People / Students / Class of 2027
Irene Chen graduated from Soochow University in Taiwan with a Bachelor of Business Administration. Her academic training combined a strong foundation in business and quantitative analysis, with coursework in artificial intelligence, Python programming, and applied machine learning.
Prior to graduate school, Irene gained nearly three years of combined internship and full-time work experience at Microsoft Taiwan, where she worked across data analytics, marketing, human capital strategy, and project management. She most recently served as a Project Leader in Corporate and External Legal Affairs (CELA) after previously working as a Project Consultant. In this role, she led a year-long CSR/ESG program involving more than 100 interns across over 10 projects and used data-driven analysis to optimize human capital structures, budget allocation, and operational strategies. Despite a 50% reduction in both budget and headcount, her initiatives contributed to a 15% increase in market exposure and an 8% increase in job applications.
Through these experiences, Irene realized that the way people work is constantly evolving, requiring individuals to become more adaptable and antifragile in order to thrive in a fast-paced world. As she advances through Northwestern's MLDS program, she hopes to deepen her expertise in machine learning and data science while bringing her prior experience in cross-functional leadership and data-driven strategy to future roles.
