Elaine Shi

IMD Business School

“Unconventional banker.”

Hometown: Suzhou, China

Fun Fact About Yourself:  My childhood dream job was to be a DJ

Undergraduate School and Major:

Graduate: University of Exeter, UK;

Undergraduate: Curtin University, Australia; Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, China

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Vice President, Derivatives and Alternative Investment Department, Guosheng Securities Co, Ltd

What quality best describes your MBA classmates and why? Leaders with empathy, passion, and sustainable vision.

I’m lucky to have my MBA colleagues who work hard-in-hand and stand by each other with care and support while living their lives with great passion. We’ve been through a special time this year together and are a group of people with sustainable commitment and actions.

Aside from classmates, what part of the school’s MBA programming led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? The Personal development and leadership stream was key.

I deem personal potential development and management as a strong foundation for a successful career life, which is one of the main reasons that I chose to study for an MBA. IMD’s edge on leadership attracted me.

IMD has a reputation for being intense, with heavy reading and assignments. Did the school live up to its reputation? What did you do to get through the workload?

The course is intense but well-designed, as I expected. By focusing on time management and prioritizing to be efficient, I could maximize my output and keep on top of things.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Supervised over $7bn OTC (over-the-counter) customized derivatives deals in one year, while building relationship with clients/ partners ranging from local financial institutions to listed international companies in industries.

Describe your biggest accomplishment at IMD so far: Meeting and becoming friends with so many amazingly intelligent colleagues, who are both fun and intelligent. As President of the Speaker Committee, I have the honor of being one of the connection facilitators between IMD insiders and outsiders, bringing my classmates direct insights on the industry trends and visions from this special year with its various challenges.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? I wanted to broaden my vision from pure finance to general management, as well as prepare myself to make a move from banking to business operations

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Columbia business school

What did you do during the application process that enabled you to get accepted into IMD? I participated in IMD’s first Shanghai Assessment Challenge, which is an intensive one-day group assessment. I focused on problem-solving through teamwork and enjoyed my high energy flow on that day.

What is the biggest epiphany you’ve gained about yourself or the world since you started at IMD? Emotions, energy, and mentality are the three inseparable gears in our health. Self-understanding starts from recognition and development on each and the inter-connection of the three gears.

DON’T MISS: MEET IMD’S MBA CLASS OF 2020