ABOUT

Maximilian Lion is a former professional cricket player who went through the Zimbabwe Schools Cricket age group system. He was selected to play for Zimbabwe Under 19 when he was at Prince Edward High School and went on a tour of South Africa for a month and half. On tour he played a series of 4-day games in Cape Town, Boland and Eastern province. The tour moved to Johannesburg where he played in the Coca Cola Nuffield Under 19 cricket tournament.  

While on tour, the Director of the Zimbabwe Cricket Academy approached him about attending the Cricket Academy the following year. It was the first of its kind in the country and very competitive. The purpose of the cricket academy was to select 15 players from the whole country with the intention of moulding them to play for the national team in the future. 

The following year, he was indeed selected to go to the new CFX-Zimbabwe Cricket Academy. He spent a year at what was a high-performance centre with 6 months playing in the East Sussex, division one league in the UK. After a year at the cricket academy, he played First Class cricket.  

After playing first class cricket, he moved to the UK and pursued academic studies. He started with HNC Business Studies at Matthew Boulton College which was an accelerated course done in a year instead of the normal two.  

After Business studies, he went on to do an LLB Law degree at University of Wolverhampton. At university he was involved in extra-curricular activities mainly debating and mooting. In his second year, he got to the finals of the internal debating competition. He won the internal mooting competition and was selected to represent the university in the National ESU Mooting Competition. He reached the fourth round. 

In his final year, he was selected to be an Executive Member of the Student Law Society as Debating Chairman and Magazine Editor.  

As part of his legal work experience, he did three mini pupillages with: 

• Seven Bedford Row Chambers in London. 
• St Philips Chambers in Birmingham. 
• An assessed mini pupillage at Deans Court Chambers in Manchester.  
• Paralegal for RBM Solicitors.  

After his legal work experience, he pursued a Master’s degree in International Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation at Warwick University. The focus of his course was:  

• Law of International Financial Transactions. 
• Mergers and Acquisitions. 
• International Corporate Law. 
• International Economic Law. 
• Banking and Securities Regulations. 
• 10 000-word thesis on Financial Regulation.  

He found his studies intellectually stimulating. He gained a unique insight on the crucial role that financial markets play in the economy especially allocating money where it’s needed the most. At their best, they drive economic growth and eradicate poverty. However, his studies also exposed him to the detrimental side of financial markets. They are built on “risk taking” and it’s seen as an essential component of their function. Although risk cannot be eliminated completely, his studies demonstrated the need to balance business needs and creating a safe environment through regulation in order to avoid financial disasters.

The depth of the master’s degree made him fully appreciate the influence of politics not only on regulatory matters but every realm of life. As someone who is passionate about advancing humanity, he found himself gravitating towards politics and the world of ideas.

After his Master’s degree, he did an Intensive Trading course by Amplify Trading at Warwick Business School. He did training on how to successfully execute trades in the global markets based on 4 key aspects of trading: Prediction, Timing, Volatility and Risk. He did asset management simulation as well as sales trading simulation. The simulation was based on real events which meant analysing whether events where positive or negative for the markets.

He is currently researching on how developing countries can transform their political systems through ideas. The research was influenced by the realisation that there is no prosperity without a stable political system. Most developing countries have great potential but there is no order in their political systems. Elections are often a traumatic experience for citizens with violence, disputed results and leaders who won’t give up power even when defeated.

He enjoys going to the gym and running. He still plays cricket and golf.