2024 MBA To Watch: Alice Garner, INSEAD

Alice Garner

INSEAD

“Grew up between Europe and Asia with work experience at Sotheby’s and within startups.”

Hometown: Singapore (for the moment)!

Fun fact about yourself: I have six siblings

Undergraduate School and Degree: University of Cambridge, BA Hons, Chinese Studies

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school? Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (in conjunction with the World Economic Forum), Pre-MBA internship working on a report presented at Davos this year.

Where did you intern during the summer of 2023? NA

Where will you be working after graduation? NA, recruiting has not yet started.

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School: NA, clubs have not yet recruited for these roles.

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? I am most enjoying our extended project for “Introduction to Strategy” in which we are conducting external analysis into the health care industry in East Africa.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? The achievement I am proudest of in my career was at Sotheby’s auction house when I controlled the back-end of an auction in New York from London during COVID-19.

Time difference and the move to more remote auctions meant that I had a lot more time than my colleagues in New York to do the last-minute adjustments on the day of the auction. However, I wonder how many clients raising their paddles in sale-rooms in New York knew that the auction was being controlled from my locked-down London apartment!

Why did you choose this business school? I chose INSEAD as it is a truly international business school. There is not one dominant nationality represented on campus which makes for fascinating discussions in class.

Who was your favorite MBA professor? My favorite MBA professor is Professor Eric Uhlmann who teaches us for Organisational Behaviour 1. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of the work of his contemporaries.

In class, so many times my peers and I ask questions that start with “I have observed… is there data/research that backs this up” and he has the answer right there and then!

What was your favorite course as an MBA? My favorite course is Introduction to Strategy led by Professor Hyunjin Kim. I am enjoying it most due to the extraordinary exposure our lecturer has to the decision-makers within companies and thus real-life examples she can use when teaching (with sensitive material redacted of course).

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? My favorite MBA event at INSEAD is the PLDP (Personal Leadership Development program) kick-off task. All I knew was that we were being taken to Kusu Island (in Singapore) for a day.

I remember receiving the invite and thinking I wonder what they will do to us there? I won’t reveal the surprise for future batches but it was a lot of fun!

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? I would like to do more travelling with my MBA classmates but there is still time for that.

What is the biggest myth about your school? INSEAD has a reputation for being very intense and it is but you just have to decide what you are going to focus on.

At the end of the day, it is great training for the business world where you will always have more work than you can do well, but just have to learn to prioritize.

What did you love most about your business school’s town? Having worked at Sotheby’s I have an interest in culture and heritage, Singapore is wonderful for this with no end of museums and festivals to explore.

What surprised you the most about business school? Everyone is kind, supportive and down-to-earth. I guess I expected classmates to be more competitive with each other but INSEAD students really focus on collaboration.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? Businesses talk a lot about DEI initiatives but disabilities/medical conditions and the business world is still a topic that is little discussed.

Every day I see my classmate Xenofon Mitakidis, who has Diplegy, making his way to class on his elbow walking aids and I am in awe of how much extra effort he must be putting into the MBA experience just to get from A to B.

There is a lot of talk about resilience in business, but when I see him I think: “That is true resilience.”

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list? Leave the business world better for under-represented groups. Have a career of which I am proud.

What made Alice such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2024?

“Alice majored in Chinese studies from a prestigious university and embarked on a professional journey commencing in mid-2018 at Sotheby’s, specializing in Chinese and Japanese art. As a British national, these facts appeared quite unusual and appealing to the Admissions Committee. Notably international in her outlook, with a pronounced emphasis on China and its neighbouring nations, where she has amassed considerable experience, she is actively engaged in diverse volunteering initiatives. Alice demonstrated fluency and adeptness in all her application materials and exhibited promising potential for fruitful discussions both in and out of the classroom.”

DON’T MISS: MBAS TO WATCH: CLASS OF 2024