KHULAN Davaadorj - How She Got 100% Scholarship at Columbia & Launched Clean Energy Before Founding Lhamour
Interview by Batzul Gerelsaikhan, Photos by Suniko.
Get to know Khulan Davaadorj (Hobby: 1996-1997), the Founder & CEO of Lhamour organic skincare company in Mongolia. We talked about her journey from getting a 100% scholarship at Columbia University to working in the UN and later in the first wind and solar power project at NewCom. Read how she also empowered women and why she founded her own skincare company in Mongolia.
Full name: Khulan Davaadorj
Hobby Alumni: 2004 (years attended 1996-1997)
Higher Education: Master's Degree in Energy Management, Public Policy from Columbia University, New York, Diploma in Natural Skincare Formulation, Formula Botanica, UK
Sector(s): Energy, Production, Natural Products, Skincare, NGO
Current Workplace: LHAMOUR, Mongolia Blossom NGO, SheMeansBusiness NGO
Past Workplaces: BMW Group, Newcom Group, Government
Languages: Mongolian, English, German, French, Russian (basic)
Countries Lived In: Mongolia, Germany, Switzerland, France, USA
Frequented Website: www.lhamour.com, www.lillysbathcarry.com, www.safeandchic.com
Current phone: iPhone 7s
3 Apps To Recommend: Whatsapp, Instagram, Canva
3 Books To Recommend: The Soul Leadership by Deepak Chopra, Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh, The Lean Start-up by Eric Ries
3 Movies To Recommend: Parasite, Godfather, Unbroken
3 Songs You Are Listening To Most Right Now: Billie Eilish - Everything I wanted, Pacrap - Rashaantiin 18, J Balvin x Bad Bunny - La Cancion
AT HOBBY SCHOOL
1. How many years have you studied at Hobby School and where have you studied before and/or after Hobby?
I was at Hobby for 1.5 years from 1996-1997 when we only had three classes! I transferred to Hobby in my third year. Before Hobby, I was at two German schools. My father used to work at the Mongolian Embassy in Berlin, so I grew up in Germany.
“I remember my times at Hobby clearly, because it was my first Mongolian experience. I learnt both Mongolian and English languages at Hobby. ”
After Hobby, I was at School #1, but I went back to Germany again and studied at Max Planck Gymnasium. There, I was the only foreigner in my class, so I faced a bit of racism and started having an identity crisis. I really didn’t like it there and I stopped going to school, so my parents sent me to a boarding school in Switzerland called Leysin American School. I went there all by myself.
2) What kind of a student were you?
I was a bit of everything kid. I used to compete at Math olympiads, so I was part of the hardcore trainings. I also used to hang out with my class boys and do crazy stuff like fight a lot and throw things at people. I was really active! At Hobby, I learnt how to dance Mongolian traditional way. I also used to compete and win at table tennis competitions.
3) What’s your fondest memory at Hobby and who was your favorite teacher?
Hobby school did a collaboration with Shonkhor Student Summer Camp, which was located 130km away from Ulaanbaatar, and we all took the train (standing most of the time as the train was full). We stayed there for 2-3 weeks and I remember washing my clothes and shoes in the river. My mother and some of my classmates’ parents came and visited us and it took them 7 hours of drive to get to us, so you can imagine how far it was.
My favorite teachers were my class teacher who taught me Mongolian; my English language teacher Dan; and sports teacher Tsenddoo. Although I changed schools 6 times, I still remember Tsenddoo teacher who taught us how to skate professionally at Tuv Sportiin Ordon. He was also my classmate Khulan’s father.
4) How different was Mongolian education compared to other countries?
I was fairly young and I thought of myself as a German kid, so when I came back to Mongolia, I started having an identity crisis, because I realized that I was actually Mongolian. I couldn’t communicate well with my classmates in Mongolian. For instance, I remember my classmates being really loud and our class teacher started crying. I tried to help my teacher by yelling “Бүгдээрээ чимээхэн байя” and everyone laughed at me (laughs). My Mongolian grammar was terrible! I fell in love with Mongolia though. I loved my classmates. I loved my classes. I finally understood that I was a Mongolian at Hobby, but I had to go back to Germany and I was super sad about it.
5) After boarding school, where did you go?
