The story of a digital transformation banker who decided the world needs more thought leaders
She worked on her dissertation at 2am on holiday. But, it never felt like a burden.
Cheryl Cheng’s friends can testify. On holidays, when everyone else was sleeping, Cheryl was at her laptop from 2 AM until 6 AM, working on her dissertation. Then she would shower and go on the tour.
“The tenacity, man,” she says. “I did not know I would need to wake up in the middle of the night to actually do my dissertation.”
She is a digital transformation leader at one of Singapore’s largest banks — six years spent building platforms, streamlining systems, and preparing financial institutions for the technology that is about to reshape everything. When she enrolled in the Doctor of Business Administration program at Golden Gate University through upGrad, she expected hard work. She did not expect to love it this much.
Her research topic made the obsession inevitable. She studied trust in generative AI decision-making within Singapore’s financial industry — the exact question her organization was trying to answer in real time. As her bank moved to integrate GenAI into daily operations, Cheryl was simultaneously building the academic framework for how to do it responsibly. The two tracks ran together.
What the DBA changed in her was not loud or sudden. Finance trains you to be data-driven, to read the numbers and reach a conclusion. The DBA trained her to slow down, question the conclusion, and dig for what was underneath it. Her bank’s senior management, it turned out, wanted exactly what she had built. Before the dissertation was submitted, they were asking when they could read it.
She graduated in San Francisco in May 2026. In Singapore, graduation gowns are rented and returned on the day. In the United States, you buy yours. Cheryl brought hers home. Every time she opens her wardrobe, it is there — a reminder of what she decided to do and saw through.
“The story doesn’t end there,” she says. “That’s the best part. It’s the beginning of something amazing — because your journey is just about to start in terms of what you can contribute to the world.”
Cheryl Cheng completed the Doctor of Business Administration through Golden Gate University’s online DBA program — a fully accredited, fully online doctorate for working professionals. Applications are open.
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