Christine Darla Bautista

London Business School

“Filipina entrepreneur, brand-builder, and public speaker championing gender-inclusive spaces in wellness, beauty, and health.”

Hometown: Quezon City, Philippines

Fun Fact About Yourself: A staunch advocate of women empowerment, I’ve sought for gender-inclusive spaces in Southeast Asia throughout my career. I have done this through launching scholarships for 40 Filipina women in male-dominated industries (i.e. automotives) as a Brand Manager at Procter & Gamble; starting a body-positive gut health and skin health supplements brand developed in Thailand and launched in the Philippines, and co-developing campaigns against online gender-based violence with UN Women as part of its 30 for 2030 Network (a select group of youth leaders from Asia).

Undergraduate School and Major: University of the Philippines Diliman

BS Business Administration 2017 Summa Cum Laude and College Valedictorian

Most Recent Employer and Job Title:

The OCBFF Corporation (Builder/distributor of leading Philippine wellness brands),

Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer

What makes London such a great place to earn an MBA degree? As I found out when I moved there, London is one of the best places to earn an MBA degree due to its unparalleled diversity and the fact that it’s a dynamic hub for several industries.

First, as a global melting pot, London has no dominance of a single culture – everyone is encouraged to come as they are and to become the best version of themselves while honoring their roots. Being able to measure your unique, personal perspective against perspectives from all over the world, means you can adapt your leadership style in various environments and hone your decision-making capability to consider new ideas.

Second, London is one of the top 5 cities in the world for Tech and Healthcare. Being such an important hub for these industries means gaining both easy access to global leaders through various conferences and having the convenience of networking anytime with employees of target firms. With London’s transportation system being one of the best in the world, it’s easier to access companies of all sizes for recruitment and increase time spent with classmates.

London Business School is one of the most culturally and professionally diverse MBA programs in the world. How do you see these global perspectives enhancing the value of your business education over the next two years? LBS’ diverse cohort was one of my top drivers for choosing LBS. With 90% of the class coming from outside the UK, the global perspectives in the campus will empower me to get a holistic view of business problems as a decision-maker, enhance my leadership toolkit to adapt to various cultures for a global career, and expose myself to a variety of cultural experiences just by being in the school. I come from an undergraduate degree in business in the Philippines. Having my career mainly in Southeast Asia so far, I’m excited to see not only how other cultures do business, but how they also view life and build their personal value systems.

Aside from your classmates and location, what was the key part of London Business School’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? LBS’ flexibility, with a focus on experiential learning, greatly cemented my decision because I wanted to couple my academic knowledge with a lot of practical opportunities to learn from real-life cases. LBS’ flexible exit points, its options to take classes in various formats (i.e. block weeks) and its support for term-time internships of up to 20 hours a week will greatly enable me to prepare for post-MBA life with more exposure to working for companies in London.

As a budding serial entrepreneur at a later stage in my life, these bring me opportunities to build my team and gain exposure in fundraising and pitching; LBS provides options to hone such skills through programs, such as its Entrepreneurship Summer School and its Summer Startup Experience, where I got to work with LBS Alumni Founders on their early-stage ventures in a region that I’ve never worked in (UAE).

What course, club or activity excites you the most at London Business School? As a staunch advocate of women empowerment through mentorship and community, I’m most excited to join the Women in Business (WiB) Club. Even before officially starting school, I’ve already seen how its network actively creates spaces for LBS Women to connect and support each other. This has happened through our WiB buddy program with women from across the school and the club’s invitation of prospective students to their EQUALL conference networking sessions.

I’m eager to join this community the most because it’ll empower me to see how I can be the best leader I can be while drawing strength from my womanhood. I’m deeply excited to contribute either my expertise in marketing in bringing awareness to the club’s initiatives or even connecting the club with my network at UN Women Asia 30 for 2030 (youth ambassador network that co-creates women empowerment campaigns with UN Women) to further the club’s impact and linkages outside the UK.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: My biggest career accomplishment is co-founding my first business, Trizie, a body-positive gut health and skin health brand focused on the Filipino youth. Founded amidst the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic, Trizie has become a disruptor in the Philippine wellness scene by providing an innovative solution and transparent, approachable fiber drink for gut health in a Filipino culture that formerly encouraged unsustainable diets.

I led my team in developing a digital launch campaign, called “No Cheat Days, Just Clean Days”. It spoke to a new audience: fitness-conscious young Filipinas, who struggled with reaching their fitness goals and felt the market’s options were unsustainably centered on “deprivation.” This E-Commerce-first campaign drove the well-being segment to triple in size in the Philippines’ biggest E-retailer.

Forwarding impact from the grassroots level, I’ve since led my team in working with 1,000+ body-positive content creators and 20+ feminist and youth organizations to forward our brand’s mission. Today, Trizie has built a community of 60,000+ customers, ranks as a Top 10-20 Health brand in Philippines’ largest E-Commerce platforms, and is distributed in 500+ drugstores nationwide. In the process, I’ve personally been recognized by Tatler Asia as one of its Gen.T Leaders of Tomorrow 2022 (top 300 emerging leaders in Asia under 40).

However, I cherish this experience most as it developed personal and organizational courage and resilience. Leaving my previous job as a P&G Brand Manager was a huge risk, but I received the rewarding opportunity to move to Thailand (our product development hub) amidst a tough pandemic to build a cross-country team (Philippines and Thailand) while developing our products with Thai factories. Similarly, my young team of mostly Gen Z employees gained courage to transform wellness.

What do you hope to do after graduation (at this point)? At this point, I hope to become a Product Manager or Product Marketing Manager in industries adjacent to my experiences (i.e. fem tech/ media/ e-commerce) to directly experience building agile innovations with global teams. In parallel, I will continue to advise the marketing and strategy teams of my business as part of its board.

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into London Business School’s MBA program? For prospective applicants, my two biggest pieces of advice would be the following:

 1. Immerse yourself in the community. I met with several members of the community, from alumni to staff and students; this was crucial for my research process as I heard amazing stories and shared how I would also achieve similar experiences in my application. More importantly, it enabled me to understand the plethora of ways I could contribute to the LBS community and what my unique voice in the campus could be.

2. Tell a clear, vivid story about why LBS. Having and depicting clarity on the role LBS plays in your own big picture vision enables the admissions committee to envision how you would contribute to campus and the greater school community. It shows why one of the limited seats in class should be offered to you.

DON’T MISS: MEET LONDON BUSINESS SCHOOL’S MBA CLASS OF 2025