Well, I got into every single school that I applied to. However, I had to stay in Switzerland till I finished paying off my tuition debts, so I started teaching English and German at my school and summer camps for 1.5 years.
After paying off all my debt, I went back to Germany to my parents and enrolled at SRH Hochschule (University of Applied Science) for my B.A. in Economics - Business Administration. I obviously wanted to go to the schools I applied to in the States, but it was too expensive for me. However, I got a partial scholarship for my bachelor’s degree in Germany and I also got a partial scholarship for my exchange program in France.
6) Why business administration for your bachelor’s degree?
I didn’t know what I wanted to study, because I was really young. After graduation, I still didn’t know what to do with my life, so I went back to Ulaanbaatar and started working at World Bank Mongolia as the Project Assistant.
I loved working at World Bank in Ulaanbaatar, but my Director suggested that I do my master’s degree in public policy, so I went back to Germany and enrolled at Hertie School of Governance in Berlin to study for my Master’s degree in International Public Policy. Hertie was a new school in Germany and it focused only on public policies.
7) After master’s degree at Hertie, what did you do?
I applied to the United Nation (“UN”) headquarters in Geneva and New York for the internship position. It was always my dream to work at UN, and I got into their New York office! However, my school told me that they have a dual degree with Columbia University in New York and only one student per year from our school gets this opportunity, so…
“I applied without even knowing that Columbia University was an Ivy League school. Later I realized that most students go to Hertie in order to get this prestigious dual degree at Columbia. ”
The application process took a week and the Columbia University’s staff came and interviewed me. After a month, they told me that I got picked from over 200 students!
8) Congratulations for getting into Columbia! Did you get a scholarship?
Yes! It is really funny, because I got accepted to the internship program at the UN in New York and a week later I also got my acceptance letter from Columbia. When I told my parents that I got into Columbia, my parents thought I was talking about Colombia and told me that I couldn’t go, because the country was dangerous and they didn’t know anyone there (laugh). Just like me, they didn’t know much about Columbia University in New York (laughs) and thought I was talking about a country. However, they still told me that I couldn’t go, because it cost $80,000 per year. Luckily after a week, I got another letter saying that I got a 100% scholarship, which gave me $90,000 in cash - plenty to cover my tuition fee and a small studio in New York (which was still very expensive).
9) How was it to study at Columbia, an Ivy League school?
I was at the School of International and Public Affairs (“SIPA”) of Columbia University and I did MPA in International Energy Management and Policy.
I was the youngest in my class. Everyone was very cool in their t-shirts and backpacks, but when you talk to them, they would be super cool. I thought I was cool, because I used to work at the World Bank and the UN, but they would say “I was in Africa and I created this lamp, which is super energy efficient and 100,000 people have lights now”, “I was in the tribe in Indonesia and I helped clean their water, so 50,000 people have drinking water now”, etc. This was a tipping point of my life and…
“I understood what an impact meant. After Columbia, I learnt to think outside the box, and my life became all about making the most impact.”
10) Were you the first Mongolian student at Columbia?
No, there were many before me! From top of my head - Bold Magvan (former CEO of XacBank), Boldbaatar Tserenpuntsag (former CEO of NewCom), Ganbat Chuluunkhuu (former CEO of Liberty Partners), and one more person from Mongol Bank. And of course, Nemuun Gal from Hobby!
11) You were in Geneva, Berlin, Ulaanbaatar, Paris and New York! What were the main highlight experiences for you?
Well, I grew up in Berlin, so it was my hometown. It is very cool. Paris - I loved it and I used to think it was the best city in the world and nothing would beat this until I went to New York. In NY, it became my driving force of life. Up until then, I really didn’t know what ambition was. Before, I used to think that having a decent job and salary was enough, but NY truly changed me.
CAREER
12) What were your first paying jobs?
I used to be a contortionist at German Circus when I was 10, so that would be my first paying job. Then it would have been synchronized swimming, but I moved and I was pretty sad about that. I mentioned above that I used to teach in Switzerland, which would be my first and well-paying job that helped me pay off my debts. Later of course I used to work during my bachelor’s degree, like as waitress in Marriot Hotel lounge and waitress in Cafe Einstein, but they were part-time.
13) How was it to intern at the UN in New York?
It was always my dream to work at UN, but when I finally started working there, I quickly realized that it was not for me. Don’t get me wrong, it was amazing, but it wasn’t something that I wished to do forever.
