Journey of

Micheal Testa

It is estimated that by the 2030s, 9 out 10 people would need to retrain. I've been constantly retraining over the last two decades as outlined below. I started my career as an entrepreneur trading second hand video games. I then pursued this until I got to university where I retrained as an Economist.

On this path, I joined the Ministry of Justice writing Business Cases and producing Cost Benefit Models. At the Ministry of Justice, there was a shortage of Data Scientists and so I volunteered and started retraining, I managed to produce several R Shiny Dashboards, one of which was a tool that embedded a discrete event simulation leading to massive spending decisions and the creation of the Independent Monitoring Authority, a new organization set up to support EU Citizen’s Rights. With my new found love for code and data and my old age passion for Climate Change Mitigation, I decided to join BEIS and to led the largest household energy dataset in the UK, The National Energy Efficiency Data Framework.

However, Data Science wasn't enough, I had to retrain as a Team Manager and as a Classical Statistician. During this time, I caught the Entrepreneurial bug again and decided to experiment with app building. So I started to retrain as an MVP builder. I fell in love with Climate Tech and so I then decided to retrain as an Environmental Economist by getting a job as the Head of Carbon Pricing Strategy.

I managed to excel and got invited to speak at The Economist’s US Sustainability Week where I spoke about Carbon as an Asset Class.

Fast forward to today, I'm retraining yet again in Capital Markets at Goldman Sachs.

  1. “ I began my first business at the age of eleven by renting out my bicycle and exchanging used video games. ”

  2. “ In a business pitch competition, I came in second place at age 17, and at age 20, I got a scholarship to study for a master's degree at UCL. ”

  3. “ At the age of 23, I assisted in the development of a new Quango by building a simulation model. I am appointed team leader of the National Energy Efficiency Data Team at the age of 25. ”

  4. “ I released Key Data and Statistics on Energy Efficiency when I was 26 years old and was a member of the Eco-Innovation Board. A year later, I made a significant strategic contribution to a report on the UK's future carbon markets. ”

  5. “ At the age of 27, I gave a speech at The Economist's US Sustainability Week, which attracted over 10,000 people. I also received a spot at UCL's Hatchery, a competitive incubator. ”

  6. “ I have began my new position at Goldman Sachs as a Carbon Commodities Strategist just before turning 28. I would like to subscribe 2,000 households for GreenCheddar. ”