Eric Han, Manchester AMBS MBA Class of 2028
Age: 26
Hometown: New Zealand; based in London since 2018
Undergraduate Institution and Major: King’s College London — BA (Hons) English Language and Linguistics
Pre-MBA Work Experience: I have spent the last four and a half years working in social media/digital channels in professional tennis, first at the ATP Tour and then the International Tennis Federation. Most recently, I was part of the social media team for the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games.
Why did you make the decision to attend business school? Why now?
After four and a half years in tennis, I realised I understood how to grow an audience but not how the business behind it actually worked. The decisions I found most interesting — where a federation invests, how a tour prices a product, what a rights deal is actually worth — were being made in rooms I wasn’t in. Four and a half years in felt like the right point to stop and explore my options properly, while I still had the flexibility to change direction rather than deepen the one I was already in.
Why did you choose Manchester AMBS? What factors figured most prominently into your decision of where to attend?
The Manchester Method was the deciding factor. I learn by doing rather than by case study, and a programme built around live client projects suited that far better than a lecture-led alternative. Manchester itself mattered too — it’s a genuine commercial city with a sport and media cluster I want to work in, not just a campus.
What do you think is your most valuable or differentiating contribution to the Class of 2028?
Very few people arrive at an MBA having run the public voice of a global sports governing body, and I hope that turns out to be a useful lens: I’ve spent years watching how large organisations are perceived from the outside, which is often quite different from how they see themselves. In a working environment where a badly judged post becomes a public incident within the hour, you learn to ask how a decision will land, not just whether it holds up on the numbers.
Tell us a fun fact about yourself that didn’t get included on your application:
I was once a contestant on The Chase. I also ran my first marathon this year, in Riga.
Post-MBA career interests:
Finance and strategy – financial planning and analysis or corporate strategy, ideally somewhere I can keep one foot in sport and entertainment. I sit my CIMA Management Case Study in November, so the qualification and the MBA finish close together.
Advice for Current Prospective Applicants:
— What is one thing you would absolutely do again as part of your application process?
Apply early. Scholarship funding is finite and most of it is allocated in the earlier rounds, so applying in good time was the single decision that made the biggest practical difference to whether the MBA was affordable for me at all. It costs nothing to be early and it can change what the year looks like financially.
— What is one thing you would change or do differently?
I applied fairly blind. I’d read the website, but I never actually spoke to anyone who’d done the programme. Messaging a few alumni before applying would have cost me nothing and told me far more than any brochure – what the year is really like, whether the pivot I had in mind was one people actually make from here.
— What is one part you would have skipped if you could, and what helped you get through it?
The CAS and visa paperwork. It ran from May to July and involved digging up my previous CAS from an undergraduate degree I’d finished five years earlier, confirming details, chasing a PDF copy, and a family consent form that asked questions I wasn’t sure how to answer. What got me through it was the admissions team — I emailed them every time I hit something I didn’t understand, and they answered quickly and without making me feel like I was the only person asking. If you’re an international applicant, assume this stage takes longer than you expect and start it early.
What is your initial impression of the Manchester AMBS students/culture/community?
The thing that struck me before I’d even arrived was how much contact there is. I’ve had introductions from alumni relations, invitations to speaker events in both London and Manchester, and a shared spreadsheet where the cohort has been sorting out flatmates between themselves since April. It reads as a school that treats you as part of the community from the day you accept, rather than the day you register.
What student organizations have you joined/are you hoping to join and why?
None yet – the term hasn’t started. The finance and consulting clubs are the obvious first stops given my career goals, and I’d like to find a sports society like golf for my personal interests.
What is one thing you have learned about Manchester AMBS that has surprised you?
How early the alumni network starts working on your behalf. Within weeks of accepting I’d had an introduction to someone from the school’s wider network and an offer to meet once I’d settled in. I’d expected that kind of access, if it came at all, to arrive at the end of the programme rather than before it started.
What is one thing you are most excited about in your first year?
The live client projects. I’ve spent four years producing work that gets judged in public within the hour, and I want to find out what that’s like applied to a business problem rather than a piece of content.
