What began as an adventure in the Australian outback led to an academic career: At the age of 30, Steffi Weil, then manager of an IT consulting firm, decided to take a one-year sabbatical: „I thought it was now or never,“ she says. „That was the unexpected beginning of a new life.“ Simply taking her mind off things in the vastness of Australia wasn’t her thing, she needed a way to pass the time. So Weil spontaneously enrolled in a short summer school. The focus: Chinese politics – which was followed by a second master’s degree, a joint PhD, and ultimately professorships at the Antwerp Management School and the University of Antwerp.