Making sense of my curriculum

I started my career as an engineer in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). My first training consisted of a two-year intensive preparatory course in mathematics and physics. This led me, after a competitive exam, to an engineering school where I did a year of military training - as a navy officer onboard a ship based in the Indian Ocean - followed by three years’ academic study in mechanical engineering, computer sciences, electronics, mathematics and statistics and a six-month research project in the field of satellite communication systems, at Purdue University (School of electrical and computer engineering), Indiana, USA.

After graduating with a Masters of Science in electronics (ENSTA Bretagne), and a research Master of Science in networking and telecommunication (Telecom Paris), I worked for four years with the French Ministry of Defence as a technical expert and project manager. I managed a team of technical experts and my work consisted mainly of assessing users’ requirements and writing technical specifications for ICT systems, such as satellite communication systems (the Syracuse III telecommunication system) and tactical data networks. In addition, I oversaw the work of the subcontractors designing and building these communications systems.

My naval experiences, as well as extensive international travel, heightened my interest in the study of society, history and culture. Gradually I felt the need to engage in a more social, inter-cultural and creative job. Due to contractual commitments, I was unable to leave the French armed forces immediately. In the interim, I undertook an undergraduate degree in Philosophy by distant learning in order to advance towards my goal of a career in the social sciences.

Upon leaving the military, I undertook three years of intensive study and completed three research masters: Economics at Science-Po, Paris; Political Philosophy*, at the Sorbonne; and Management* (a joint Master of ESCP-EAP, ENSMP and Ecole Polytechnique). I simultaneously worked as a research consultant at the Centre for Scientific Management* – a research centre of the Ecole des Mines de Paris, one of the France’s leading engineering schools. My work focused on the organisational and intercultural difficulties that the French car manufacturer Renault experiences in building development centres abroad, specifically in Romania, South Korea and India.

I am currently undertaking doctoral research in the Department of International Development at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences. Over the coming months, I will be conducting fieldwork in rural Uganda to investigate how quantified performance indicators are used by local community members to monitor public sector provision and challenge government officials on issues of service quality and clientelism. More generally my research interests lie with the many questions relating to public management in developing countries and weak states, issues I have begun to further explore through consultancy work in Uganda.

*: links relating to a presentation in French, sorry (no English presentation available).

Vincent Kienzler - International development - Social Accountability - Performance measurement and management - Community monitoring

CV

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Contact details

Vincent Kienzler
Department of International Development
London School of Economics and Political Science
Houghton St
London WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom
v.g.kienzler[at]lse.ac.uk