What and when did you study at INSEAD?
I did the GEMBA Program 2013-2014 mostly out of the Singapore campus, and also travelled to Fonty, Abu Dhabi and San Fran as a part of it. It was awesome!
Tell us about your career to date.
I started my career in veterinary medicine – I was a veterinarian for 4 years, and then was the technical vet in the sales & marketing divisions of big pharma and supplement companies for animal health for about 8 years. I was at the pharma company when I started at INSEAD. Post-INSEAD, I joined BCG and was there for 5 years in total, including a one-year break where I worked for a fintech SaaS startup. Now I am the COO for a last mile logistics company transforming customer delivery experiences for leading brands, called Deliver In Person – and loving it!
How did INSEAD transform your life?
Having the INSEAD MBA opened so many doors – I would not have been able to make the transition to strategy consulting without INSEAD (and I have tried). From there, a plethora of career options opened. My biggest reason for doing the MBA was because I wanted a career change. Whilst it’s quite fun to look at cute pictures of dogs and cats all day as a sales/marketing industry vet, working cruisy 9-5 hours, I found it very limiting for my career and what I wanted to achieve, and most importantly, I was bored to tears! The INSEAD MBA helped me build the networks, know-how, confidence and credibility needed for a career leap – I wish I did it sooner! I’m certainly not bored now!
Have you got any hidden talents?
I am quite obsessed with diving – freediving, scuba diving… and along with that, I know a LOT about custom-fitted wetsuits and neoprene materials. I have a side hustle selling custom-fitted wetsuits from Italy (eliossub.com.au), and my hidden talent is that I’m terribly good at measuring people up for it.
How can you help the INSEAD community?
I am helping organise quarterly get-togethers in a restaurant/hospitality venue! Join us sometime! It’s an excuse to eat somewhere nice and hang out with a bunch of awesome INSEADers, and you don’t know who you’ll meet!
What are your top memories from your time at INSEAD?
Fonty is just the best, isn’t it! My most vivid memory is sharing a big old provincial style chateau in Fonty with a bunch of INSEAD classmates. It was so old that we were convinced it was haunted, even though it was actually quite nice. It didn’t help that I just watched The Conjuring during the flight over, there were a bunch of dead bees in the stairwell from a fumigation, and there were hidden rooms in the attic that said “do not enter”. How could I now possibly sleep in a room with an old antique wardrobe by myself… I resorted to sharing a room with another classmate and having to sleep with the lights on……….. thankfully, the rest of INSEAD was less frightening!