Laidlaw Scholar Aduh Kyalo on Leading in Chaos

On her 30th birthday, in the middle of exam season at HEC Paris, Aduh Kyalo walked into class wearing a sash and a crown.

“It actually took me a while to be bold enough to do it because I thought that this is not professional, and at the same time I thought this is me,” she said. “It doesn’t take away from my brilliance, academic excellence or MBA journey.”

She had two presentations that day. Later that evening, she would return home to finalize a Black Friday marketing campaign for a global luxury handbag brand — the same brand she continued to work for while completing her first term of the MBA.

The decision to wear the crown was small but deliberate. For someone who has spent her life stepping into responsibility, it was a quiet assertion that ambition and joy are not mutually exclusive.

Aduh, MBA ’27, grew up in Kenya, the first-born of three siblings. Leadership arrived early and never left. “I think it’s just stemming from the fact of a first-born daughter in an African household,” she reflected.

While completing her BSc in Telecommunications from Strathmore University in Nairobi, an internship took her in an unexpected direction. 

At 20, she left Kenya for the first time, moving to Kigali, Rwanda, where she interned with the AIESEC Rwanda chapter alongside students from around the world. Kigali was quiet and calm, with a sharp contrast to Nairobi’s relentless pace.

“It was the first time I realized I’m supposed to expose myself to other communities, languages, and people. It was also an opportunity for me to get that stamp of approval for myself that I’m meant to be in a leadership position internationally.”

When she returned to Kenya to graduate, Aduh knew she wouldn’t stay for long. Achievement, she realized, did not have to come at the expense of alignment. That instinct — the one that pushed her beyond comfort — would guide her next chapter.

A year ago, feeling that familiar pull again, she applied to the HEC Paris MBA. The decision was not entirely new; her connection to France began at six years old, when her mother enrolled her in French classes because she needed greater academic challenge. What began as enrichment became fascination.

“I fell in love with Paris. I’m still obsessed and I understand why they call it the city of love,” she says. “It’s not an interpersonal love… you actually fall in love with the city.”

In her application essay, Aduh wrote about her role model, Bonang Matheba, a L’Oréal Paris Ambassador. Her goal is to become a Chief Marketing Officer in the luxury industry.

She cried when she received the congratulatory phone call from her admissions manager Liesbet Corriveau. Later, she was awarded the Laidlaw Scholarship, given to only 10 women per graduating class.

The scholarship made the transition possible. But more than that, it affirmed a trajectory — leadership grounded in empathy, ambition informed by intuition, and a desire to operate on a global stage. 

Today, she holds four leadership positions within the MBA — Academic Representative; SVP of Communications for the MBA Council; VP of Marketing for the MBA Africa Club, and VP of Social Media & Content for the Marketing Club. She is also a member of the HEC Leadership Fellows mentorship program.

Following Instinct into Luxury

After early roles in digital communications and serving as Digital Editor at True Love Magazine in East Africa, the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted her career plan. Determined to maintain global exposure, she accepted a social media marketing position with Anima Iris, an internationally recognized luxury handbag brand.

“This is my first contact with luxury, and this was just me following my gut,” she says. “I’m obsessed.”

The obsession is less about aesthetics than about narratives, how brands construct identity, aspiration, and belonging. She continued working with the brand while completing her first term of the MBA, managing strategy across time zones while preparing for classes, projects and exams.

The dual commitment reached a peak in November when she was tasked with developing the brand’s Black Friday campaign, while academic demands were ramping up at HEC.

“Black Friday as a tradition is a chaotic season,” she explained. “I had to come up with an idea that would relate with what was happening in the world and generate revenue for the brand.”

Her concept was Control Your Chaos: placing an Anima Iris bag in the middle of a real-life mess. Playful, candid, and human. Instead of perfect luxury imagery, the bag would appear inside everyday chaos — the one polished object in otherwise imperfect moments.

“It was an ambush,” she laughed. “I didn’t know I had to present it to her.”

Boz praised the idea as relevant and relatable, noting that its storytelling could have long-term application and contribute directly to sales. For Aduh, who had been contemplating a marketing specialization, the moment felt like validation that instinct and strategy could coexist.

When the campaign launched, it delivered a 57% year-over-year increase in Black Friday revenue for the brand.

After exams, she saw how global brands shape perception during the December three-day intensive course, Creative Marketing Management, taught by Professor Franck Asenkat. The class featured a guest session with a senior marketing director from L'Oréal Paris, who discussed the strategy and execution behind a major marketing campaign.”

“It was the best thing that happened to me in those three days. I was aligned and fascinated to see the real-life application of marketing strategy for brands I am already a consumer of — understanding both the backend and the front end of a campaign.

The experience deepened her interest in how luxury brands build identity and emotion through storytelling. It reaffirmed that she had chosen the right place to sharpen her marketing ambition.

“What is interesting is seeing everything come into a full circle. From my mom’s decision to enroll me in a French class at 6 years old, to my stumble into the luxury industry, my MBA application process, the Black Friday campaign that changed my career and the intensive course that wrapped it all up. It made it clear that trusting my instinct was not accidental — it was intentional.”