Alumni stories: Changing the world with Max Bittner

“Everyone can write their own story” - How Max Bittner’s approach to UCL life gave him the confidence to change the world.

Some people know exactly what they want to do in life from an early age. Others live from one opportunity to the next, navigating their journey by instinct. German businessman and entrepreneur Maximilian Bittner falls into the latter category, and his own journey is remarkable.

Transformational scale

After graduating from UCL in 2001 and taking an MBA at the Kellogg School in the USA, Max entered the worlds of finance and business with Morgan Stanley, then McKinsey & Company. But all the while, Max’s entrepreneurial spirit was bubbling under - eventually coming to the surface in 2012. Backed by Rocket Internet, Max set about revolutionising retail in South East Asia by launching the Lazada online shopping portal and its associated delivery services. A huge success, in 2018 Lazada was reportedly sold to the Alibaba Group for “billions of dollars”.

Now, Max is CEO of Vestiaire Collective, and a key figure in the growing international market for sustainable high fashion. “The things I agree to do have to have some scale, and the possibility to be really transformational,” he says. “That gives me the motivation I need.”

Eclectic culture

Not every decision Max has made along the way was perfect. On arrival at UCL in 1997, he found himself on what he considered the ‘wrong’ course - Classics. Realising that it was the historical aspect which fired him up, he switched to History and Economics. “The history was the part I loved,” he says. “The economics was what I needed to help me figure out what to do afterwards.”

Max says his years at UCL were “incredible”. His cohort was a key factor. “UCL had a super-humble group of people,” he says. “It’s the nature of the location of the university. You have the balance of the adventurous spirit and fun parts of London, combined with the cosiness of the campus itself. That attracts adventurous, curious people who want to make the most of their experience. I also found the teachers that I had were all incredibly inspiring, but at the same time realistic about the real world. I think that’s important.”

Eclectic people make for an eclectic culture, which Max believes makes UCL truly special: “Everyone can write their own story at UCL. There are people like me - I got involved with the sports clubs, playing rugby. There are people who are very artistic. There are people who love the clubbing scene. And there are people who are very academic. It’s such a varied environment, and I think it’s unique.”

Base strength

Max attributes his inner confidence - that which allows him to do business at the highest level - to his willingness to immerse himself in the unfamiliar. And this, he says, was the key to his time at UCL. “I was able to become part of something that was almost everything I’m not - playing rugby, a very English sport, and studying in English, which is not my native language. That gave me a lot of confidence and allowed me to get to know who I am.

“That base strength now allows me to live my life the way I want to live it, without compromises. My advice to any international student going to UCL would be to embrace not just the international side of UCL, but also the British side of it - it’s something which has been of real value to me.”

Circular economy

After the success of Lazada, Max is now CEO of Paris-based fashion reseller Vestiaire Collective at a time when its function - allowing designer items to be re-sold with strict authentication processes - is striking a chord with many. He believes his work there is just getting started. “We are facing economic uncertainty for large parts of the planet, so given that some people are becoming more price-conscious, and others are looking to sell some of their clothes, Vestiaire just happens to be providing solutions to the zeitgeist.

“I want to help fundamentally change the way people think about consumption. It’s about creating a circular economy and behaving sustainably - repair, recycle, reuse. I think people are becoming much more aware of the need for that.”

The global pandemic has also given Max time to consider how else he can make a difference, and he recently made a sizeable donation to the UCL Coronavirus Response Fund. “I have wanted to reconnect with UCL for some time,” he says. “Hopefully, this is just the first step and I can do more. It reflects my belief that of all the things that I would ever be philanthropic about, education is the most important. If you educate people, they can make real change happen. And what better place to start than at UCL? It’s the place that helped to form me.”

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