HKU MBA Insights Podcast

Geoff Mak (Class of 2003) has a wealth of experience in managing fashion and consumer brands in China. Leveraging his decades worth of experience, he has established his own training and consultancy business to help other brands break into the fast-growing consumer market in China. In this episode, Geoff explains how his HKU MBA experience equipped him with the skills and knowledge to navigate the complex business environment of China, and shares his unique insights on upcoming trends in China's dynamic and ever-changing consumer market.

Alex Qiu (Class of 2020) is the Founder and CEO of MR.SPARKLING, an original sparkling wine brand targeting young and trendy consumers in Mainland China. A born entrepreneur with a passion for alcoholic beverages, Alex played a vital role in promoting the burgeoning wine culture in China through his business ventures. In this episode, Alex shares his journey as an entrepreneur and how the HKU MBA programme helped him overcome the challenges of running a business.

Chandan Gupta, full-time MBA Class of 2012, is a Senior Relationship Manager at Credit Suisse. Through the HKU MBA programme, he successfully relocated from India to Switzerland via Hong Kong and changed his career from engineering to private banking. In this episode, Chandan discusses upcoming trends in the private banking sector and his career transformation.

Aakriti Jain, full-time MBA Class of 2020, is currently the Head of Marketing at BCW Group, a Web3 venture studio and enterprise consulting firm. In this episode, Aakriti talks about how her HKU MBA journey and the programme’s London track, which enabled her to study at London Business School, helped her build a career in Web3 and adapt to the challenges of working at the cutting edge of technology.

From organising networking events to liaising with professors, the MBA class representative plays a critical role in shaping the student experience. But more importantly, the experience and skills gained from this role remain relevant well beyond the MBA programme. In this episode, Iris Heung (Class of 2022) reflects on her time as an MBA class representative and the lessons she learnt.

Rajendra Shroff, an alumnus from our full-time MBA Class of 2019. He worked in the insurance industry in Hong Kong for seven years, after graduating from the London School of Economics, with a BSc Management degree. Raj was part of the Asia Pacific regional office overseeing strategic IT projects, transformation programmes, and other matters related to department finance analysis.

Since he really wanted to transition into investment management, Raj finished his CFA qualifications and then decided to pursue an MBA to make a career change. He now works as Director, Head of Applied AI Research at Blu Artificial Intelligence. In this episode, we speak with him about AI strategy and technology.

Dr. Neeladri Verma, an alumna from our full-time MBA Class of 2019. She now works in the health practice team at Economist Impact. After completing a master’s degree of dental surgery back in 2014, she started her dentist journey with India’s largest multi-specialty corporate dental chain, Clove Dental.

Later, Neeladri decided to pursue an MBA at HKU as she wanted to take her professional experience to the next level. In this episode, we speak with Neeladri about how she transformed herself from being a dentist to a healthcare consulting expert.

In this episode, we speak with Janice Li, an alumna from our part-time MBA Class of 2020, about the Future of Air Travel. She works in the aviation industry in Hong Kong. After graduating with an Aviation Management degree in Australia, she begins her career in the ground handling business, first in the area of private jets and later at a company that had a customer profile of over 40 international airlines.

She now works in strategy and service design at Cathay Pacific, in a role that designs and improves customer experiences on the end-to-end air travel journey.

In this episode, Bhavya Siddappa, our part-time student (Class of 2023), together with Lewis Chen and Reynald Reni, full-time students (Class of 2022) talk about the first-ever student-led HKU MBA ESG club, which was officially launched in February 2022.

The three committee members plan to create personal, academic, and professional development opportunities for other club members through social activities, green changes, eco-tours, panel discussions, and various networking and volunteering events. They are passionate about Environmental, Social, and Governance. By studying the HKU MBA elective course – Business Ethics, they found their purposes and would like to raise environmental and sustainability awareness amongst people who are interested in the same goal.

In this episode, we sit down with Stella Chun, a current part-time MBA student from the Class of 2022. She has over 20 years of extensive experience in consumer product and multinational corporations, including Swire Coca-Cola, Henkel, and GSK.

She will share her experience, insights, learnt lessons and the challenges she faced when she transitioned from the role of a Sales Director to being a General Manager, particularly amidst the pandemic.