When the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a standstill, Cheryl Cao joined many professionals around the world in re-evaluating her career path.  

An architect by training, born in China but raised in Spain, Cheryl decided to supplement her creative background with a deeper understanding of global business by going to business school. She enrolled in the Tsinghua-HEC Paris Dual MBA.  

We spoke to Cheryl to hear more about how studying the East-West dual MBA has influenced her career journey.   

From architecture to business

Before joining the Dual MBA, Cheryl built an international career spanning architecture, real estate and investor relations. Each role gave her exposure to different industries and ways of thinking.  

When the pandemic hit in 2020, Cheryl decided it was the right time to formalize her understanding of global business through an MBA that would help her to navigate uncertainty at a time of momentous change.  

“I wanted to do an MBA to gain an overall perspective and deeper understanding of how the economy, business, finance, and operations work,” she says.

Why the Tsinghua–HEC Dual MBA

In choosing an MBA, Cheryl wanted a program that would fit with her international background while also helping her reconnect with China. She had never formally studied in her home country since moving abroad at 12.  

She found that the Tsinghua Global MBA, partnered with HEC Paris to offer students the Tsinghua–HEC Paris Dual MBA, provided the balance she was looking for.  

“Tsinghua is the best university in China,” she says. “Through its Global MBA program, I gained systematic insights into how Chinese businesses operate on a global scale. As China’s market evolves rapidly, with new trends and technologies emerging and shifting at an incredible pace, I wanted to understand how companies adapt to such a dynamic environment—and that’s one of Tsinghua’s key strengths.” 

She points out that the Tsinghua MBA stands out for its unique integration of deep local expertise and a global vision, which has significantly enriched her understanding of how the Chinese economy—the world’s second-largest—operates, grows, and influences global economic trends. 

This experience contrasted sharply with her time at HEC Paris. “Europe is highly fragmented, with each country having its own regulations and business culture,” Cheryl explains. “You have to constantly adapt to different systems and learn to communicate effectively across diverse contexts.” 

The Tsinghua-HEC dual MBA program—which brings together two top-ranked business schools from China and Europe, according to QS—is distinguished by its international outlook and the synergy of two distinct business environments. 

“Tsinghua taught me the ‘China speed’: how to seize opportunities quickly and at scale. HEC, on the other hand, instilled in me Europe’s structured approach to cross-border strategy and navigating complexity with precision. Together, they’ve given me a holistic toolkit to understand Eastern and Western business philosophies and succeed in a global context.”

Why studying in China changed her perspective

While studying at Tsinghua, Cheryl gained insights into the pace and scale of Chinese enterprise, particularly how quickly Chinese companies evolve and adopt new technologies.  

“China is growing very fast and learning very fast. Chinese companies can replicate and scale ideas quickly for a lower cost, which comes from the overall efficiency of the system. The Tsinghua MBA helped me understand how those companies connect and evolve so fast,” she explains.  

Cheryl’s classes covered topics ranging from leadership and strategy to how companies expand internationally. Alongside her classmates she explored business cases varying from e-commerce leaders such as AliExpress to fast-growing sectors such as hydrogen energy.  

Studying at Tsinghua in Beijing—the cultural and economic center of China—enabled Cheryl to connect her coursework with the wider business environment around her.  

Through the program’s extensive practical learning opportunities and partnerships between Tsinghua and diverse Chinese companies, she gained a clearer view of how Chinese businesses respond to change within a fast-moving economy. “It serves as a business case to learn from and cross-compare with what I learn in European universities.” 

“I discovered that marketing is very advanced in China, especially in digitalization and online retail,” she says. 

The Tsinghua MBA also opened doors to diverse global opportunities for Cheryl, including exchange programs and short overseas study modules, through its partnerships with leading universities worldwide.  

Cheryl participated in the MIT Sloan Module, spending two weeks at MIT Sloan School of Management in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as well as the Global Immersion Module in Italy, where she studied for a week in Milan through a collaboration with Politecnico di Milano.

“I really appreciated Tsinghua’s global resources and how they organized the whole trip. In Milan, we attended a tour and tasting by a balsamic vinegar producer, as well as tours at the Ferrari museum and Pagani. Armani also offered a private visit.  

“It was very comprehensive, and because we went as a group from different MBA cohorts including full-time and part-time MBA programs, I could learn from other classes and professions as well.”  

During her studies at Tsinghua, Cheryl also took part in events such as talks and workshops with global leaders and policy experts. “I found it very interesting to learn about cutting-edge technologies and to talk to some of the most influential people in the world,” she says. 

“For the financial workshops, the school brought in professionals from very important financial institutions to help us learn about what’s going on around the world, which really sparked my interest in investment.”

Achieving global career advancement

After completing her MBA, Cheryl returned to Spain, to join the European headquarters of China Three Gorges Corporation—the world’s largest hydropower company. Because many of her colleagues were also Tsinghua alumni, Cheryl found her MBA connections beneficial when she entered the role. 

“Being a Tsinghua alum definitely helped. A lot of my colleagues had studied there, some even from bachelor’s to PhD, and there’s also a collaboration between the university and the company in China, so the company already knew Tsinghua well,” she says. 

More recently, Cheryl relocated to Hong Kong to pursue her interest in investment across a wide range of areas, focusing on consumer goods, beauty, and food tech. 

“I’m quite an adventurous person. Energy is very interesting, but it’s just one part of the investment world," she says.  

“I would like to learn about other forms of investment, such as how the newest technologies and businesses are emerging and can change our lives. That's why I wanted to go back to Hong Kong and explore other opportunities in investment.”

From architect to business professional, confident in pursuing career opportunities across different countries, Cheryl says the value of the dual MBA comes from how it shaped the way she understands global business and the people behind it, empowering her with knowledge and the ability to grow beyond borders.

Cheryl is continuing to explore where her interests will take her. The international mindset and perspectives she developed at Tsinghua and HEC Paris have broadened the possibilities ahead of her, empowering her to keep growing wherever her path leads next.

Cheryl (second from left) graduating from the Tsinghua MBA