We spoke to recent mentor-mentee pair Nick Teunon (Trevelyan, 1984) and Syukie Zhang (Colvin, 2016) to explore how the Haileybury Leaders Mentoring Programme helped Syukie bring greater clarity and structure to a major career pivot. Their story shows that powerful mentoring doesn’t require matching industries; sometimes, an alternative viewpoint unlocks fresh insight and momentum.
A new direction
Syukie had previously been paired with another mentor who helped her take the steps she needed to advance in tech. After building a promising career in the sector, she began reconsidering her longer-term path and exploring a career centred on choreography and dance.
Having benefited from such transformative advice before, Syukie turned again to the Leaders Mentoring Programme – this time seeking support for a transition outside her original field. She was matched with Nick Teunon, who spent his career as a CFO in listed and private companies before joining UK Business Mentoring, where he now mentors SME owners and directors.
Curiosity, conversations and confidence
Syukie was looking to move from a promising and comparatively structured career in tech towards building a long-term career as a choreographer and dance artist – a path with no obvious career ladder or roadmap. Drawing on his experience across business, finance, governance and the charity sector, Nick brought perspective and tools from outside the dance industry that helped Syukie step back and think strategically about how to make that transition viable. Their conversations helped turn what initially felt like an uncertain ambition into something more structured and achievable, giving her a clearer plan around her professional identity, network, opportunities and how to build a sustainable creative career over time. Nick encouraged her to “be curious and talk to people… because you will suddenly come across someone who will tell you something that will help.” While he doesn’t have a background in dance or choreography, Nick understood that by staying open, Syukie would expand her professional network and connections through a range of different conversations.
Nick also knew that a mentor isn’t meant to have all the answers. For him, it was key to “listen and provide a safe space for the mentee to grow.” Syukie valued Nick giving her prompts to think of a “different point of view that gives me prompts that I couldn’t generate by myself or with friends, my network or AI tools”. By guiding Syukie to reach conclusions herself, the relationship increased her confidence and broadened the range of solutions she could consider when facing challenges.
Two years on, Syukie is building an international career as a choreographer and dance artist alongside her doctoral research. She has developed and shared choreographic work through dance communities in London, Los Angeles and Beijing, and recently delivered her first research workshop at the University of the Arts London Doctoral School, exploring how street-rooted embodied knowledge can enter institutional and academic spaces. She is now in the second year of her PhD at UAL and will present a paper at the Dance Studies Association Annual Conference in California this October.
Benefits for both sides
The benefits of the mentorship weren’t solely for Syukie. For Nick, the value was in mentoring someone whose career was very different to his own structured career. It made him ask questions he would not have asked a client and he has taken that back into his own practice. For Syukie, the programme also helped her “strengthen the bond with Haileybury”, reinforcing the value of lifelong connections and support through the Haileybury Association.
Advice for future mentors and mentees
Both Nick and Syukie had key advice to share with future applicants:
- Mentees: Be open about your personal goals. You don’t need a crystal‑clear focus, but it helps to understand the general direction you wish to go in. Planning and preparation are key – go into meetings with an agenda and a sense of what you want to get out of them.
- Mentors: Remember you’re there to prompt the mentee to make their own decisions, it’s not about dictating what they should do.
Syukie ends on a simple, compelling note: “Participate. You won’t regret it.”
Applications are open
If you’re inspired by Syukie and Nick’s experience and would like to apply to the Leaders Mentoring Programme, applications are now open until 11 November 2026.