A consultant at blue-chip firms Accenture and later Deloitte, a holder of The Bath MBA and now a senior strategy manager at New Look - the leading UK retail brand.. the list goes on.
But perhaps his greatest achievement was breaking into the top-ten listing of badminton players in Britain. He has had a passion for the sport since childhood; his father was a county-level player in Thailand before moving with Arak's mother to the UK and opening a Thai restaurant in London.
He gets more than just athletic genes from his Bhokanandh name-sake; the business nous is evident too.
And it would have to be to break into Deloitte - the leading management consultancy firm - in a senior role, fresh out of graduation from the University Of Bath School Of Management.
Yet Arak's greatest challenge was not gaining an MBA from one of the UK's top-rated business schools, and nor was it launching successful career at Deloitte and other leading firms. It was age the age of 21, trying to balance a professional playing career with the leading “tech-focused” consultancy Accenture.
At the time he had been progressing at a steady pace in the badminton space, competing with England's national junior squad after obtaining a BA in Computer Science from Staffordshire University.
He entered Accenture as a junior software engineer in 2004 and, two years later, was consulting prestige clients such as Thomas Cook and Barclays Bank. Arak's technical background would come in great use; it is the reason they hired him, he says. He developed IT framework for Barclays - the state-backed British bank - as well as large-scale systems integration projects.
So when the work-load became heavy, his playing ability suffered. For all the accolades and success he has achieved in his badminton career, the Bath MBA replies with a great deal of humility.
"I got this big break when I finished university and joined Accenture, but balancing badminton wasn’t very easy," he says, humbly. "The work-load in consulting is pretty tough.
"It's a hard transition from junior to senior badminton and at that point, I was already struggling to break into the top-20 nationally. So I decided to quit."
But he couldn't stay away from the game for long. After flying out to Vancouver, Canada for a new career as a business analyst in the social networking and entertainment industries, he rediscovered his sporting prowess.
Where he worked in the coastal city, just north of Washington DC, was also where the Canadian national badminton team trained at the time. It was a coincidence that coerced him back into the sporting fold.
"I started competing around local circuits and eventually, got back onto the England program and began competing nationally," says Arak. "I went semi-pro for the next three or four years, competing in both the US and Malaysia."
By the time Arak had finished with the Canadian company and returned to England to begin an MBA in the UK, he achieved his highest badminton career-ranking - an impressive 8th spot among all the professional players in England.
So when the work-load got tough in Canada, had to make another daunting decision. He retired from the professional version of the sport for good in 2012; leaving a career behind that he had built since the age of 11.
When Arak was a teenager, he trained up to five times a week. But by the time his business career began to take off internationally, that was simply untenable.
Professional athletes are always controlled by the tick of the clock; it is a career for the 20s' and early 30s', and after that, they must start anew. It is a problem that many organisations are trying to address and business schools like Bath offer MBA Scholarships for candidates with non-traditional and sporting backgrounds.
"The tech firm I worked for valued a good work-life balance. I could sometimes leave early to get to training, they were supportive of my ravelling to tournaments and I could work remotely," says Arak. "But I had to make an honest assessment: how much farther could I go on in my playing career?
"At that point I was about to hit my 30s', I was about to get married and ultimately I had to provide for my family."
Does he not miss the thrill? The dedication and the competition? "I do miss it. But I still play a bit, representing the Avon first-team, and I do coaching in my spare time," Arak says. "It is still a big part of my life."
But not the biggest. Not anymore. When he flew back to London it was with the express intention of getting an MBA from a top-tier business school - and taking his career to the next level.
Arak aspires to lead a global business one day and attending Bath - one of the UK's highest MBA Ranking universities - was his first step on that path. Out with the shuttlecocks, in with the boardrooms.
"The MBA itself was a tool and an aspiration to get me onto that next career path," he explains.
"I wanted to go back to basics, to refine my skills but also pick up new ones. Because I came from a technical background, all the business skills I had learnt at that point were not through formal education."
He chose Bath because of its high ranking, strong brand and location in England. "An MBA is about brand. Everyone knows that. Bath had a very strong brand and reputation," he adds.
By the time he finished the 12-month program, he transitioned into top management consultancy firm Deloitte, where he worked as a senior consultant for about a year.
The firm were looking for candidates with real industry experience. Arak's background made him stand out. "The MBA definitely helped me prepare for what was a different role," he says. "Most of my roles were strategy projects, working with C-level stakeholders. It was different to Accenture."
Most MBAs would be content with a leading management consultancy company. Indeed, it is one of the most sought-after functions in the MBA Jobs world. But Arak aims high. He aspires to run his own company and his current position, a senior strategy role at New Look, was a "step up".
"I loved my time at Deloitte but ultimately my ambition is to move into industry and run a company," he says. "My target now is to climb the corporate ladder. That's my ambition."
So where does an MBA fit into his story? "It really laid down the foundations," Arak replies. "It has given me the tools to see how a business should, or could, be run.
"But you have to draw your own conclusions. What Bath did was allow me to grow as a person. It gives you the framework to think and build upon."
If Arak is half as successful in business as he was in badminton, I have no doubt he will make that dream a reality.
Student Reviews
University of Bath School of Management (MBA)
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