2024 Best & Brightest Executive MBA: Cassia Lewis Cameron, UCLA (Anderson) and National University of Singapore

Cassia Lewis Cameron

UCLA Anderson School of Management and NUS Business School (National University of Singapore) – UCLA-NUS Executive MBA

Age: 32

“Textile Nerd. Creative. Fashion Enthusiast. Disney Addict. Foodie. Addicted Organizer. Extrovert. Talker. Mover & Shaker.”

Hometown: Raleigh, North Carolina, United States, now residing in Huntington Beach, California, United States

Family Members: Husband and Fellow Intake-19 UCLA-NUS EMBA, Matthew Cameron, & fur-baby kitty, Leo.

Fun fact about yourself: One of my favorite hobbies is visiting the Disneyland Park with Matthew. We are annual Magic Key Passholders and love to visit the Happiest Place on Earth a few times a month!

Undergraduate School and Degree: North Carolina State University, Wilson College of Textiles, BS Fashion & Textile Management: Product Development, Class of 2013

Where are you currently working? Senior Material Developer at Patagonia

Extracurricular Activities, Community Work and Leadership Roles: Council Member of the Wilson College of Textiles, Dean’s Young Alumni Leadership Council, UCLA-NUS EMBA Intake -19 Class President, active child sponsor through Compassion International since 2008, and loves kickboxing, skiing, surfing, hiking, biking, yoga, and being outdoors in Sunny California!

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? Proud to be the recipient of a joint Forté Fellowship scholarship from both UCLA and NUS and honored to be selected by my classmates to represent our Intake-19 cohort as Class President! I am also thankful to have some of my work featured in the NUS BizBeats newsletter!

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? I would have to say I am most proud of continuing to represent my family legacy in textiles, with my father also having a background as a textile engineer and graduating from the Wilson College of Textiles at NCSU in 1994! My father and I both were recipients of the Erlanger Merit Scholarship during our undergraduate careers. After my graduation in 2013, our family now sponsors the Lewis Family Scholarship through the North Carolina Textile Foundation. I am so proud to support and encourage future generations in their pursuit of textile education in college!

Who was your favorite MBA professor? I would have to say that, thus far, my favorite professor in the UCLA-NUS EMBA journey has been Professor Kulwant Singh in our Competitive Strategy Course in the Shanghai November Segment.I felt that the course content, case study analysis, and the pre- and post-reports were elevant and helpful business tools gained for immediate implementation in my daily work for Patagonia. Even more, the framework context was extremely applicable for our entrepreneurial company, MusaSTEM, launching through the Business Creation Program (BCP) capstone. I took away principles of strategy, the relation to creating and capturing value, and quoted nuggets of guidance from Professor Singh. They included, “Think strategically, when possible, it is always possible – never random thoughts!” that I expect to use for the rest of my career. I also loved taking Service Management with Professor Jochen Wirtz and Economic Analysis for Managers with Professor Jo Seung-gyu!

Why did you choose this school’s executive MBA program? My work and relationships in the textile supply chain are largely based out of Asia and the eastern hemisphere. One of the main factors for choosing the joint UCLA-NUS EMBA program was the emphasis and added context of business in Asia. Other factors included the entrepreneurial-focused BCP capstone, as well as the 16-month program timing with in-person segment weeks hosted in various countries for a global immersion experience.

What is the biggest lesson you gained during your MBA and how did you apply it at work? Wow! To narrow down to just one is tough! I think maybe what I would share is that the combination of learnings and lessons, from both academic instructors and practical perspectives of my classmates, has been some of my greatest takeaways. So much of what we have worked through has directly changed my approach and mindset in my daily work, including leadership frameworks, principles of strategy, customer loyalty and satisfaction, and accounting basics.

Give us a story during your time as an executive MBA on how you were able to juggle work, family and education? Probably the best story is our initial start and first segment in Singapore! Since Matthew and I found out about the EMBA program late in the application process in March, our timing for preparation for the first segment was tight for our first day in Singapore. On April 6, 2023, our situation got a bit more intense with our landlord at the time, sharing they needed us to vacate our home due to a medical emergency with the landlord’s parents and moving them into our home. With less than four weeks until travel for the UCLA-NUS EMBA program, we located a new home property, boxed up five years of our life, and moved the weekend before making the trip to Singapore.

This same weekend was our first deadline for pre-segment school assignments – needing to turn in multiple case study analysis by midnight, the very same night of the move and same last day in our home. With the condensed timing and having had just paid our school tuition, we weren’t able to hire help, so Matthew and I personally moved all our belongings and pulled two all-nighters, getting no sleep in the 72-hour window of our move. We submitted our papers and assignments at midnight and continued to move our possessions through the night.

