St.Gallen MBA Alumni – Connecting Switzerland and Asia The MBA programme at the University of St.Gallen attracts a diverse range of nationalities each year and around 25% of our MBA Alumni come from across of Asia. On graduation, some return to Asia and others remain in Switzerland or elsewhere in Europe. As their careers progress, however, all of them are contributing to the growing connections between Swiss and Asian businesses. We caught up with two of our graduates from the classes of 2005 and 2006, one based in Asia, the other in Switzerland, whose careers place them at the forefront of developing economic ties between Europe and Asia:
The St.Gallen MBA at the HSG TALENTS Conference
The MBA Lounge – companies recruit young HSG Alumni and students with work experience On the 6th of March 2012, the third MBA Lounge took place during the official career fair of the University of St.Gallen, the HSG TALENTS Conference. The MBA Lounge module attracted companies who are particularly interested in students and alumni with work experience and international backgrounds. The MBA Lounge was open for MBA students, doctoral students and HSG Alumni with four to six years of work experience. 15 recruiting companies joined the MBA Lounge this year and we were pleased to welcome back some of our partner companies like BASF, Hilti, IBM, Detecon, Zurich, A.T. Kearney, Glencore, JTI and Deloitte as well as welcoming some new recruiting companies like Amazon, Dow Chemicals, gateB, Hexagon Metrology, Barclays Capital and AGCO Company.
Linda Lorz Kaifeng Jin (MBA Alumnus, Class of 2006), upon graduation, first joined Rieter in Winterthur and then moved to the Basel operations of a Swedish consulting company, SAM Consulting Group (www.sam.se) in Basel. Kaifeng is able to combine his local knowledge of the Asian markets and cultures with the European ways of doing business and is successfully helping Asian clients optimizing their operational processes using an award winning concept. Kaifeng is based in Basel, Switzerland, since many of the clients are head quartered in Europe. His time at the University of St.Gallen helped him understand different business cultures and it is now easier for him to connect European and Asian clients during a project. Shyh Jih Lee (MBA Alumnus, Class of 2005) initially secured a position with Microsoft in Singapore and now works for the Swiss company ERI (www.eri.ch), a family-owned busi-
16 alma 2/2012
ness offering banking software solutions for clients mainly in the private banking sector. ERI is based in Geneva and Shyh Jih works as business solution manager for the company's Asian HQ in Singapore. He spends his time focusing on developing relationships and securing Asian clients for the company, mainly in China, Taiwan, Indonesia and Hong Kong. His Asian clients value the Swiss private banking practices highly and, although the practices need to be adapted to the different Asian markets, the Swiss way of doing business is a good reference point in his client meetings. On a daily basis, Shyh Jih is able to successfully leverage his experience and Asian background with the knowledge of the Swiss market he gained while studying at the University of St.Gallen. We are looking forward to catching up with them again in another five years to see how they are doing!
www.mba.unisg.ch
MBA-Lounge at the HSG TALENTS Conference.