Alumni Spotlight: Kiran Babu Basnet — From Sunway MBA Graduate to Data Analyst in Scotland
At Sunway College Kathmandu, nothing makes us prouder than watching our graduates take the skills and confidence they built in our classrooms and turn them into global careers. This month, our Alumni Spotlight shines on Kiran Babu Basnet, a 2020 MBA graduate of Sunway College Kathmandu who specialized in Project Management — and who has since built an impressive, multi-disciplinary career spanning data science, machine learning, and big data analytics, now based in Scotland.
A Foundation Built at Sunway
During his MBA at Sunway College Kathmandu, Kiran focused on Project Management, sharpening the leadership, planning, and stakeholder-management skills that would go on to define his career. He graduated in 2020 with the kind of practical, industry-ready grounding that Sunway aims to give every student — a foundation he has since carried across continents and industries.
Expanding Horizons: From Project Management to Big Data
Never one to stand still, Kiran went on to pursue an MSc in Advanced Computing (Big Data) at the University of the West of Scotland, deepening his expertise in data mining, statistical analysis, and machine learning. This natural progression — from managing projects to managing data — reflects the kind of continuous, curiosity-driven learning Sunway encourages in all its students.
A Career Built on Versatility
Kiran’s professional journey is anything but linear, and that’s exactly what makes it inspiring. Over more than a decade in the IT and tech industry, he has worked across:
- Project & Program Leadership — As Senior Project Manager and co-founder of Mind Risers Consortium Pvt. Ltd. in Kathmandu, Kiran led cross-functional teams to design and deliver a Local Governance ERP system for municipalities across Nepal, working closely with developers, analysts, and government stakeholders.
- Systems & Networks — As System and Network Manager at Advanced College of Engineering & Management, he managed complex IT infrastructure, security protocols, and network architecture.
- Data Science Innovation — Through Demola Global, Kiran developed Nalyst, an open-source Python library for machine learning and data analysis, offering tools for linear and logistic regression, K-means clustering, PCA, decision trees, and more — now publicly available on PyPI.
- AI & FinTech Research — Also with Demola Global, he explored the intersection of artificial intelligence and the financial services industry, researching how automation is reshaping the future of FinTech.
Today: Data Analyst in Scotland
Since March 2022, Kiran has been working as a Data Analyst at The Argyll Group of Hotels in Glasgow, Scotland. In this role, he collects and organizes data from multiple sources, cleans and prepares it for analysis, builds data models, and visualizes insights that directly support business decision-making — bringing together everything he has learned, from his Sunway MBA to his big data master’s degree, into one role.
Beyond the Resume: A Lifelong Learner
Ask Kiran to describe himself, and you’ll get a list that goes well beyond a job title: data scientist, researcher, project and program manager, trainer, speaker — and, just as importantly, a deep thinker and meditator. He is an avid reader and writer, regularly blogging about data science to share knowledge with the wider community, and he describes his ongoing pursuit of both professional growth and inner wellbeing as two sides of the same journey.
Staying Connected
Kiran remains warmly connected to his roots and is looking forward to reconnecting with fellow Sunway alumni — to celebrate old memories and build new ones. Alumni and current students alike can connect with him on LinkedIn.
Stories like Kiran’s are a reminder of what a Sunway education sets in motion: not a single career, but a foundation for lifelong growth across industries, countries, and disciplines.