Anthony Liu

UC Davis Graduate School of Management

“Adaptive, innovative MBA student with clinical trial experience. I love cooking and snowboarding.”

Hometown: Xi’an, China. Seattle, WA is my second home.

Fun Fact About Yourself: I’m allergic to mango. I guess not too fun for me.

Undergraduate School and Major: B.S. Molecular Biology, University of Washington

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: University of Washington Medicine, Clinical Research Coordinator II

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of the MBA curriculum or activities that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? The MBA program at UC Davis is very practical. My undergrad courses were focused heavily on those who wanted to become Ph.D.s and M.D.s. I made sure the business school I chose would prepare me for a rewarding career in the biotech industry.

The Industry Immersion electives and IMPACT project impressed me with the high level of hands-on experience. In our second quarter, we have the opportunity to solve real problems posed by senior executives from a variety of companies. These Immersions include Biotechnology, Food & Agriculture, Sustainable Energy and Technology Finance.

In our second year, the IMPACT (Integrated Management Project, Articulation and Critical Thinking) curriculum culminates in a 10-week team consulting project that gives students the opportunity to work directly with companies to solve pressing issues.

I just finished my first quarter at the Graduate School of Management. I can already connect the key knowledge we learned in economics with my past clinical trial management work to make sense about what and why my team made these business decisions.

Our professor pivoted to the online format quickly and taught us how to present ourselves via Zoom. I’m proud to say that I stopped using filler words when I speak so I am more concise and get my point across.

What quality best describes your MBA classmates and why? My classmates and friends are very collaborative, and I mean it. The small class size means you can reach out to everyone for help. We constantly answer each other’s questions on the all-class Slack channel. Everyone has been open and genuine to be a resource for each other. We formed many student-led job huddle groups to help each other with career development. Even though our first quarter was online, everyone was constantly checking in with each other. We had many Zoom parties and game nights. I can’t wait to give everyone a hug when COVID is over.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Clinical trial management is complex and highly regulated. I was able to develop a clinical trial start up program for our department. I independently manage five clinical trials cross-functionally and collaborated with many doctors and scientists.

What has been the biggest surprise in your first three months of business school? The MBA program is actually very quant heavy. I didn’t realize so many business, marketing, finance decisions are made based on data. The MBA program will prepare me with a much better understanding of data analysis and making data-driven strategic decisions.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? I have experience in clinical trial project management, where I constantly worked on budget development, customer engagement, and trial streamlining. I realized I needed the business skills and knowledge to make sense of the business decisions and strategy I was making at work every day.

What other MBA programs did you apply to?

University of Washington
University of California, San Diego
University of Southern California

What do you see yourself doing ten years from now? In 10 years, I want to lead a team of product/project managers in the biotech industry to develop strategies to achieve organizational goals, improve operational efficiency and meet customer expectations.

DON’T MISS: Meet The UC Davis Graduate School of Management MBA Class of 2022