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What are you up to now?
I am in a doctoral program in Business Administration at Hanyang University in Seoul.
What made you study further?
After I was done with my MBA, my company, the Chosun Ilbo appointed me as a director of Health Chosun. So I thought it would be great to study marketing since my concentration in CUMBA was finance.
Why did you choose to do an MBA in Hong Kong?
Since I had studied in Taiwan and worked as a correspondent in Shanghai, I thought studying business in Hong Kong would help me understand the greater China area in depth.
Why did you choose CUHK?
I chose CUHK because of its long tradition. It was launched in 1962 and is the longest running MBA program in the region. Above all, it has a strong alumni network in the greater China area. The network is really well-organized. It even has an office in Beijing managing the network. The Mentorship Program helped me a lot too.
What is a Mentorship Program?
In the beginning of the MBA program the school assigns you with an alumnus who is successfully running his or her career in various sectors. I was assigned to a chief editor of a business daily in China. As I also worked in a newspaper company for more than ten years, we learned a lot from each other.
What was your favorite class?
My favorite class was Macroeconomics for Business Executives by Professor Suzzane Young.
Why was it so interesting?
She taught the integration of real economy and macroeconomic theories. When I was taking her class the mortgage crisis in 2008 was yet to come. At that time no media or experts were concerned about the mortgage issue in the United States. But the professor was lecturing about the potential sub-prime mortgage problem at that time. In hindsight, I was impressed that she knew in advance what was coming.
What changed you the most in doing an MBA at CUHK?
It is mandatory for every student to do a presentation in every single class at CUMBA. When I was working as a director of Health Chosun right after the completion of the MBA, I had a chance to give a presentation in front of foreign clients. We happened to start a debate on some issues in the middle of the presentation. At that moment I thought to myself, when did my English improve this much so that I could even engage in a debate with foreign clients without any miscommunication? So I guess my improvement in presentation skills is the biggest change that came as a result of the program.
As an alumnus of CUMBA, what advice would you give to the students who want to study at your school?
I personally think in order to understand mainland China, it’s better to look from the outside than from the inside since your views can be more objective. CUMBA even teaches you the business of ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia. So I believe CUMBA can give you a comprehensive understanding of the Chinese economy. If you want to be a true expert of the Chinese economy, CUMBA would be a great choice.
How about the admission process?
For the evaluation of the students’ English skills, the MBA doesn’t require any TOEFL scores. Instead, it requires certain numbers in GMAT verbal. Also the interview is really long and intensive. I had a one-hour face-to-face interview at the school. In the case of a phone interview, you have two interviewers, the MBA director and an admissions officer.
Interview by Chung Min-uck
