I’m Irene Zhang from Cambridge MBA cohort of 2024–2025 and this year has been one of the most transformative chapters of my life. Before coming to Cambridge, I worked as a Sustainability and Energy Transition Consultant at EY, where I first became deeply engaged with the global shift toward low-carbon development.
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Category: Cambridge MBA alumni
I have officially graduated!
I am deeply grateful and excited to share that I have officially graduated from the University of Cambridge, Cambridge Judge Business School, after completing the full time MBA programme. To have studied at the same university where Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Stephen Hawking, and Srinivasa Ramanujan once walked the halls has been nothing short […]
What comes next: A reflection on my MBA year
Before I started the Cambridge MBA, I tried to imagine how I might feel at the end of it. Would I be radically changed? Burnt out? Crystal clear? The same? The truth, as it often is, is somewhere in the middle. This year did change me – professionally, intellectually, and personally. But not through a […]
Thinking about your career – an alumna view
Here’s part 3 of my MBA series – Thinking about your career Blue Skies Thinking (or is it?): career pivot & triple jumpsI was a hard-core number cruncher working in financial services in Mumbai, India; post MBA, I pivoted into Design Consulting in London, UK – I made the triple jump. It’s something I have […]
Living a life as an Indonesian Cambridge MBA student
“If you could give one piece of advice to your 18-year-old self, what would it be?” That was one of the essay questions I got while applying for the Cambridge MBA. As I close one of the most rewarding chapters of my life, I wanted to use a similar question as my reflective question to […]
What do you want and how far you are willing to go?
“Is an MBA worth it?” – Many people have approached me with the question. My standard response to that question is “It depends”. It might be irritating to know that every MBA graduate is likely to respond in a similar way but let me elaborate more on that point. “It depends on two things – […]
Tokyo Olympics – an insider view from an MBA alumna
Well, Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games hosted in 2021. That name alone encompasses some of the continuous confusion around a Games that was meant to take place during a global pandemic, only to be delayed to a year later when the Delta variant was causing a 2nd or 3rd (or 4th?) wave worldwide. And […]
Taking parental leave as a startup CEO – Sponsoo Founder and MBA alumnus
I just returned from the first out of four months of (part-time) parental leave. While I was spending time with my wife and my newborn son, I had lots of opportunities to think about my situation – wondering why it was still relatively uncommon for startup founders to officially take some time off. Here are […]
One year on – a Moroccan mishap
Covid-19 had very little impact on my life until fellow 2018 MBA Kris Padget and I went on, what was meant to be a short trip from London to Marrakech, last March 2020. Literally in the middle of the night, the Moroccan government suspended all incoming and outgoing international travel, resulting in us running a […]
A ‘Localing’ start up making an impact in 2021
At the end of last year Business Because featured MBA graduates in their feature ‘MBA Startups to look out for in 2021 – a coronavirus special’. We caught up with one of the founders, Deepak Ojha, to hear about the social venture ‘Localing’ that grew out of last year’s Covid crisis. Established in May 2020 with […]
MBA startups sharing a moment of HOPE
In the past 12 months, I became a mother, and this experience has changed my life in many beautiful ways. Whilst my husband and I were looking for a toy for our son in our local town, we realised that there was a lack of variety and options for baby goods. This led me to […]
Our MBA community shares a moment of HOPE
‘Although there have been many challenges in 2020, it has been a special year. I got engaged to my partner while living in and visiting beautiful cities and places I wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to be immersed in. Our relationship and our friendships have been strengthened as we have come to appreciate the people in our […]