Anita Jiang

CEIBS (China Europe International Business School)       

Age: 46

“An upbeat risk manager who prepares for the worst and hopes for the best.”

Hometown: Shanghai, China

Family Members: Jeff Yan (husband), Anya and Angie (teenage girls)

Fun fact about yourself: When I was young, I secretly believed I had the ability to read people’s minds. I started to collect stamps from my teenage and still enjoy it now. I like to keep a journal (I went digital with it in recent years) and I write down my new year resolutions (FLAG) every year.

Undergraduate School and Degree: Nanyang Technological University Singapore, Bachelor of Accountancy

Where are you currently working? Morgan Stanley Securities (China) Co., Ltd. – Chief Risk Officer

Extracurricular Activities, Community Work and Leadership Roles:

• Recipient of CEIBS Global EMBA 2020 Outstanding Graduate Award
• Global EMBA Public Profile Ambassador Award
• President of GEMBA Reading Club
• GEMBA 2020 CCT member
• Panelist for multiple CEIBS GEMBA forums and campus events

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? Supported by the school faculty, we launched the CEIBS GEMBA Reading Club in April 2022 with a group of classmates who are all keen readers. This was at the peak of pandemic lockdown in China, where people were seeking ways to get reconnected and rejuvenated. The aim of the club is to provide an active social platform for GEMBA students and alumni to enjoy reading, have fun, share knowledge, and take the learning journey forward together. During the past year, we have organised 10+ events occurring both online and offline; we had face-to-face sessions with authors on their newly published books, including The Heart of Business, Rogue Waves, and Leadership with Soul, and we routinely share our reading lists and recommended books.

We even launched our “pickaboo” series, where we picked various books by voting, read them together, organised regular discussions, and invited professors and even the authors to share their insights on the book and related topics. So far, we have read The Culture Map, Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order, and Leadership and Self-Deception in depth. Next, we will seek opportunities to work together on CSR activities, so our Reading Club can contribute to the community and society in a sustainable manner.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? My professional career so far has been largely focused on risk management in the financial industry. I have lived and worked through 1998 Asian financial crisis, the 2008 global financial crisis, the 2010 Euro-zone debt crisis and, the next financial crisis could already be brewing. The two global financial institutions I have worked for – Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley – are both constantly reinventing themselves to become more resilient in the face of such crises. Risk management is about diversification and building a forward-looking, proactive, transparent and resilient system. I’m very proud of my efforts that have contributed to building such systems for my employers. A risk management mindset is not only essential to an organisation, it’s equally important for personal and family planning.

Who was your favorite MBA professor? I respect and love all the professors I have come across at CEIBS. If I had to name one, my favorite professor would be Professor of Management Katherine Xin. She designed and developed a closed-loop Leadership Stream Programme, starting with our GEMBA 2020 class. It comprises a continuous learning journey from the Opening Module on understanding our leadership style and dealing with conflict, leading to a Mid-term Module on leading people-focused change management and the Exit Module for high-performance leadership. There is a common theme throughout the programme which fully elaborates and reinforces the concept of Secure Base Leadership. It is the foundation for daring and caring, grit and resilience, empathy and purposeful leadership. Prof Katherine teaches with a strong personal touch. Her teaching style is warm and approachable, intellectually stimulating, and thought-provoking, all of which encourages self-discovery and the application of new learnings to one’s work.

Why did you choose this school’s executive MBA program? I applied to the CEIBS Global EMBA during the height of COVID in 2020. This is a global programme which is most suitable for senior corporate executives who attempt to connect China and the World in business development. The programme benefits from diverse student profiles hailing from different industries and culture backgrounds. The actual curriculum I underwent during 2020 to 2023 was significantly affected by the COVID lockdown and restrictive-border policies when we couldn’t feasibly attend the planned global modules. However, I don’t feel disconnected with the rest of world, as I got to meet people from different nationalities and diverse working background – professors, classmates and alumni. This was a great decision I made, to invest in myself during a time of various uncertainties and pains. I am fortunate enough to have found a close-knit learning community which supports me as I navigate through the ups and downs of work and life.

What is the biggest lesson you gained during your MBA and how did you apply it at work? The biggest lesson I learned is to appreciate my own personal leadership style and gain the confidence to embrace uncertainties and conflicts. This is a mindset shift from avoiding conflict to confronting conflict in a healthy and purposeful manner. When I was asked the question: “Do I like conflict?” in the classroom, I firmly answered NO. Later, I recognised that conflict can be an emerging opportunity to understand others better, create new bonds and achieve a better overall result. At the workplace, resolving conflict effectively creates a high-performance team. It requires the fostering of psychological safety within an environment of trust. This is something I can do within my team while also finding ways to influence the wider working environment.

