Prof. Weiming Zhu Named Best in the 40 Under 40 for MBAs!
Professor Weiming Zhu of HKU Business School was recently chosen among the select group of global ‘2025 Best 40 Under 40 MBA Professors’. The award was compiled by the highly influential Poets&Quants education media outlet.
Prof. Zhu’s achievement is consistent with HKU Business School’s ongoing commitment to attracting and supporting our diverse body of highly accomplished educators. Our diverse faculty of more than 210 educators from more than 22 countries continues to build on our reputation as a leading university in Asia Pacific and beyond.
At just 36 years old, Prof. Zhu is an Associate Professor of Innovation and Information Management, and he also serves as the Director of Executive Education Open Programs. His teaching consistently receives high praise from students for being highly practical and forward-looking. For example, he has lessons on how to use ChatGPT for coding and other future-oriented work skills.
Before joining HKU Business School, Prof. Zhu was an Associate Professor in the Department of Production, Technology & Operations Management at IESE Business School. He was also a Visiting Professor at the MIT Institute for Data, Systems and Society (IDSS).
His research focuses on market operations, urban transportation, and supply chain finance. A real-time coupon distribution algorithm he developed, as well as a shared bike simulation system, have been adopted by several companies for daily operational decision-making.
His scholarly work has been published in top-tier journals and has earned multiple Best Paper awards. He was also honoured with HKU’s Outstanding Teacher Award (Postgraduate Teaching).
Beyond his serious commitment to teaching, Prof. Zhu has diverse interests. “If I weren’t a professor,” he said about his passion for drawing, “I’d want to be a cartoonist.”
He also appreciates author Yuval Noah Harari’s idea in Sapiens about the power of “good stories” in human society. In class, he uses storytelling case studies and guided questions to interact with MBA students, thereby energising the classroom, encouraging reflection, and clarifying key concepts.
With regard to the concept of ‘reducing algorithm aversion in businesses’, he has pointed out that organisational barriers to AI adoption are not just technical issues but also stem from employees’ distrust of machines. In the age of AI, he’s argued, companies should help teams effectively leverage AI while still maintaining critical thinking and independent judgment; this could further encourage organisations to be more humane in their operations.
Prof. Zhu places high value on his MBA students’ diversity of perspectives, enjoying the chance to engage with students from various backgrounds. That said, he also acknowledges that keeping courses relevant amidst rapid technological change is a major challenge.
For more details about Prof. Zhu’s interview with Poets&Quants, please click here.