I was at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, so even the highest ranking directors’ works seemed boring. Don’t get me wrong.
“The UN is huge and you can do amazing things, but it was all paperwork! I love actions and adventures, so it was really boring for me. I used to say ‘Hey, let’s do this!”, and they would give me a “You are just an intern” look...”
…and tell me to write it down and they would discuss it in the next meeting in 3 months and maybe they will consider doing it. The process is super slow. I remember begging to write a paper on “How the UN can work with businesses and NGOs to promote education” (like PPP) and they only let me because I really begged for it. I used to finish doing my tasks in just 2 hours, you see.
14) But intern and associate jobs mostly deal with admin and boring paper works. Don’t you think it would have gotten better if you stayed longer at the UN? And it was in New York!
Let me tell you a funny story to prove my point. There was this lady whom I always complained to and I always told her that I wanted to do something impactful at the UN, and she told me this story of finding a cockroach in her office room. She called the sanitation person immediately and expected the person to come right away and deal with the cockroach. The person replied back saying “I need to document this in my protocol, so can you tell me if it was a Brazilian large cockroach or a small New York cockroach? What type of cockroach was it?” She thought he was joking and said “Are you crazy? I am dying here. Come here right now please!!!” However, the guy wasn’t joking and continued asking her “At what time exactly did you see this cockroach? Where exactly was it in your office?”. She was lost for words (laughs).
It is really funny, but sadly it actually happened. At the UN, everything is about protocol, protocol and protocol.
15) Ok. So after the UN and Columbia in New York, what did you do?
I got accepted to an energy company in DC, but Byambasaikhan Byambadorj, then CEO of NewCom, contacted me on LinkedIn to come and work with his team in Mongolia. I thought he was a spam, so I ignored him (laughs), but he wrote to me again! Byambasaikhan said “NewCom is creating Mongolia’s first wind farm Salkhit. Our next project is even bigger in Southgobi desert with 300 megawatt wind and solar energy. We are in partnership with a Japanese company” and he highlighted the lack of knowledge and experts on sustainable and clean energy in Mongolia and urged me to come and join the team.
“CEO Byambasaikhan, HR Odontuya Demid and I talked over the phone and discussed about being a small fish in a big pond, or rather a big fish in a small pond, so I packed my bag and came to Mongolia in 3 days to make a bigger difference at NewCom.”
16) How was it to come back home in 2012 when Mongolia was the fastest growing country in the world?
My family was still in Germany, so I had no home. Hence, I was living in a hotel (laughs). I came to basically establish Clean Energy Asia, a joint venture between NewCom and Japan, and it was great. I even made the logo! I loved my job, and my colleagues became my closest friends now. Our project was successful and our wind and solar project is still there in Gobi desert. Do you know Masayoshi Son, the founder of Softbank? He always thought of Asia as a force in clean energy, but the real power house was Mongolia, because we have abundant solar and wind resources. At that time, I was also the Board Assistant at NewCom, so I was part of the planning and finalization of this 7 years of research.
It was my first permanent job, so I was very lucky to start my career with NewCom. We had the best company culture and ethics in Mongolia. The people were great - we had Nemuun Gal and Taishir Tumurbaatar as our lawyers, Byambasaikhan led the company, and amazing board members, etc.. For me, moving back to Mongolia was a big shock, but I had such a great team, so I loved my time at NewCom.
17) As a tradition, please explain NewCom Group to those who might not know.
NewCom is a head company of MobiCom, Clean Energy Asia, Clean Energy, Mining Supplies, University, etc. Founders include Boldbaatar and Mongolian couple who had great vision to make Mongolia clean in terms of energy. However,…
“ I truly believe that it was the CEOs who made that dream come true. CEO Bold and Byambasaikhan made sure to headhunt talents at the booming time, and have a proper company culture at NewCom.”
18) Mongolia is mostly powered by coal power plants (CHP1-4). What percentages would wind, solar and hydro make? What about the imports from Russia and China also? What is your honest opinion on the energy sector here?
Energy is life. It is fundamental in everyone’s life and hence the country's development. Without it, we cannot grow properly. However, we need to have sustainable and clean energy. Mongolia’s energy sector is so outdated.
