Where the Cambridge MBA takes you: 3 alumni stories

Every Cambridge MBA journey is unique. That is partly the point: the programme draws people from different sectors, countries and career stages and sends them out into the world having gained not just a qualification, but a different perspective on what they are capable of.

For the 3 alumni featured here, the MBA was a pivot point. What followed took each of them somewhere they could not have fully predicted and in every case, it took them across the world.

From the mines of Mexico to the vineyards of New Zealand: Tyler Hammond’s unexpected pivot

Tyler Hammond (MBA 2017) came to Cambridge from a career spent in some of the world’s more remote locations, including mining sites in Australia, Chile and Mexico, working in blasting engineering and operational efficiency. He was ready for a change of pace. What he did not expect was that the MBA would eventually lead him to co-found a wine brand.

When COVID hit, Tyler found himself back in Marlborough, New Zealand. He was back on his family’s farm, a property that had been in the family for 155 years, first as a sheep farm and later as a vineyard. Together with his brother, sister and a friend, he launched Tiraki, a premium sustainable wine brand rooted in Māori heritage.

“I think it has been immensely satisfying to build something that is entirely your own,” he says. “And probably if I had not done the MBA, I might not have had the confidence to go out there and give it a shot.”

Tiraki is now sold in around 30 countries and its wines are served in the first-class lounges of American Airlines. The brand is also the first B Corp-certified winery in New Zealand, a reflection of the values at its heart.

Tyler now splits his time between working in strategy at Versuni in Amsterdam and building Tiraki’s presence across global markets. The Cambridge network has followed him throughout. MBA classmates have helped with everything from marketing strategy in China to being enthusiastic early customers around the world.

From the pipeline to the boardroom: building Strathen Group

Bhuvan Maingi (MBA 2018) began his career as an engineer in Canada’s energy sector, leading root cause analysis across pipeline infrastructure. It was grounded, operational work and it shaped how he still thinks about business today: “The best strategic decisions are never abstract,” he says. “They are grounded in operational reality.”

The Cambridge MBA gave him the lens to translate that operational instinct into something broader. Through the Cambridge Venture Project, he worked with mOm Incubators on go-to-market strategy for the world’s first portable neonatal incubator. This device has since helped save the lives of more than 1,500 babies in Ukraine. Through the Global Consulting Project, he led decarbonisation research for Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

After Cambridge, he joined Baringa Partners, co-building a climate transition model later acquired by BlackRock, before moving into senior roles across fintech and enterprise strategy. He eventually founded Strathen Group, a boutique strategy and execution consultancy. Bhuvan remarks: “Strategy without execution is theatre. Execution without strategy is motion. Organisations fail in the gap between them.”

Out of 4 members of Strathen Group’s Leadership Council, 3 are his MBA 2018 classmates, a reminder that the relationships built during the programme have a habit of outlasting it.

Finance across ASEAN: Dai Kadomae’s path from Tokyo to regional advisory

Dai Kadomae (MBA 2009) began his career as a certified public accountant (CPA) at Big 4 firms in Japan, building a strong technical foundation in valuation, due diligence and corporate transactions. But he came to realise that finance is not only about accuracy. It is about judgment, communication and leadership.

The Cambridge MBA was a defining moment for him. It helped him connect financial analysis with strategy, markets and people, and gave him the confidence to move across different finance environments. After Cambridge, he worked in capital markets at Nomura and Citi, before moving into CFO roles at listed companies and startups preparing for IPOs.

Today he runs GARYO FINANCE, an independent advisory firm working with companies and startups across ASEAN on cross-border mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, valuation and strategic finance. He also writes regularly on ASEAN capital markets for publications including Nikkei Asia, Bangkok Post and The Business Times Singapore.

“ASEAN is full of under-analysed and undervalued companies, fragmented capital markets and misunderstood risks,” he says. “I believe there is a need for clearer financial language to bridge regional businesses with global capital.”

His ambition now is to contribute to practical finance education for the next generation of professionals, building on what Cambridge gave him and paying it forward to those who are just starting out.

The Cambridge thread

Three alumni. Three industries. Three continents. What connects them is not a single career path but a shared foundation: the confidence, the network and the perspective that the Cambridge MBA builds. This foundation continues to shape what they do long after graduation.