Tuan Nguyen

Ivey Business School at Western University

“Tuan is a data professional from Vietnam with 9 years of experience in various industries.”

Hometown: Hanoi, Vietnam

Fun Fact About Yourself: I can solve a 3×3 Rubik’s cube in under 30 seconds

Undergraduate School and Major: SolBridge International School of Business

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: CTO at Joon Solutions

How has the case method enriched your learning?  The case method has been an absolute joy for me so far. Instead of passively absorbing information from lectures, we extract knowledge from real-world examples that are much more memorable. For instance, if someone mentions lease accounting, my mind immediately relates to Starbucks, how the company relies on it, and how changing the regulations affected its business.

Aside from classmates and cases, what part of the school’s MBA programming led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? For me, the length of the program is a crucial aspect that affected my decisions. Being in the technology industry, where changes happen every day, being out of the workforce for two years is very costly for me. In addition, being a non-commuter school means that the people of Ivey spend a lot more time together and develop deeper and hopefully longer-lasting relationships.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: My biggest accomplishment to date is bootstrapping and scaling my data consultancy after working in corporate for 8 years. I knew going in that I would have to do everything, but I was still shocked by the amount of work when we first got started. I also realized that building a talented and diverse team is extremely difficult when you have a limited budget and zero reputation as a company. Despite that, we managed to build an amazing team of 30 people and served more than 20 clients globally within our first year of operation.

Describe your biggest accomplishment as an MBA student so far: This may sound cliché, but my biggest accomplishment as an MBA student so far is all of the relationships that I have built. I have learnt so much from my classmates and formed relationships that would last

Where is your favourite hang-out in London (Ontario)? Why do you (or your classmates) gravitate there? My favourite place to hang out in London Is Gibbons Park. The park offers an open area of green spaces with various activities to do. I would often go here with my friends for a jog or do some barbeque.

What is one thing you have recently read, watched, or listened to that you enjoyed and would highly recommend to prospective MBAs? Why? I recently watched a video on YouTube titled “How Cheap Hydro Could Become the Next Clean Fuel” and really enjoyed it. Solving humanity’s energy problem is on everyone’s mind and is a big focus of any great MBA program.

What did you do during the application process that enabled you to get accepted into Ivey? I think having a good narrative of who I am, why I did what I did, and why Ivey is the next best thing that I can peruse helped set me apart. I focused on one storyline and used various means such as the interview, my resume, and my essays to express that.

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