From investment management to global consulting: Brant's story
From HSBC China to Deloitte UK, Brant used the Bath MBA to broaden his horizons and build a global consulting career.
Brant Ran, Bath MBA Class of 2021
When Brant felt his career beginning to plateau, he made the decision to step away and start again.
Moving from China to the UK, the Bath MBA helped him take a new direction. It led him into global consulting, reshaped how he leads, and opened up a new stage in his career.
Opening a new stage
Before joining the Bath MBA, I worked as an investment manager at HSBC China for nearly six years. During that time, I worked across several cities including Beijing and Dalian, with regular business trips to Shanghai. My role focused on financial markets, investments and portfolio management.
From the outside, it looked like a solid career path. But over time, I began to feel a kind of bottleneck. It was becoming difficult to move further on the career ladder, and I started thinking about new possibilities. That was when the idea of an MBA began to take shape.
It wasn’t a decision I made alone. I spoke with my family and friends, weighing different options across China, the UK and the US. In the end, I realised that stepping away from my current career path and investing in further education would create the opportunities I was looking for. And so I decided to take the leap.
Why Bath?
I already had a strong connection with the UK through my work at HSBC, but it went beyond work. A few years earlier I had taken a road trip across England, travelling through different parts of the country.
That experience made me realise how much I really love this country: the culture, the landscapes and the openness of it. When I began researching MBA programmes, Bath stood out for me.
One thing that impressed me was that many of the lecturers came directly from industry. For example, our risk management lecturer was a partner at EY at the time, and another lecturer teaching accounting and decision-making had spent many years working in industry.
Having teachers who brought real professional experience into the classroom made the learning much more relevant to the real world.
It was the first time I had worked in such a diverse international environment.
A global classroom
I joined the MBA during the COVID-19 pandemic, which meant that much of the programme was delivered online. Although that limited some in-person time, it didn’t take away one of the most valuable parts of the experience: the people.
For me, it was the first time I had worked in such a diverse international environment. Professionals from different industries and countries came together to collaborate and share ideas. That experience opened my mindset and prepared me for working in global organisations later in my career.
Whatever changes happen in the world, I believe global collaboration will always matter.
Understanding my strengths
The MBA also helped me better understand my own strengths.
Before the programme, I believed my strengths were mainly technical. Mathematics, finance and analytical thinking had always been my focus. Through presentations, group work and discussions, I realised I was also strong in communicating ideas and presenting them clearly.
At the same time, I became more comfortable recognising where I was not strongest. In the culture I grew up in, there can be pressure to push through everything and never say something is not your strength. The MBA helped me see that understanding your strengths and weaknesses allows you to build stronger teams and make better decisions about your future.
The MBA opened a completely new stage in my life.
Life after Bath
After graduating in 2021, I joined Deloitte in the UK.
My first role was in audit. It was a different direction from investment management, but it gave me a strong professional foundation in the UK and allowed me to gain a chartered accounting qualification.
From there, I moved into risk management consulting, which connects both my previous experience and the broader skills I developed during the MBA.
Today I manage a team working with global clients, helping organisations strengthen their risk control frameworks and meet international listing standards. The work is fast-paced and global. It’s exactly the kind of environment I hoped to be part of when I first decided to pursue an MBA.
A moment I’ll never forget
When I first received my offer from Bath, I didn’t accept it immediately. I took a few weeks to think about my decision. Then I received a short follow-up email that simply said: “Bath is waiting for you.”
That sentence stayed with me. It felt personal and genuine. In that moment, I realised it wasn’t just a university offer. It felt like the beginning of a brand new life.
That was when I accepted.
The return on investment
The return on investment from the MBA is simple: it opened a completely new stage in my life. It expanded my professional skills, gave me new opportunities and created a much wider horizon for my career.
Five years ago, I arrived in the UK knowing very few people and starting everything from scratch. Today I am still here, building my career and continuing to challenge myself.
Looking back, the MBA wasn’t just a degree. It was the moment that allowed me to step onto a completely new stage.
An MBA is a big decision and a significant investment. But my advice is simple: never settle.
Embrace the challenge, embrace every opportunity you can grasp and allow yourself to step into something new. You never know where it might lead.
Curious about what your own Beyond Bath story could look like?
Book a one-to-one conversation to explore how the Bath MBA could support your next chapter.