YEI Associates

At the discretion of the YEI staff,YEI student ventures may receive short-term assistance from a small and highly select team of graduate & professional school students with relevant business experience:

SOMYEI Associates from the Yale School of Management provide business planning, financial modeling, and strategy assistance.  Candidates must have extremely strong financial analysis, consulting, or marketing strategy skills and at least five years of relevant work experience. Associates are engaged primarily during the academic year (Sept through May).               

Huei Li Leow is a 2nd year MBA candidate at the Yale School of Management (SOM) where she is also a leader of the Media and Entertainment Club, the Public Speaking and Debate Club and an Admissions Interviewer. During the summer, Huei Li interned at Deloitte, LLP in their newly formed Innovation group looking at the commercialization of new technologies and growth strategies. Prior to Yale SOM, she was an audit and assurance manager at Ernst & Young where she gained extensive experience in SEC reporting and global client management. Huei Li is a ’07 Riordan Fellow and served as the Vice President of the Riordan Programs Alumni Association, promoting its mission of higher education among underserved youth in the Los Angeles area. She is an active CPA and graduated summa cum laude from UCLA.   

Dwight Tran completed his undergraduate degree at Stanford in Anthropological Sciences.  Afterwards, he spent a brief period working in entertainment marketing and public relations in Hollywood before joining Google's Direct Sales team where he worked on cross-industry marketing in Southern California, helped launch the mobile advertising platform in 2007, and worked as a project manager in sales operations for the West Coast region.  When he left Google, he co-founded a multidisciplinary LGBT research institute at Stanford University as part of his hiatus.  He is currently part of the Class of 2013 at the Yale School of Management.  In his free time, he plays polo with the Yale Polo Team, enjoys traveling to remote locations, and eating food from three-star michelin restaurants to three-wheeled food carts in New Haven.

Wei Peng is a first year MBA student at Yale School of Management. Prior to Yale SOM, Wei worked successively at Booz & Company and Monitor Group as senior management consultant. Among his engagement experiences, Wei advised many top global players in the healthcare, consumer goods and technology industries on business plans and marketing strategies. He also developed expertise in due diligence and investment decisions while working for leading private equity firms. With a passion in venture and entrepreneurship, Wei would like to leverage his past experience and expertise to help Yale students realize their creative business ideas.

Ning Zhang is a first-year MBA student at Yale School of Management.  Prior to coming to Yale, he worked for five years in the investment banking and corporate finance sectors in Singapore.  His work ranged from arranging syndicated loans to advising on mergers and acquisitions.  His experience included project-based assignments in the industries of infrastructure, material science, real estate, mining, and construction.  Ning earned a bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering with First Class Honors from National University of Singapore in 2006.

Smita Venkat is a first year MBA candidate at Yale School of Management. Prior to Yale SOM, Smita worked with international brand consultancy, FutureBrand, in their Hong Kong, Singapore and (ad hoc) Manila offices.  During her time there, she worked with a large spectrum of brands ranging from real estate conglomerates and banks, to baby lotion and wine (not from the same company!) Smita is also passionate about Social Enterprise and finding ways to make companies more integrated with and accountable to the people around them. As an associate with YEI, she hopes to put her business skills to use in helping homegrown enterprises reach greater heights.