Our Tsinghua-INSEAD Executive MBA (TIEMBA) Class of 2024 began their journey September 2022 on the INSEAD campus in Singapore.
We caught up with a few of them to find out what motivated them to embark on the TIEMBA programme, their impressions so far about their faculty and classmates, and some advice they would share with prospective candidates.
The TIEMBA programme is a worthwhile investment for working professionals who seek broader business vision and new opportunities.
Alice Cui
China Talent Lead at Airbnb
Chinese
Alice is an HR leader with more than 15 years of experience working in the tech industry and a fast expanding multinational environment. She is skilled in value and leadership development in the local market, setting up talent succession pipelines as well as organisational diagnosis, design and development.
"In an era of rapid change it was critical for me to refresh my vision of business, and connect the dots from business practices", she says.
"The TIEMBA programme had a good reputation in its inclusive and diversified culture and business perspective and provided the best resource and opportunity for my learning experience and career exploration."
"The TIEMBA is like a voyage of discovery," Alice shares. "You have the chance to set sail with a diverse group of teammates and professional faculty to explore the new continent along the learning journey in the business world."
"The TIEMBA is a supportive learning environment where the class leaves no one behind."
Philippe Rose
Business Development Manager for Carbon Capture at Shell
Swiss
Professionally, Philippe's role is to drive complex public-private partnerships in the energy transition. He has more than 18 years’ experience working in China, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Brunei, Nigeria and other countries.
He descibes himself as having a truly global outlook and a naturally collaborative and pragmatic person who is quick to climb the learning curve on new subjects.
"Initially, I applied to the TIEMBA because I wanted to engage with business issues in China after missing out on an opportunity to relocate to Beijing at the start of the pandemic," Philippe shares.
"Now that the programme has started, my motivation has evolved: it’s about exploring different ways of ‘being’ as a leader and doing so in a safe environment where everyone is open to change."
"Joining the TIEMBA could open so many more opportunities for career growth in my sector."
Karolina Astaman
President Director, Surbana Jurong Indonesia (Surbana Jurong Group)
Indonesian
Karolina started her career as an architect and has a passion for property business and real estate. In her current role she is responsible for the overall management, strategy and leadership of a consultancy businesses in key sectors such as infrastructure and urban design.
"I consider myself as having a strong technical background and experience in operations", she says.
"However, I am eager to expand my management knowledge and skills to drive significant growth of the company and to enable me to undertake a regional/international role in future."
"Joining the TIEMBA could open so many more opportunities for career growth in my sector, with a renewed focus on environmental, social and governance concerns. I hope to significantly enlarge my network in China, ASEAN and globally through the INSEAD network and acquire relevant skills for the businesses of the future."
"The TIEMBA has provided an instant boost to my network and helped me to establish new relationships in a pro-business environment."
Adil Parvez
Senior Manager, TMT Strategy Consulting, Altman Solon
British
Adil is a senior consultant with over a decade of experience in TMT, sports, and entertainment across both the public and private sectors.
One of his's key motivations for joining TIEMBA is personal and professional development.
"The Leadership Development Programme or LDP is a keystone of the TIEMBA programme and is designed to elevate your mindset to think like a CEO/CXO, leveraging your strengths and addressing individual blindspots," he says.
A second reason was to vocational relevance to his career and goals. "INSEAD is the top school in the world to learn about strategy and refine my consulting toolkit and combines the technical excellence and “techy” prowess of Tsinghua", he feels.
"The professors are amazingly passionate and knowledgeable, and the learning is very practical with real cases."
Juan Wu
Business manager - Organic chemicals at Solvay S.A.
French, Chinese
"I have a chemical engineering background, and even though I have accumulated significant experience in different areas of business management along my career, I still felt that I miss the systematic approach and in-depth strategic thinking, " shares Juan.
"Then I discovered TIEMBA, a top global Executive MBA programme with a focus on Asia, which is a very dynamic and different region. I want to reemerge myself in Asia after 20 years in Europe, so it is a perfect fit for me."
"The professors are amazingly passionate and knowledgeable and the learning is very practical with real cases, so the content can be related and applied to work."
