Alum of the Month

Zainub (Jenna) Bata

August 2014

New York Program

March 2009 Intake

What and where did you study before your Mountbatten internship?
Law LL.B at University of Leciester

What made you apply for the Mountbatten programme?
I wanted to travel with a purpose and also do my MBA.

Describe your sponsor company and your role within it.
Royal Bank of Scotland – I worked in the regulatory risk department and worked on various regulatory matters, from risk analysis to anti-money laundering. I also did a lot of project management in the role, which was fantastic.

What was the highlight/most memorable moment of your working experience during this year?
Seeing an Anti-Money Laundering policy which I worked on come into effect.

What was the social highlight/most memorable moment during this year?
Spending the day cycling around central park with a close friend of mine I made on the program.

Please share a little wisdom/philosophy that you acquired during your internship.
I remember looking out of the window from my apartment and seeing lots of people, all wearing black or grey coats, rushing to the train to get to work. They looked like ants and I felt like the giant observer. I decided at that moment that I would live my life with awareness and not let myself go into ‘auto drive’, which it seemed was happening outside my window.

If you could change anything about your internship, what would it be?
I would have requested the team to send me some work or information before I arrived, so I could understand and get straight into the work.

What happened after completing the year - what did you do next?
I was doing the MBA program, so I (luckily) went to Thailand to study. I actually went a month earlier with a group of friends and managed to see a lot of Thailand and its Islands.

Where are you now in your working life and what do you do?
I have my own company in Dubai, and I provide legal and mediation services to SMEs based, or planning to be based, in the Middle East.

Do you have any future plans that you would like to realise & what are they (career & social)?
Since being in NY, I definitely got the bug and my dream is to own an apartment in New York. Career-wise, after running my company in Dubai for 3 years, I am now looking to do more international projects with social business in this part of the world, whether in India, Nepal, Pakistan or Africa.

Is there any other information that you would like to be included?
That my year in NY was one of the best of my life. With the average number of hours of sleep per night at 4 hours, there was a reason. There was always something to do, and I made lifetime friends there.