“There has been no new powerplant after CHP4. NewCom was trying to build CHP5, but it was impossible with political talks, which continued for over a decade now. Mongolia buys electricity from Russia and China when we are undersupplied. ”
I really hope young bright Mongolians would join the renewable energy sector, because Mongolia has plenty of it. In 2012, there were only 5-6 companies in Mongolia who were interested in renewable energy and only one Japanese billionaire who believed in Mongolia and invested.
I am not sure about what the percentages are now, but in my time it was 5% renewable and 95% coal. The capacity was then 800 megawatts, but our usage was over 1,000 megawatts, so we would buy electricity from Russia. We still have shortages of electricity now with the blackouts in the city! The biggest problem is the grid, because it is so outdated. If we introduce other energy forms, they cause huge fluctuation and problems, so we really need to change and improve our grid system first. However, no Minister of Energy has come out and emphasized the importance of this or tried a holistic approach to fix the grid problem.
19) If you look at your electricity bill, you will find that renewable energy costs more than coal power plant energy in Mongolia. Why is that?
Renewable energy is subsidized and seems more expensive, but it is getting cheaper every year around the world. When I was studying about it, the argument would be exactly that “it is too expensive and hence not feasible”. Now, countries like Germany are commiting to become green, so they are shutting down old coal plants. With more supply, renewable energy is getting cheaper. Electricity from CHP3 or CHP4 seems much cheaper, because Mongolia has the cheapest coal, so it may seem cheaper and better, but if you help the renewable sector, it will be sustainable on its own. For instance in Mongolia: there are companies providing solar panels to nomads. There are Japanese solar panel parks in Mongolia and they are being sold to Japan.
20) There is a conspiracy theory in Mongolia where people believe that Russia doesn’t want us to build CHP5 or any hydro power plant in the North, because they want us to keep buying electricity from them. Vice versa in the South, China doesn’t want Oyu Tolgoi power plant to be built, because they want us to keep buying electricity from China. There are strong Russian and Chinese lobbyists in Mongolia. Do you agree?
A lot of things do not make any sense in Mongolia. When I was working at Clean Energy Asia, I used to meet numerous Ministers and I realized that our policy makers are not policy makers.
“People in the Government are short-minded and have no interest to do anything unless it is in their best interest. Energy is one of the most long term goals we should unite under, but with every new Government, it is stuck with a 4 year election cycle. ”
Mongolian politicians do not have any knowledge. This is one of the reasons why I wanted to study policy making actually.
21) We seem doomed. What should we do in your opinion?
I worked with the Government - a project on coal-to-liquid. I worked in the private sector. My conclusion is: it is best to work for myself. You are in control! I say this because although I worked in a private sector, I saw how the whole team changed in NewCom when our CEO Byambasaikhan changed. I thought it only happened in a public sector. This is one of the reasons I founded Lhamour!
22) You named Lhamour after your niece, right? What really made you go into skincare from the energy sector though?
Yes. LHAMO is the name of my niece. And Amour is for love. We want to share the philosophy of love - loving yourself, loving others and loving the environment. I started Lhamour because I had to make my own skincare after I started developing rashes and allergies when I came back to Mongolia. Doctors told me to control my food and avoid nasty ingredients in my skincare. I never thought about skincare, but I started getting obsessed about organic ingredients and it became my obsession. I used to beg my friends coming abroad to buy this and that organic products and they would always complain why I had to use such expensive products, which cost over $40.
“That’s when I wanted to make my own skincare, because Mongolia had all these amazing natural and organic ingredients such as seabuckthorn, thyme, rosehip, nettle, jamts salt, sheep tail fat, etc. ”
Basically there were no organic skincare companies in Mongolia, so I started taking online classes at Formula Botanica, the world’s first school for organic skincare formulation, from the beginning of 2014. I had a problem and I wanted to be the first to solve it, so I founded Lhamour.
23) Now in 2020, how many products does Lhamour produce?
60! Skincare and lifestyle products. Everything from foot salve, body butter, bath both, body scrub, face serum, and pure essential oils. We have evolved from body to face now. We have everything except sunscreen, because sunscreen can never be organic as some of the ingredients need to be synthetic.
24) As a tradition, please describe Lhamour in your own words?
