Zhao Ying

Zhao Ying is a Shanghai-based media and education marketing professional who has spent more than 20 years building WhichMBA.net, a multimedia platform where prospective students search for and compare MBA, EMBA, and DBA programs, and where leading business schools in China and beyond promote their programs. She is also International Marketing Director at Lilien & Loch Education and Cultural Consulting, advising universities, hospitals, and cultural institutions on communications and strategy.

Her career began in advertising and media buying in Shanghai, and moved on to the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), where she led media relations and edited the alumni magazine The Link. She has been a friend and collaborator of Julia Feng for nearly 25 years, going back to Julia's launch of the Rutgers EMBA program in Shanghai, when Zhao Ying helped with marketing.

Zhao Ying holds a Doctor of Business Administration from emlyon business school in France (2017 to 2024), where she researched learning transformation in the digital age through the lens of the I Ching, the ancient Chinese Book of Changes. She teaches part-time MBA and EMBA students, undergraduates, and international students on entrepreneurship and doing business in China, and serves as Director of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Management Philosophy Practice Committee, helping DBA graduates become professors in practice and corporate consultants.

On The Adaptive Edge, she spoke about why complexity is simply “everyday life” for an entrepreneur in China, why she chose the independent road over a multinational career or a secure institutional job, and her newest project: 100 Cities by High-Speed Rail, a bi-weekly newsletter on the business, culture, and people of Chinese cities beyond the usual names, starting with Ningde and CATL.

🔗 Watch Zhao Ying on The Adaptive Edge Podcast
🔗 WhichMBA.net
🔗 Zhao Ying on LinkedIn
🔗 Newsletter: 100 Cities by High-Speed Rail