Miriam Daucher
University of California, Los Angeles and National University of Singapore (UCLA-NUS Executive MBA)
Age: 35
“Builder of people-centered transformation, thriving at the intersection of business, tech, and human potential.”
Hometown: Singapore (Originally from Germany – not sure what to put)
Family Members: Married to my husband Lukas; very close to my family in Germany.
Fun fact about yourself: I seriously considered becoming an archaeologist – now I “excavate” organizations instead.
Undergraduate School and Degree:
- BSc Psychology – University of Ulm, Germany
- MSc Psychology – University of Ulm, Germany
- Exchange studies – University of Massachusetts (USA) and Universitetet i Bergen (Norway)
Where are you currently working? Strategic Initiatives Leader for Asia at Mercer (soon Marsh)
Extracurricular Activities, Community Work and Leadership Roles:
- Conference speaker on future of work, skills, and AI
- Mentor to graduates and early-career professionals in Singapore
- EMBA cohort contributor (especially for social events)
Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? Building a venture concept from scratch in the longevity space – an industry I never expected to work in, but became deeply fascinated by during the program.
What I’m most proud of is how rigorously we approached it: hypothesis-driven, grounded in real customer research, and willing to pivot when the data challenged our assumptions.
Watching it evolve from a collection of exciting ideas into something genuinely executable completely changed how I think about innovation, strategy, and building businesses.
What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? I’m most proud of taking the leap to move to Asia when the opportunity came up and fully embracing an entirely new environment, culture, and way of working.
It was one of the biggest shifts of both my professional and personal life. Suddenly, I was operating across different markets, leadership styles, and cultural contexts far outside what I had known before.
What makes me proud is not just that I made the move, but that I leaned into it – building relationships, listening closely, adapting quickly, and learning from the people around me. It fundamentally expanded how I lead, collaborate, and see the world.
Who was your favorite MBA professor? That’s a really hard choice because we had so many outstanding professors with very different styles and strengths. But if I had to pick one, I would probably choose Elisa Long, our Data and Decisions professor at UCLA Anderson School of Management.
As a psychologist, I had already gone through plenty of statistics classes in the past, but her approach felt completely different from my undergraduate experience. She made the subject engaging, practical, and genuinely relevant for business leaders – not just technical.
What stood out most was how she combined analytical rigor with accessibility and curiosity. Whether someone already had a quantitative background or was completely new to the topic, everyone walked away feeling more confident and capable.
I also really appreciated how thoughtfully she incorporated emerging AI capabilities into the learning experience. It made the class feel incredibly current and practical, and I took a lot away from it far beyond statistics itself.
Why did you choose this school’s executive MBA program? To be fair, I explored a few different programs at the beginning of the process, but the joint program between National University of Singapore and UCLA Anderson School of Management stood out almost immediately.
What really attracted me was the strong focus on doing business in Asia while still being truly global in perspective. The international immersions and exposure to different business environments around the world made the learning experience feel much bigger than a traditional classroom program.
I was also drawn to the cohort itself. The size and diversity created a much more personal experience compared to larger programs where you can easily become one of hundreds. We genuinely got to know each other, learn from each other, and build strong relationships along the way.
And of course, having two outstanding institutions behind the program made it incredibly compelling from the start. The more I learned about it, the more convinced I became that it was the right fit for me.
What is the biggest lesson you gained during your MBA and how did you apply it at work? One of the biggest lessons I gained during the EMBA was that even the best strategy means very little without strong execution.
Before the program, I was already working closely with senior leaders on transformation topics, but the EMBA gave me a much broader understanding of the operational, financial, and organizational realities behind enterprise-level decision-making.
What surprised me was how quickly I was able to apply those lessons. A few months ago, I stepped into a new regional strategic role that was quite a significant shift from my mostly consulting-focused background. Suddenly, I was much closer to the ongoing realities of running and shaping a business across markets, not just advising on it.
The timing could not have been better. The EMBA helped me think much more intentionally about governance, prioritization, stakeholder alignment, and measurable outcomes – not just the “what” and “why” of transformation, but how to actually operationalize it.
Give us a story during your time as an executive MBA on how you were able to juggle work, family and education? There honestly wasn’t some magical balance formula. There were definitely weeks where life felt really chaotic.
One moment that stands out was during one of our international modules while I was simultaneously supporting major priorities at work across different time zones. I remember being in classes all day, taking calls late into the evening, coordinating with colleagues back in Asia, and still trying to make space for relationships.
And I think it becomes even more challenging when your family and support network are not physically where your day-to-day life is. Living abroad while doing an EMBA means that when something difficult happens back home – including health-related situations in the family – you are trying to navigate emotional stress, distance, work responsibilities, and academics all at once.
What helped me most was learning to prioritize much more ruthlessly and becoming comfortable with the fact that not everything can be perfect all the time. I was also incredibly fortunate to have strong support from my husband, my employer, and the program itself during some more difficult moments.
The EMBA really reminded me that careers are rarely individual efforts – they are enabled by strong support systems, flexibility, and relationships that help you keep going when things become difficult.
What advice would you give to a student looking to enter an executive MBA program? Be very clear about why you are doing it because there will definitely be moments where you need that reminder.