Lhamour is a Mongolian brand that takes a holistic approach to environmental sustainability and social responsibility through natural products #MadeInMongolia. We achieve this through zero waste natural products (you can bring your own bottle and fill it up in our shops, no plastic bags, etc.) with unique Mongolian ingredients and by giving back to the community from each success we achieve.
Skincare industry is one of the most polluting package-based industries in terms of packaging, so we try our best to promote sustainability and environmentally friendly products. We also do social impact high projects by working with small to medium 200 companies in Mongolia.
25) How do you certify it as organic in Mongolia? Does it have to be certain km away from the road/pollution? It seems like a wild wild west when it comes to certifying cashmere and skincare products in Mongolia as "organic".
You're right. For instance, we didn’t have a certificate for organic food up until a year ago! Before that, there was no regulation or law, so we actually helped create the organic certificate in Mongolia! Now that you have mentioned, it is the same around the world - no organic skincare regulation. More than 95% of skincare products are synthetic based and they are always lobbying against organic skincare. ISO for organic skincare was just recently introduced, so it is extremely exciting to be part of this journey.
“Not all organic ingredients are good. If you collected an ingredient close to a mine, that is definitely not good, so we try to make sure that our raw materials are up to the highest standards and we test it ourselves in our own laboratory. Especially now that we export to Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, USA, Kuwait, Australia and India. ”
Funny fact: we never planned to export. Our buyers became our distributors.
26) You make most of your income from exports?
No, 90% from Mongolia and 10% from abroad.
27) Organic products have shorter shelf life, so how fast should we use your product?
Our products have shelf life up to 1-2 years, because they are oil-based. However, you should still keep in mind that it is organic and try to use it immediately. Our only water based product was our facial serum and it took me 3 years to develop it.
28) Why is it so important that we use organic skincare?
First of all, I believe you should keep yourself healthy with the right food and exercise. Instead of trying to cover your pimples and acne with a heavy foundation, try living a healthier lifestyle with the right food and organic skincare. Organic skincare can give you Vitamin C, anti-oxidant and everything to make you look healthy and glowy if you use it long term.
“If I ask you to eat all the synthetic ingredients, you would probably say no, so why would you put that on your face? Do you know that pareben is proven to cause cancer? Your skin is the biggest organ in your body. Keep it healthy by choosing organic products.”
29) Starting up, what were the biggest challenges you have overcome?
Oh everything! I was all alone in 2014, doing everything from home. Once we started sales, we rented our office, but after 10 days, we got robbed. The police couldn’t find the thief, so I had to find him/her myself and caught the thief on an airplane before he departed from Mongolia. We had two floods also, so I had to lay off workers, because I couldn’t pay their salaries. It was like a movie!
Now I have 50 employees. We rent 80m2 office at Downtown office, 300m2 production space behind Ramada, and retail spaces at Shangri-La Mall, State Department Store and Zaisan Hill.
30) When you started exporting abroad, what obstacles did you face?
It was bad. All the countries I mentioned above, nobody really exported products to those countries from Mongolia, so we faced huge transportation problems. For example, we used to export and ship to Canada and the biggest online wellness distributor World.ca wanted to sell our products. Unfortunately, the logistics companies couldn’t ship our products properly. It should have arrived in 5 days, but it arrived in 17 days. After 4 delayed shipments like this, World.ca told us that they loved our product, but the transportation delay was unacceptable and terminated us. Same with Kuwait. No track record of shipping things to Kuwait.
“Mongolian logistic companies are not experienced in shipping goods and products efficiently to countries abroad. Customers give us a hard time for delays. Customs give us a hard time too. Finally, the payment problems, because there is no PayPal in Mongolia. ”
It is very sad, because we are forced to open a bank account abroad in order to use PayPal and get payments. If Mongolia makes amends with PayPal rules, much needed hard currencies like USD will start coming to Mongolia.
31) Have you tried reaching out to the Government regarding the logistic and payment problems?
The Government paints us as the best practice when it comes to exporting goods out of Mongolia, but we still face the same problems I mentioned today. I even tried contacting PayPal in 2015 saying “Lhamour is a worldwide award-winning skincare product from Mongolia, please, help us open a PayPal account to do international sales”, but they replied back saying “Only if online payment conditions improve to our standards in Mongolia”. I lost so many customers because of just payments.
