We love to see our alumni thrive and to learn that their time at Emerging Strategy contributed in some way to their future success. The individuals profiled below excelled at Emerging Strategy and continue to apply the skills they learned on-the-job to their current endeavors.
Stephen McNamara
MBA from the Schulich School of Business
Master of Biomedical Technology from the University of Calgary and BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Ottawa.
Worked as Senior Consultant at Siemens prior to joining Emerging Strategy
as Senior Consultant, later promoted to Director of Special Projects. Currently Head of Global BD and Sales Transformation at ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions.
Career Development at Emerging Strategy
Initially I joined as a Senior Consultant, and was subsequently promoted to Director of Special Projects to lead the development of Emerging Strategy's On-Request business.
Several things at Emerging Strategy prepared me for my current role. First the diverse array of projects in international markets gave me good insight into how business is done in Asia. In addition, designing and launching a new business offering exposed me to how consulting business models operate and how organizations can be set up and managed.
A Memorable Project
I led several engagements in APAC markets, including a detailed SG&A benchmarking for one of the world’s largest electronics distributors. We benchmarked operations against 3 of their major competitors in 9 countries in APAC. This was a particularly challenging and complex project that involved considerable numbers of research (both desk research and interviews) in several local languages. In addition to leading projects like this, I also lead the development and launch of Emerging Strategy’s On Request business unit. This included all aspects of launching a new business – from product development to building a sales organization.
Chenni Xu
MA in International Studies and Diplomacy from The School of Oriental and African Studies at The University of London and
BA in Political Science and Economics from Columbia University. Worked at the United Nations and at Tsinghua University prior to joining Emerging Strategy as a Consultant, later promoted to Senior Consultant.
Currently in Corporate Communications for Ant Financial (Alibaba).
Career Development at Emerging Strategy
I was initially hired at the Consultant level and my focus was primarily on research and analysis. After less than one year, I was promoted to Senior Consultant where I led multi-country market sizing projects in the education sector and also assisted with business development efforts.
A Memorable Project
One interesting project that stood out for me was the multi-country PEST analysis project we conducted for an education company. I was able to call upon my political science and economics background to conduct macro and micro level analyses of the education sector in various countries. The discussions I had with my colleagues about this were fulfilling to me on a personal and professional level.
Career Path after Emerging Strategy
Moving to Beijing due to personal reasons, I was able to obtain a position at the strategic communications firm Hill+Knowlton Strategies (part of the WPP group). In my role as a Cross-Team Consultant, I work on strategy development for different projects across a number of industries, with a personal interest in public affairs. I also conduct business development and assist with internal marketing. I hope to advance at the company and perhaps move to another region within the company in the next few years!
James Bayliss
MSc in Advanced Management Practice from The University of Bath and BA in Business Management from The University of York. Worked as a Strategic Analyst at the Serious Fraud Office in the United Kingdom prior to joining Emerging Strategy
in a joint role as Chief of Staff and Business Development Manager. Currently Founder and CEO of Baytech.
Career Development at Emerging Strategy
To start, I worked in project teams, learning how research and consulting projects were carried out, whilst being exposed to business development initiatives within the company. As time progressed, I began leading project teams, developing my own business development initiatives, traveling with the Managing Director for global meetings and contributing to the wider growth of the organization.
Career Path after Emerging Strategy
Emerging Strategy provided me with considerable responsibility, above and beyond what you would expect from the industry. This meant I learnt and developed critical skills such as leadership, teamwork, communication and problem solving very quickly. The role was also very entrepreneurial and working alongside the CEO helped me understand the workings of organizations. After Emerging Strategy, I decided to transfer those skills and confidence I had gained to start my own venture, Baytech. The company has grown rapidly and now owns three brands and distributes electronic products to over 20 countries worldwide.
Urvashi Barooah
Urvashi was pursuing a B.A. at Middlebury College when she worked at Emerging Strategy as an Intern Analyst. She is currently an MBA Candidate at Wharton.
Career Development at Emerging Strategy
My internship at Emerging Strategy was my first experience with business analytics and problem solving. I was given full ownership of my workstreams and this liberated me to think independently and creatively. Many of the skills I applied then – including quickly learning an unfamiliar topic, breaking down complex problems into digestible pieces, making logical conclusions in the absence of concrete answers – are skills that I rely on today.
A Memorable Project
Over the course of my internship, I worked on a project for an American multi-national wanting to enter the English language learning market in China. My team was tasked with answering two questions: first, what are the characteristics of the market and the main competitors, and second, which Chinese cities should the client target for market entry.
Career Path after Emerging Strategy
I completed my B.A. from Middlebury College a year after my internship with Emerging Strategy. Post graduation, I spent about 3 years doing Mergers & Acquisitions consulting at Ernst & Young’s New York office. I took up my current job at BCG to broaden my scope from M&A to general strategy consulting.
We keep in touch with alumni via our LinkedIn Emerging Strategy Alumni group and our WeChat group, and alumni are always welcome to drop by for our Friday happy hour to catch up with the next generation of Emerging Strategy team members and to share war stories.