I would also say this: Don’t approach the EMBA as a degree you simply complete. The real value often comes from the people around you, the conversations outside the classroom, and the moments where your assumptions get challenged.
And finally, apply things immediately. The biggest advantage of an EMBA is that you can directly connect the classroom to real business situations the next day at work.
What was your biggest regret in business school? It was probably not slowing down enough to fully absorb some of the experience while it was happening.
The pace of the program is incredibly intense, especially while working full-time, so you naturally move quickly from one deadline, module, or flight to the next. Looking back, I wish I had documented more moments, reflected more intentionally, and sometimes simply paused to appreciate how unique the experience really was.
Now, as we are entering the final stretches, I am trying to focus on that a lot more.
What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What insights did you gain from using AI? One thing I found particularly impressive was how openly the program engaged with the reality that AI is fundamentally disrupting education and academia itself. Different professors approached it in very different ways, but many were actively adapting both their curriculum and the way they evaluated students.
What I really appreciated was the openness and encouragement to actually use AI tools – both for studying and in parts of our assignments – rather than pretending they did not exist. The focus became much more about critical thinking, application, judgment, and discussion than simply producing polished outputs.
At the same time, it sparked really interesting conversations about the future of learning and assessment. One professor even mentioned that, in a world where AI can generate increasingly sophisticated written work, one of the best ways to truly assess understanding might eventually be more human interaction again – for example, oral exams or direct conversations with students.
I actually found that perspective very refreshing. In some ways, AI may push education to become more personal, discussion-based, and human again, because genuine understanding, curiosity, and the ability to think critically in real time become even more important.
What was the main reason you chose an executive MBA program over part-time or online alternatives? I was looking for a highly immersive experience that would challenge me far beyond just academics. At the same time, I genuinely love my work and enjoy the career path I’m on, so stepping away from it completely never felt like the right choice for me. The executive MBA allowed me to continue growing professionally while simultaneously expanding my perspective and capabilities in a completely different way. In many ways, it even helped me navigate a significant pivot into a new regional strategic role during the program itself, without having to pause or step back from my career momentum.
For me, the executive MBA format created a very different level of intensity, exposure, and peer learning compared to what I felt I would get from a more flexible or primarily online alternative. I also knew that I personally learn best through interaction, discussion, debate, and shared experiences – not simply through consuming content independently online.
The international immersions, company visits, group work, and conversations outside the classroom became just as valuable as the formal curriculum itself. And having that experience with a truly global cohort, across different countries and business contexts, is something that can really only be replicated in a program like this.
Of course, it was also incredibly intense at times. But one underrated advantage of the modular structure was that it still allowed for the occasional weekend off to reconnect with normal life, recharge, and come back fully engaged again.
How did you finance your EMBA and what did you do to make tuition and associated costs more affordable? The majority of the EMBA was a personal investment, combined with careful financial planning over time. My employer did contribute financially to a certain extent, but honestly, the biggest support was the flexibility and trust they gave me to pursue the program while continuing in a demanding full-time role.
I approached the EMBA very intentionally as a long-term investment in my growth rather than a short-term expense. Continuing to work full-time throughout the program definitely helped, especially since tuition payments happened in stages and could be managed over time.
Of course, with an international program, tuition is only one part of the overall cost. There were also significant travel and accommodation expenses tied to the global immersions. But for me, I didn’t want to optimize so much for savings that it came at the expense of the overall experience.
I wanted to fully experience the program – staying where the cohort was staying, arriving a little earlier or leaving slightly later when possible, spending quality time with classmates, and exploring the local business and cultural environment around each module. Some of the most meaningful learning and relationship-building honestly happened outside the classroom.
So yes, my bank account will probably be quite happy when the EMBA is officially over – but looking back, I definitely think it was worth investing a little extra into the experience itself.
What is your ultimate long-term professional goal? Honestly, I’m not someone with a perfectly fixed long-term master plan – and some of the most interesting moves in my career happened precisely when I stepped into something where I didn’t fully know what to expect next.
What I do know is that I want to be part of the major transition we are currently living through. Not just around AI, but also broader technological, demographic, societal, and workforce shifts that are fundamentally changing how organizations and societies operate. It is sometimes daunting, but also an incredibly fascinating time to be alive and to build a career.
I don’t just want to observe those changes, I want to actively help shape them. That is why I’m especially drawn to roles at the intersection of strategy, transformation, leadership, and people. I enjoy helping organizations navigate complexity while keeping sight of the very real human impact behind business decisions.
Over time, I hope to continue broadening my enterprise and leadership experience, taking on greater responsibility in shaping business direction and decisions. At the same time, I also hope to continue being a voice for the people side of transformation during periods of rapid change.
Beyond that, I’m genuinely open-minded about where the journey leads. Right now, I’m incredibly happy in Asia and have no plans to leave anytime soon – the region has been an amazing place for both personal and professional growth. But I’m also deeply curious by nature, fascinated by different industries, cultures, and markets, so I’m excited to see where that curiosity takes me next.
DON’T MISS: BEST & BRIGHTEST EXECUTIVE MBAS: CLASS OF 2026
© Copyright 2026 Poets & Quants. All rights reserved. This article may not be republished, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written permission. To reprint or license this article or any content from Poets & Quants, please submit your request HERE.