Give us a story during your time as an executive MBA on how you were able to juggle work, family and education? Our time is limited, but it doesn’t always have to be equally divided between work, family and education. Family support is important for us to enjoy a wholesome GEMBA learning journey. I brought my husband to the introductory session of the CEIBS GEMBA programme with me, so that we are on the same page of what the programme requires in terms of time and personal commitment. I always try to strike a balance (of course, I’m not successful every time) by constantly prioritising what’s most important at a particular point of time if there is conflict between work, GEMBA activity or family commitments. During the 28 months of my GEMBA programme, my two daughters were also advancing their academic studies. My eldest started attending a US university in 2022, while the younger one is finishing her senior year and will also go to a US university in the summer of 2023. It feels great that I am able to be back to school, as if I am learning and growing together with them. It’s also testament to the fact that we do not stop learning as we grow older.

What advice would you give to a student looking to enter an executive MBA program? An EMBA has to come at the right time in your life. The very first question we have to ask and answer ourselves is this: “What I want to get out of it?”. Setting appropriate expectations according to your own circumstances is important for planning what you’d like to focus on during the EMBA journey. To me, I wanted a whole immersive experience with both academic learning and plenty of meaningful interactions with peers and professors. That’s why I invested so much time in study, serving people, participating in various community activities, and organising events. Accordingly, I got out much more than I put in.

What was your biggest regret in business school? My biggest regret is that quite a number of classmates left China to other countries during 2022, largely due to COVID disruptions and job or family relocation reasons. Hopefully, China will attract such talented people back over time. I’m also looking forward to taking four global modules within next five years as school has planned for us, when all of us can get back together again. Basically, we get the best of all worlds – post-COVID care-free travels and extended GEMBA-plus learning experiences, all with our close-knit GEMBA 2020 community!

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? I love my GEMBA 2020 cohort, as everyone has a unique personality and represents such diverse backgrounds. I can learn different things from each of them. To name one, I do admire Andreas Hornfischer. He is currently General Manager of E.G.O Components (China) based in Taicang city, one hour drive from Shanghai. He found a home in China after working and living here for 10 years. He has become the city icon for Taicang (among the top ten German Friends of the city). He actively shared what he learnt in his GEMBA journey with his employees and instilled the culture of driving excellence at his workplace. He successfully guided his company through the COVID lockdown and ensured that their supply chains remaining viable. He is highly disciplined and turned himself into a hiker, climber, boxer, and cyclist, and became one of the fittest guys in our class. He also demonstrates what is life-long learning by completing the training programme and becoming a certified ChangeMan Facilitator this year. He is a role model for everyone with his high energy and learning spirit.

What was the main reason you chose an executive MBA program over part-time or online alternatives? The CEIBS Global EMBA is a part-time programme which works best for senior executives who want to retain their jobs while expanding their perspectives and acquiring new skills outside the workplace. In terms of online vs offline alternatives, nothing can replace active offline experiences involving genuine interactions with people, going beyond the academic side of things to include networking, dining and drinking!

What is your ultimate long-term professional goal? With 25 years of work experience under my belt, my long-term profession goal is to create a meaningful impact for the people around me in the business world. When we climb up the corporate ladder and shoulder more responsibilities, the sphere of influence caused by our actions also becomes bigger. Our power and decisions will impact more people, not just the business results. My focus will be more on people, who are the ultimate drivers for everything we can achieve as a team.

What made Anita such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2023?

“Anita is an exemplary student both in and outside of the classroom. She drinks in everything that any learning situation has to offer, eager to understand new perspectives and insights to advance her own (already broad) business mindset. Ferociously academic, she holds the joint-top GPA in her class, yet still finds time to throw herself into a wide range of extracurricular events and groups. She is a committed CCT member and the President of the student-led GEMBA Reading Club – an apt position for her, as she so actively seeks out new ways to learn and share knowledge with her peers and friends. It was this attitude that led Anita to winning the GEMBA Public Profile Ambassador Award of 2022 in recognition of her tireless efforts to advocate for GEMBA and increase its standing and reach. Put simply, Anita is the embodiment of the lifelong learning approach; she fully recognises that knowledge is best utilised when it’s shared and applied. This makes her an invaluable executive to her firm, and a beloved student and peer here at CEIBS.”

Professor Bala Ramasamy
Professor of Economics, Associate Dean; Director of GEMBA Programme
CEIBS

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