Henley Alumni Stories - stories from our community
Today we share the inspiring story from Alum Edward Ng, who shares his experience in becoming louder in voicing his ideas and the confidence Henley gave him to do this.
When I enrolled at Henley Business School - University of Reading Malaysia campus - in 2016, I did not arrive with a clear plan or a defined ambition. I was a boy from Skudai, Johor Bahru, raised in a family where money was never openly discussed but always quietly understood. My father ran a hair salon, my mother worked in a factory before moving into door-to-door sales, and while we were not poor, financial caution shaped many of our decisions. I grew up learning when to ask and when to stay silent, aware that every ringgit carried weight. Getting into Henley was not part of a grand strategy; it was an opportunity made possible by stubbornness, a scholarship that required me to maintain a 70% average, and a belief that education was the most reliable way forward.
I arrived not with ambition in its loudest form, but with a quieter, more urgent hunger - the kind that comes from knowing you have one real shot and cannot afford to waste it. Yet the transition into university life exposed a different kind of gap. Coming from a Mandarin-speaking background and a Malay-medium education system, I found myself in an English-speaking academic environment where participation, debate, and real-time articulation were expected. I understood the material, but I hesitated to speak, constantly weighing the risk of being wrong against the fear of embarrassment. For a time, I chose silence. At the same time, I was progressing academically but without clarity - treating business concepts as theoretical exercises rather than tools for real-world application. The bridge between knowing and doing had not yet formed.
That changed when I entered Dr. Shelen Ho’s Business Strategy class. Her approach to teaching was different - grounded not just in theory but in lived experience across banking, consulting, and entrepreneurship. Through her flipped classroom model, we were expected not just to learn, but to think, to challenge, and to defend our ideas. It was uncomfortable at first, but it was transformative. I learned to speak up, to structure arguments, to handle disagreement, and to see being wrong not as failure but as part of the process of thinking clearly. That shift followed me into one of the most defining experiences of my university years: the CIMB 3D Conquest fintech competition in 2019. Competing against over 700 teams across ASEAN, our team developed a digital wallet for teenagers with built-in parental controls. When we discovered a competing team had proposed a nearly identical idea, we did not pivot - instead, we went deeper, refining our reasoning, anticipating tough questions, and strengthening our understanding of the business model. That decision paid off. We won the regional championship, received a job offer, and more importantly, experienced firsthand what it meant to apply theory under real pressure.
Entering the workforce at CIMB, however, revealed another truth: the gap between classroom and career is real. Stakeholder management, organisational dynamics, and execution complexity cannot be fully simulated in an academic setting. But what Henley had given me was not just knowledge - it was the ability to close that gap faster. The structured thinking, communication under pressure, and habit of asking the right questions became the tools I relied on as I transitioned into product management and later moved to Singapore to join SeaMoney (now Monee).
Today, as a Product Manager working on card products and payment infrastructure across Southeast Asia, I operate at the intersection of business, technology, and user experience - making decisions that impact real users and real financial outcomes. The problems are more complex, the stakes are higher, but the foundation remains the same. Henley did not give me a fixed path; it gave me a way of thinking, a level of confidence, and a set of tools that continue to compound over time. Looking back, the value of my time at Henley was not just in the degree itself, but in the environment it created - one that challenged me, stretched me, and ultimately gave me the permission to believe that I belonged in rooms I once felt unqualified to enter. For someone who started with uncertainty and quiet hunger, that shift made all the difference.
What is one piece of advice would you share with a current student at Henley to inspire them in their career journey?
If I had to offer just one piece of advice, it would be this: don’t wait until you feel ready to start thinking like someone already in the industry. Start now.
Most students treat university like a rehearsal - a place to absorb knowledge first, then apply it later. But the real advantage comes when you flip that mindset. Treat every module, every assignment, every group project as if you are already a professional solving a real problem. Don’t just aim to get the right answer - ask yourself, “If this were happening in a company, what decision would I make, and why?” Because here’s the truth: the gap between a student and a working professional is not intelligence, and it’s not even knowledge. It’s how you think, how you communicate, and how you make decisions under uncertainty. If you start building that muscle early - speaking up even when your thoughts are not fully formed, challenging ideas respectfully, connecting theory to real-world use cases - you will graduate with something far more valuable than a degree. You’ll graduate with momentum. And momentum compounds. You won’t feel “ready.” I didn’t. Almost no one does. But the people who move faster in their careers are not the ones who waited for clarity - they’re the ones who learned to operate without it.
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