5 alumni make Forbes 30 under 30 Asia and Fast Company's Queer 50 lists

Five McKinsey alumni have been named to two recent lists: Forbes 30 under 30 Asia and Fast Company's Queer 50. Click on their names below to read more.

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Forbes 30 under 30 Asia

Each year, Forbes Magazine names its “30 under 30”—a list of 30 influential young people in each of several industries and fields, across three geographies. Here are the alums who made this year's Asia list:

Kai Song Eer (LON 19-20)

Cofounder, GuruLab

GuruLab is an education startup in Malaysia that empowers teachers to personalize students' English education through data analytics. "I founded GuruLab to address the shortcomings of the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach traditionally used by schools and afterschool providers," explains Kai. "We are focusing a lot of effort on product analytics to understand our students' behaviors in classes to improve engagement and drive scalable growth." The company has raised $1 million from Malaysia's leading telco Maxis Communications and aims to have a $1mil ARR over the next year.

Before GuruLab, Kai had co-founded several other education organizations and nonprofits, including CollegeLAH, Rakan Tutor, CO:ED Learning, and Veritas Academy. Her advice to budding entrepreneurs? "Find your north star before starting a company! It could be to solve a problem you are truly passionate about, to create impact, or to grow a dream team,” she says. “The entrepreneurial journey will be an emotional rollercoaster, and you need a reason to hold on to when you feel completely ruined."

Sonia Vora (SVO 15-18)

Director of Product, Acko

Sonia heads digital products and is the youngest director at India's only digital direct-to-consumer health insurance company. "At Acko, we're using the full power of technology to reach our customers directly with better products at a better price," explains Sonia. Since joining the company from Apple in 2020, Sonia launched the country's first no-terms-and-conditions health insurance product and created a well-received health-claims experience.

How does Sonia navigate being the only woman or the youngest leader in the room? "I try to continue doing my work despite the imbalance, but I've read a lot about how women are conditioned explicitly or implicitly to ask for less or expect less at the workplace. Whenever making major career decisions, I ask myself, "If I were a man, how might I think about this differently? Would I make a different decision?" This has encouraged me to ask for more salary and position and reassure myself that I don't have to meet the bar of being ‘likable’ all the time.”

Fast Company's Queer 50

Fast Company’s fourth annual Queer 50 list of trailblazing LGBTQ+ women and nonbinary innovators includes two alumni. Here's who made the list:

Liz Jenkins (NYO 05-06)

COO, Hello Sunshine

Liz is helping Hello Sunshine realize its ambition to “change the narrative for women through story.” As COO of the Reese Witherspoon-owned media company, Liz oversees the company’s finances, business operations, and physical production of streaming and movie hits like Big Little Lies, The Morning Show, Daisy Jones, and Gone Girl. She also sits on the board of Snap and serves as the chair of GLAAD’s board of directors.

Christine Su (HKO 08-10)

Senior Director of Product, AI Recommendations, eBay

Following over two years at Twitter as head of product strategy for global regulatory content moderation, Christine joined eBay in January to lead the company's AI-powered "recommerce" initiatives. “I'm really attracted to product problems that are very human in nature,” she tells Fast Company. “When you get to build a product that requires deep empathy for the customer—and if you build the product well—it connects people, and it also is good for the business.”

Jen Wong (STA, NYO 04-10)

COO, Reddit

Making the list for the third consecutive year, Jen Wong continues to lead Reddit's revenue growth. In 2021, Reddit's ad revenue was reported by The Information to exceed $350 million. Despite economic challenges, Jen revealed to Fast Company that it has successfully attracted new advertisers in 2023 and is exploring new ways to expand monetization beyond its ad business. Jen tells the magazine, “We think that because our users are extremely high intent and high engagement, we will have one of the highest average revenue per user on the internet.”

5 alumni make Forbes 30 under 30 Asia and Fast Company's Queer 50 lists

Forbes 30 under 30 Asia

Fast Company's Queer 50

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