team of HC Davos, at nineteen I made the NHL entry draft and went to the US, where I played for a number of teams over the subsequent eight years. I always knew that my time as a professional hockey player would be limited: I had to make provisions for the time after. I had always been fascinated by the finance and banking sector, and so I enrolled for a correspondence course in Business Management that I finished with a Bachelor’s in Finance, Banking and Taxation.

After a year in Finland, the 2011/12 season brought me back to Switzerland, to EV Zug. I continued to plan my post-hockey future. I knew that I needed to prepare well for a business career. I wanted a Master’s in Finance and Banking, but a correspondence course was no longer an option for me. Its central location and proximity to my club were not the only things I liked about the Lucerne School of Business. Already in my first interview, I realised that they would be able to cater to my personal needs. Ultimately, it was the School’s varied range of study programmes that convinced me to enrol there. This was the perfect place for me. As an ice hockey player, you don’t have nine-to-five workdays. We play at weekends and in the evenings, we train and have away games at ridiculous times. Ice hockey was still a priority in my life at the time and so it was important that the programme was available as a work-study track that I could shape to suit my sports schedule. It’s great that the Lucerne School of Business offers this option to its students.

I took away a great deal from the practical classes and I could always rely on the support of my lecturers. These are just some of the reasons why I never felt burdened as a student, but greatly enriched. Ice hockey is a small world, everything revolves around the sport. That’s why the exchanges with my fellow students significantly expanded my horizons. Looking up from the ice and beyond the boards, my perspective began to shift. However, my principles remain the same: I always fought hard on the ice and gave my best — as a student, I did the same. After all, it’s not only in the big stadiums that stamina, mental strength and discipline play a key role.

Thanks to the specialist skills I’ve acquired at the Lucerne School of Business, I can use my existing strengths to excel as a consultant in mergers and acquisitions with Deloitte. When it comes to my future career, my Master’s in Banking and Finance might be my most valuable title yet.»

Timo Helbling
HSLU alumnus and consultant with Deloitte