Meet The MBA Class Of 2024: Van Nguyen, Texas Christian University (Neeley)

Van Nguyen      

Texas Christian University Neeley School of Business

“Always living life to the fullest and loves to travel the world.”

Hometown: Binh Dinh, Vietnam

Fun Fact About Yourself: I love autumn and have watched the entire series “How I Met Your Mother” more than 10 times!

Undergraduate School and Major:

  • School: Foreign Trade University, Ho Chi Minh Campus; Degree: Bachelor of International Finance
  • School: National Taiwan University of Science and Technology; Degree: MBA with Concentration in International Business
  • Professional designation: Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Charterholder

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Cathay United Bank Co., Ltd., Trade Finance & Corporate Lending – Overseas Product Manager

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of TCU Neeley’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? One of the key reasons I chose TCU Neeley is its experiential learning opportunities, especially the Educational Investment Fund (EIF). After years of working in Commercial Banking and serving corporate clients, I wanted to make a career shift to investments and accumulate more global investment experience. The EIF, one of the world’s oldest investment funds run by students, seemed like a great place to start! EIF entrusts and empowers students to take the lead on real-world investment decisions and investment management. EIF alumni have influenced organizations and fellow communities across the country, and I really wanted to join TCU Neeley to be a part of this experience.

What course, club or activity excites you the most at TCU Neeley? Financial Modeling is one of the most advanced and hands-on courses I have ever taken! This class provided us with a deep review of financial theories and mathematical skills and trained us how to use Excel and VBA to create different financial models and perform Monte Carlo simulations.

In addition, TCU Neeley exposes us to several case competitions through corporate partnerships including Dell Technologies and PepsiCo, which are great opportunities to learn about doing business in the U.S. and interact with leaders from prestigious organizations. They also give us the opportunities to work in teams with students from other business schools across the country and expand our networks beyond TCU Neeley.

I will be visiting Portugal and Spain with my cohort in January and am also looking forward to exploring different business environments and culture. This is a very exciting opportunity.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: After graduating with my previous degree in International Business in Taiwan, I joined Cathay United Bank as an Overseas Product Manager. As the only foreigner, I encountered language barriers and challenges in adapting to the culture. However, with determination and agility, I successfully leveraged my technical skills and trilingual capacity to help my employer establish global standards, bridge communication gaps, create overseas business strategies and introduce 30+ products in six APAC countries.

What is one thing you have recently read, watched, or listened to that you would highly recommend to prospective MBAs? Why? I would strongly recommend the book “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking” by Susan Cain. As future leaders, prospective MBAs need to sharpen not only their intellectual, but also emotional intelligence to be able to understand and manage their and others’ emotions. This book provides clues to differentiate introverts and extroverts and the ways they think, work, interact and recharge their energies. It provides tools and ideas to effectively manage a diversified team.

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into TCU Neeley’s MBA program? Be yourself. Emphasize what makes you unique as well as how you plan to leverage TCU Neeley’s resources to launch your future career. TCU Neeley values diversity and provides various support mechanisms and experiential learning opportunities to enable students to enhance their own and others’ academic, professional and social impact.

Candidates should first align their own goals with TCU’s offerings, and then clearly articulate how they would be a good fit for the program and how they can benefit from it. To me, it was not just how learning opportunities can sharpen my career development. With my passion for building learning communities to help people around me, I found the history of TCU, originally founded by a family to serve the local community, inspiring. By becoming a Horned Frog, I can learn from these achievements to form more significant and sustainable learning communities in the future.

DON’T MISS MEET THE TCU NEELEY MBA CLASS OF 2024