32) With this interview, I wanted to highlight your other accomplishments, because we all know how you founded Lhamour and we can read about it in numerous languages. For example, you had numerous prestigious awards from Mongolia and globally, such as 2017 Forbes Mongolia’s 30 under 30, #85 of Top 100 Global Inspiring Social Enablers of 2017, One of the Top 20 Young Female Leaders Mentees by the US Government, Fortune Magazine and Vital Voices - 2017, Best Responsible SME of Asia 2016 - Singapore, Best Young Entrepreneur of Asia Pacific for founding the first organic skincare Lhamour in Mongolia, etc.
With that being said, let’s talk about Mongolia Blossoms NGO, which you founded in 2013 before Lhamour. What led you to do that?
Yes, I founded it in 2013. When I came back to Mongolia, I wanted to volunteer. When I was in Switzerland, I used to volunteer at Humanities Peace Corps to build houses for homeless people in Bulgaria, orphanages in Syria, etc. I always wanted to make an impact, so when I came to Mongolia, there were only a handful of NGOs.
“There was no volunteer system in Mongolia, so together with Ganjavkhlan Chadraabal (before he founded the Lantuun Dohio), I went to the ger district and handed out a few presents. I went into a depression after seeing how kids live in such an environment, so I started teaching at Amgalan orphanage. ”
At that time, nobody knew the concept of NGOs, but there were 10,000 NGOs registered in Mongolia and they were no transparency of what they actually do, so I launched a website, which became the yellow page for NGOs. Unfortunately, I ran out of money and time, so I shut it down.
However, last year I did the Women Entrepreneurship through Mongolia Blossom, because I am the Mongolian Ambassador. We gathered 300 women. We later did a Women in Business event for 450 businesswomen. These two events gathered over 1,000 women and it was so empowering.
“When I was consulting at EBRD, we conducted a study and found that although Mongolia is very open towards its women’s rights, female leaders in business are mostly in the small to medium ranges, but the largest companies are mostly represented by Mongolian men. ”
At the event, we realized that it is 99% challenges and 1% success. I tried my best to have strong panelists, asked tough questions and motivated one another. Many businesswomen cried, smiled and empowered each other by starting business together after that event.
33) Who are the most notable NGOs you would like to highlight in Mongolia?
Save Infants, which gives necessary equipment to the hospitals. In terms of education - Erdemt NGO who does Ugluunii Khun series at 6am, book releases, etc. Nogoon Baatar - tree plantation. Obviously, Lantuun Dohio is incredible. Women for Change NGO who did Vagina Monologue and Gender Distrimination. Zorig Foundation - I have become their guest speaker and judge for their projects. Mongolian Nuudel Shiidel - economic empowerment.
34) Now that you actually pay tax and hire people to your own company. What qualities do you seek from applicants?
When I interview people, I look for decent and creative people who want to do something with their lives. We have a flexible and positive company culture. Positive attitude is most important for us.
I pay a lot of attention to my team. I am very proud that 10 people whom I hired at the beginning are still with me today for 5 years. That is amazing, because human resource is very difficult in Mongolia. Obviously, every start-up going through the same cycle: In the beginning, you have to beg people to come and work for you. Nobody knows who you are or cares, and you have to explain your vision to them and beg. When you become bigger and have sufficient people who want to work for you, then you have to start hiring experienced and qualified people to take your company forward, because it is not about the founder anymore.
“Lhamour is at this stage where I am no longer the center of the attention anymore. Lhamour never had managers and it is the first time we have marketing manager and supply & logistics specialist. Before, I used to do everything, but now we have competent management whom I can rely on. ”
PERSONAL
34. May we ask if you are single or married? What are your thoughts on family planning in Mongolia?
Yes, we have a daughter. I just recently became a mother 6 months ago and we will celebrate this by giving my daughter her first solid meal today! We also have a dog.
I am back to work and I am sharing responsibilities with my husband. In the morning, I take care of the baby, and when I leave, my husband takes care of the baby. I took a 6 months break without doing anything and took care of my baby. Personally, that was a success for me.
“In terms of family planning, Mongolia is doing a pretty good job compared to the US where you are only allowed to have 1 month maternity leave.”
36) How do you relax? What’s your hobby or where can we find you when you are not working?
We always love going to the countryside, because we have a dog. Now with the baby, we go even more.
