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Meet Our Hong Kong Jockey Club Scholarship Winners Kenneth Choi

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As director of business development for a restaurant chain that provides employment for senior citizens, Kenneth Choi was looking to build his quantitative skills to take his social enterprise to the next level. 

With support from a Hong Kong Jockey Club Scholarship, he’s earning an Executive MBA at Chicago Booth’s Hong Kong campus and preparing to expand his social impact.

  • By Executive MBA Admissions
  • May 30, 2023

What made you decide to pursue an Executive MBA?

I have always felt that education is the key to unlocking performance. I’d had some early successes in the social enterprise I run, but it was time to step outside my comfort zone to continue learning and growing. I knew I would be more confident if I had the proper skill set and new frameworks for growing the business, scaling it, and helping even more people in Hong Kong.

What factors played into your decision to attend Booth?

Initially I didn’t even look at Booth, but when I dug a little deeper, it just made sense. There’s no clearer decision than Booth if you’re interested in economics, and I like the one-week block timing of the program. I also knew that Booth has a heavy focus on quantitative analysis, and that is one of the skills that I wanted to build up.

What has been a significant or memorable experience that you have had during your first quarters at Booth?

Going back into a school environment where I feel safe experimenting has been amazing. At work I’m risk-averse, but school is like a playground where you can experiment. I’m meeting people who have different ideas about how to approach problems, and I’m working on teams again. It was tough at first, because it had been years since I’d opened a book, but I got a lot of support from the staff and other Boothies, and I discovered that I’m capable of so much more.

How did it feel to receive the scholarship? What did that mean to you?

It meant the world. I see it as a validation that people have confidence in me based on what I’ve done so far, and as an investment in me to do even better. The scholarship gives me the drive and the support to perform at a much higher level.

Do you have any advice for someone considering applying to Booth’s Executive MBA?

It’s a very rigorous course, so make sure you have the right balance between your personal life, your work, and Booth. The more you put into the program, the more you get back. Also, you need to be very clear about why you’re doing the degree. For me, I had a very clear goal: I wanted to upgrade my skills so that I could scale up doing good for Hong Kong.

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