MARCH/APRIL 2023 BCBUSINESS.CA 41
It's 5 p.m. on a Friday in January,
but Kookai Chaimahawong isn't clocking out from her workweek
yet. This evening, she's building an innovation and entrepreneur-
ship course at her alma mater, the
UBC Sauder School of Business.
Chaimahawong works long hours to juggle many roles—she's a
partner and
ESG officer at a private equity firm, owner of an impact
investing advisory company, co-chair of Vancouver Entrepreneurs
Forum and an adjunct professor, to name a few.
The Bangkok native is energetic and ambitious, but she didn't
grow up dreaming of becoming a business titan. She wanted to see
the world and make it a better place. She saw herself solving prob-
lems like poverty and climate change, and that vision still drives
her today.
A LOOK AT SOME
OF B.C.'S MBA
PROGRAMS REVEALS
A WEALTH OF
DIFFERENT NEEDS
TO CONSIDER WHEN
IT COMES TO HOW
CANDIDATES PICK
THEIR SCHOOL
Learning
on the
EDUCATION
GUIDE 2 0 2 3
Job
MBA programs traditionally launch and accelerate executive-
suite careers. Students learn to manage companies and help boost
their bottom lines. But Chaimahawong was intending to use that
education in a different type of career when she applied for the
UBC MBA she completed in 2018. She had earned a communications
degree in 2014 and had been working for the United Nations Devel-
opment Programme in Thailand to promote its sustainable devel-
opment goals. She wanted to learn how to fund socially beneficial
projects beyond asking for handouts.
b y D E E H O N