I love music, music, music. I was at Playtime when I was 8 months pregnant! I love going to concerts. Nobody knows this, but I just bought a ukulele and I will start learning to play it.
37) When you were young, what did you want to be when you grow up?
I wanted to be a teacher. Maybe when I retire, I will start teaching.
38) Now, where do you see yourself in 5-10 years?
I always think of myself as a nomad, so I will be an international nomad and I will scale up Lhamour. My husband does international logistics, so he goes to Vietnam and Hong Kong frequently. As a family, we travel a lot, so we will be in and out of Mongolia frequently.
40) Where do you see Lhamour in 5 years?
A pride of Mongolians and in many countries. And making profit.
41) It is not making a profit?
I guess people see us expanding at every mall and they think Lhamour is making so much money, but they also need to realize that expansion takes money. I am spending a lot of time currently laying down a good foundation, so that we can be successful internationally. Especially by creating international standards. That takes time and money. I have 48 people on payroll, so it all takes time.
42) Who do you admire most in Mongolia? A living person and why?
“Because I work in such a stressful environment as a business owner, I respect every single successful and ethical business person in Mongolia. People who are true to themselves. ”
All the entrepreneurs like FARO Education’s Byambajargal, Boloroo from Route 22 and Zoma restaurants, etc. I know them personally and I know what they went through, so I admire them for going through so much.
43) Do you have any mentors? How did you pick them as mentors?
I don’t have any. I wish I had some.
44) If you could compare yourself to another animal, what animal would you be?
Wolf.
45) What’s the best life advice that you’ve received? Who gave this advice?
My mother always told me that I could do whatever I wanted and that made a big impact in my life. She always empowered me to live my life to the fullest.
46) A personal advice you would like to extend to fellow Hobby Alumni?
Be true to yourself. Live your life to the fullest. Be the best at what you do.
47) A personal advice you would like to extend to fellow Hobby students?
Do as much as possible. While you have the time, energy and youth, try out so many things and understand yourself first. For instance, I hated being a waitress and it helped me understand myself. I understood what I liked and what I didn’t.
48) What are your good and bad habits?
Bad - I overthink and I am very sensitive. I think about things over and over again.
Good - I always try to help people and go to the countryside. I guess that’s not a habit. I always eat breakfast and have 1 cup of coffee per day. In terms of professional habit, I always reply to the most important emails first thing in the morning and get it over with.
49) Funniest story at work you can share with us?
My startup Lhamour history is like a movie. The big flooding in Sansar came into our factory (and also E-Mart Sansar!) and I cried for help by posting it on my facebook. Within 10 minutes our customers and guys with their suits came in and helped us move our equipment and products out of the flooding. It was amazing how fast people came and rescued us. I was crying and laughing at the same time, because it was crazy.
50) If you can pass 1 law globally, what would it be?
No taxes for start-ups in the first 5 years (laughs).
51) Now if you can fix 1 problem in Mongolia, what would it be?
Air pollution.
52) If you could have dinner with anyone dead or alive who would it be, and why? Also, what would be your first question?
This is the same scholarship question Columbia University asked me, so let me give you the same answer. It would be my grandfather.
“My grandfather passed away when I was only two. My mother always told me that he used to hold me in his arms and explain the world around to me. When people told him that I wouldn’t understand what he was saying, he would say that I was a special baby and ignored them. ”
I just want to go back and ask him what he was thinking and visioning.
53) Name 3 conspiracy theories you believe in.
You have crazy questions! Ok, I think Russia and China are doing everything in their power not to make Mongolia grow faster. Illuminati. All the viruses are put on Earth by companies for profit.
54) Who would you recommend to interview next from Hobby Alumni? And Why?
I would like to recommend Munkhtulga Od who does crazy cool stuff like music and he just did gaming thing with RockIt Bay. He was also helping Onnts Dumd and he sings! He is really into music and entertainment.
“Lhamour is a Mongolian brand that takes a holistic approach to environmental sustainability and social responsibility through natural products #MadeInMongolia. We achieve this through zero waste natural products (you can bring your own bottle and fill it up in our shops, no plastic bags, etc.) with unique Mongolian ingredients and by giving back to the community from each success we achieve.
Skincare industry is one of the most polluting package-based industries in terms of packaging, so we try our best to promote sustainability and environmentally friendly products at Lhamour. ”