Meet The Berkeley Haas MBA Class Of 2021

Chukwunalu Akpati

University of California Berkeley’s Haas School of Business

Hardworking, good-humored, and reliable team player; always looking to push my boundaries.

Hometown: Lagos, Nigeria

Fun Fact About Yourself: I love sports, especially soccer. However, the only time I play soccer is on my video game.

Undergraduate School and Major: Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Mathematics 

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Citibank Nigeria, Liquidity and Investments Product Manager.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: In just a few weeks into my role at Citi Nigeria, I helped unravel an issue that had resulted in significant distortions to key business performance information and also helped proffer a solution going forward. I was only able to achieve this by engaging with the relevant stakeholders across different functions and asking the right questions. My bosses and colleagues were amazed at how quickly this came about and even referenced this during the affectionate send-off I got at my departure nearly two years after.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? Warm-hearted. In the early interactions with my classmates, it was reassuring to see so many kind and friendly people who appeared genuinely interested and willing to lend a hand.

Berkeley Haas is founded on four Defining Leadership Principles: Question the Status Quo, Confidence Without Attitude, Students Always, and Beyond Yourself. Which pillar resonates most with you and why? Although I feel connected with every one of the leadership principles, the one that resonates most with me is Students Always. The world is brimming with learning opportunities. By having the outlook of a student, we open ourselves to tremendous possibilities for personal growth and discovery. I believe that by being students always, we develop a mindset that allows the other leadership principles to flourish.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key factor that led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you? A key factor that echoed through the application process and in my interaction with alumni and current students was the culture at Haas. I was looking for a place where I would have meaningful interactions with my classmates beyond academics and career pursuit. The feedback I received all the time was that the Haas culture was more than just rhetoric but rather fully embedded in the program, students, and faculty.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? I’m looking forward to the Africa Business Club because part of my goals is to engage in the opportunities and challenges of the business landscape across Africa. I am also keenly interested in a number of professional clubs like the Haas FinTech Club, Finance Club, and the Strategy Club.

What was the most challenging question you were asked during the admissions process? The most challenging question for me was the six-word story. Personally, this was where I spent most of my time during the application as it required a lot of deep introspection to find the experiences that pretty much told my story and involved the painstaking effort to summarize these experiences in just six words. In the end, after a couple of personal quiet times and rewrites, I was able to settle on six words which I believed told my personal story. 

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? After several years in commercial banking in Nigeria, I began to feel a bit constricted and realized that I needed to expand my horizons and gain a much broader perspective of business and the global economy. After considering my options, it was clear that an MBA provided the best vehicle to achieve this and I decided to follow through with it.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Stanford GSB, Duke Fuqua, Yale SOM, UT – McCombs

How did you determine your fit at various schools? The key factors I looked into were the school’s reputation, the location, and the culture. I developed a composite ranking (using several renowned rankings) as my proxy for reputation and filtered location based on other personal preferences. Culture, however, was a more difficult factor to evaluate.

While the best advice is to visit the schools to get a true feel of the culture, this can sometimes be impractical, especially for international students like myself. However, there are still several resources available to help determine what program would be ideal for you. I obtained a lot of information from the schools’ websites and other third-party online resources (e.g. Poets and Quants, GMAT Club, etc.). I also reached out to a few alumni and current students to get details of their experience. With all this information, I was able to decide among the schools where I was accepted.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? After my undergraduate degree, I spent a year in one of Nigeria’s poorer and volatile regions as a teacher in a public secondary school. I was particularly impressed at how several kids from very poor backgrounds were eager to learn and develop amid adversity. While it provided an opportunity to lend a hand, the experience helped me better appreciate my little blessings and challenge myself to consistently find ways to grow and improve.

Where do you see yourself in ten years?  In ten years, I hope to have had years of leadership in an impactful career and be actively involved in developing the business landscape across Africa. I would also be extensively involved in encouraging and inspiring young Nigerians and Africans to continually push beyond their current status and strive for greater.

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