From dog couture to high jewellery, plus a family business, the career trajectory of Maya Lin has gone in one direction: upward.
Some luck and good fortune have inevitably played a part in her progression, but Maya has made some good decisions along the way. Three stand out: first, resolving to pursue a career in an area she is passionate about; second, returning from the U.S. to work in the family business; and, third, recognizing the opportunity to strengthen her financial know-how and addressing it.
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Maya juggles two jobs at present, heading up French jeweller and watchmaker Cartier’s high jewellery division for North Asia while also helping to run Poscelin Co. Ltd., the family garment trading and manufacturing business. Just as she combines these two roles, she has brought together two skill sets. One of these, the creative and artistic side came naturally – she’s always had a passion for fashion and design. The other, an understanding of the financial aspects of the business, wasn’t quite as natural. That’s what prompted her to apply for the HKUST-NYU Stern Master of Science in Global Finance, which is a joint program offered by the HKUST Business School and the Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University. It is the first executive master's degree program focusing on global finance in Asia Pacific.
Only Child in Traditional Chinese Family
Maya is the only child in a traditional Chinese family, meaning that the arts were not encouraged as a basis for a career. She studied communications and marketing at New York University. With a more practical degree under her belt, she went to study fashion at Parsons, The New School of Design, also in New York. “It was a compromise between the business sides, the practical side and the creative side,“ she says.
After Parsons, she stayed on in New York working for a year at Italian fashion house Fendi before returning to her family business in Hong Kong. Her move back was “pure obligation” to her family, she says. But she has no regrets.
Her first independent venture was to design couture for dogs, sometimes with matching outfits for the owners. “I loved my dog so much that I started to design things for him… and myself,” she says. The debut collection was flying off the rack in New York, Miami, Paris and Hong Kong.
Cartier and Poscelin
At Cartier, the creative work is done by the designers in Paris. “High jewellery normally means one of a kind of very limited production. The birth of a high jewellery piece begins with the gem stones, which is one of the endless sources of inspiration for our designers.” As the Director of Cartier’s high jewellery division for North Asia, Maya sets the long-term business plan and marketing strategies for the division. She oversees strategic client relationship management and development while collaborating with headquarters to ensure the most appropriate pieces for the division’s discerning customers.
Alongside her work at Cartier, Maya runs the marketing and new business development for Poscelin, a manufacturer that started in the late 1970s. “We started manufacturing outerwear for the German market 30-plus years ago [with production] in China. We were one of the first to introduce German buyers to the Chinese market. The company’s manufacturing base later expanded to Vietnam and Myanmar as well.”
How HKUST-NYU Course Transformed Her Work
She realized when she returned to Hong Kong that if she does one day want to pick up the family business, she needs to have a more solid grounding in finance, widening her perspective on financial trends and deepening her appreciation for various financial tools. “It’s easy to sit through meetings with my design team, but when I’m sitting in meetings with clients and bankers…I was lacking that knowledge back then. That’s what drove me to take some courses.”
The timing of HKUST-NYU course was such that she could layer it on top of her two jobs. It required only one weekend each month and then two weeks in New York during the summer. “That was in the first year. I know that it’s since changed. Now, it’s two courses in New York, one in China, and the rest in Hong Kong.”
Maya graduated from the HKUST-NYU Stern Master of Science in Global Finance in 2008.. The training made a difference. “First of all, when my financial controller speaks to me using jargon, I understand what he is saying,” she says. “It’s been very helpful when meeting bankers. Because we deal a lot with foreign currency, with orders coming in from Europe and the US, the courses I did on foreign exchange and carry trade helped me a lot. I was able to apply what I learned from the courses.”
She continues: “I had a really good experience at HKUST. I met lots of really good friends and we have stayed close, even today. We meet regularly every month for a dinner gathering. That’s what I really treasure, because I’m all about people. With finance and figures, they are just there. But with people, you have feelings, connections, you become great buddies and that is what I really appreciated the most in the programme: the professors and the classmates.”
Despite her various recognitions, Maya doesn't yet consider herself a successful entrepreneur as she still has many goals to achieve. She believes that success comes with hard work, passion, audacity and courage. “I think your personality does control 70% of your fate, but the remaining 30% can be nurtured. It can be learned. With hard work and passion, you can achieve whatever you want. You can learn whatever you want.”