With the very last load in transit, Matthew then looked at me and shared that he needed to go to the hospital right away. In the move, he had jostled a kidney stone and was in intense and terrible pain. The 24 hours before leaving for Singapore, we sat in the hospital, with all of our possessions boxed on the porch of our new house. Matthew flew the next day on the 17+ hour flight to Singapore, despite the terrible pain of passing a kidney stone and we proceeded to push through our first days of class while he passed the stone!

Moral of our story – this program is intense and is a big commitment, in the 16 months of this program, there will be some hectic and challenging times in balancing daily work, home-life, personal health, and the other stresses of life that could happen outside of school!

What advice would you give to a student looking to enter an executive MBA program? Make sure you are ready to put in the time and energy commitment needed to get out of the program what you desire! Just like most things in life, “what you put into the program is what you will get out of the program”. So my biggest advice would be really planning for the capacity this program will need in your 16-month commitment. I am grateful to work for a company that is encouraging and supportive of my pursuit of higher education. This allows me the time needed for in-segment sessions and the flexibility to travel and work remotely. This is an incredibly rewarding experience, but it does consume a lot of bandwidth and require sacrifices – so ensuring you are prepared to dedicate the time and effort needed to get the most out of the program is critical!

What was your biggest regret in business school? I wish I had done more research and understood more about the financial implications of participating in a global and international MBA program. As a student from the US, there are very limited international scholarships, and private and US student loans do not generally extend to international programs. I misunderstood going into the program, thinking that my US student loans would be eligible for the NUS portion of the program. In hindsight, Matthew and I might have waited another year or two to allow for a year of savings. It was really challenging financially to manage tuition for both of us as students without the support we were thinking we would have received from US student loans.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? Well, I am biased and so I most admire (and love) my husband, Matthew Cameron! Haha! SUPER TOUGH QUESTION!! WOW – I struggle to select just one classmate as we have a surgeon, pilot, business owners and many extremely impressive individuals in our cohort! Hoping it’s okay that I call out a few of my top five candidates and share reasons why:

Ghim Song Goh is the unspoken Class President in Singapore and is such a remarkable representative for our Singaporean classmates. Professional – yet funny and hilarious, his jokes and class antics with fellow member, Darren Liew, our Chief Funny Officer, have made my EMBA experience unforgettable.

Lorimer Yong is not only is Captain in his daily life, but is revered as a Class Captain by all in our cohort. His ability to capture and engage those in the room and clearly articulate the topic at hand is unparalleled in our intake.

Ayo Canlas is the wittiest of our cohort, and frequently will push the envelope to clearly identify boundaries. He amazes me with his ability to juggle his CFO & APAC VP of Finance role at Shark / Ninja, EMBA studies, and role as a father.

Naohiro Shoji has the most humility of our cohort and has garnered the respect of our entire class. While quiet and observant, when shared, Nao’s insights and perspectives are always enlightening and deep.

Finally, THE WOMEN of INTAKE-19!! As one of the first intakes to hold equality in gender distribution with almost half female representation, I cannot choose just one! Each of these working women and/or mothers are incredibly inspiring. In the words of the 2023 Barbie Movie Monologue: “It is literally impossible to be a woman” given of all the societal pressures and demands. The women in this intake are all torch bearers for higher education, motivating and proving that women can and deserve to pursue our career and professional goals!”

What was the main reason you chose an executive MBA program over part-time or online alternatives? I think the main factors were a 16-month timeline, in-person in-segment weeks as global immersions, and years of industry experience accepted in place of a GMAT or standardized test score. Again, the emphasis on Asia business, entrepreneurial capstone focus, and specific dual-degree program offering were also extremely influential in my decision to apply for the UCLA-NUS EMBA!

What is your ultimate long-term professional goal? My core goal and mission, as a textile industry member and career professional, is to use my career in a way that provides dramatic change to the industry’s standards for sustainability and innovation, while encouraging a focus on philanthropic change for good.

After time spent in orphanages in India and Ethiopia, and child sponsorship in Guatemala, Kenya, and Ecuador, I ultimately want to drive change and make social impact for children globally through my talents and skillsets in business and textiles.

I hope on completion of the UCLA-NUS EMBA Program, to launch a pilot facility for our business, MusaSTEM, which we are currently bringing through the BCP capstone, creating meaningful impact in Guatemalan local communities.

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