Haris Khan leads a double life. He handles public relations for a university by day and is a comedian by night. He’s funny, generous, driven, and resilient—qualities that have led him on a circuitous path in his 34 years.
He was born in Pakistan and relocated to Oman as a toddler for his father’s job at Pepsi-Cola. He moved again as a teenager to Canada, adapting easily to life there. The area where he lived in Oman was Westernized, and he grew up with several European friends.
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DOWNLOAD NOW“When asked if I was a good student in high school, I joke that I was an outstanding student because I was always out standing in the hall,” Khan says. “I was always in trouble. Instead of studying, I focused on making people laugh, which led me to my first career as a comedian.”
After high school, Khan enrolled at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, Canada, and majored in science. When he was 21, he started performing comedy on the side. As his comedy career started skyrocketing, Khan took time off school to focus on it. In 2014, he went on his first international tour to perform in the U.S., Canada, England, the Middle East, and Pakistan.
“In my first show, people laughed so hard,” Khan says. “But in my second show, I bombed. I did get better with practice. After a while on the road, I decided I needed a professional career.”
After three years of performing, he returned to the University of Regina to complete his degree. He also took on his first leadership position when elected vice president of external relations for the Students’ Union, leading 15,000 students. It was a full-time paid leadership position, and he managed an $8 million budget while attending school full-time. The next year, he was elected as president of the Students’ Union.
Khan’s parents were civic-minded and had always taught him to give back to his community, so in addition to hosting fundraisers through comedy, he created a University of Regina thrift store to provide gently used professional attire to students for internships and job interviews. Khan was lauded for the drive, and it attracted a lot of press coverage. The Canadian Broadcast Corporation named him to its "Future 40" list of promising individuals for making people laugh and raising money for important causes through his shows. Khan has raised more than $25,000 to date.
Khan graduated in 2018 and worked for the Saskatchewan government and in health care before returning to the University of Regina as director of public relations and programs. He now leads a team of five.
Khan discovered Harvard Business School Online while looking for an online leadership program. He dreamed of going to Harvard as a child but thought he’d never get in.
He enrolled in Management Essentials and quickly discovered it was worth the time and investment. Shortly after completing his first course, recruiters contacted him for management roles. He believes it was because he had HBS Online on his LinkedIn profile.
“I was blown away by the program," Khan says. "I had never encountered such an interactive online platform, and by working with classmates, I felt more engaged. The teaching model made learning so much more fun. I’ve taken other online courses, and frankly, they were garbage. I withdrew from my last course with another university because it wasn’t on the same level.”
Within 18 months of completing Management Essentials, Khan took Leadership Principles and Power and Influence for Positive Impact to earn his Certificate of Specialization in Leadership and Management.
“The real-world cases in the courses helped me learn invaluable concepts like change management,” Khan says. “In job interviews, I nailed answers to questions about change management. Now I know the concepts by heart, and I’ve been able to share my knowledge with my team and colleagues.”
Several other concepts he learned also helped his career trajectory. For example, in Power and Influence for Positive Impact, he discovered how to spot individuals with power in an organization. To his surprise, it’s not always the CEO.
Leadership Principles helped him build his team and illustrated how to behave and lead at work and evaluate his actions’ consequences, while Management Essentials was his first formal management training.
“I gained so much knowledge through HBS Online and saw an immediate return on investment,” Khan says. “I’ve risen to a higher level in my career, and I’m trying to spread the word. The people I know weren’t aware of HBS Online, so I’ve already referred 10 people.”
Today, Khan continues to live by his parents’ teachings. They both passed away in 2021 from COVID-19. To deal with his grief, Khan organized a food drive in their memory to feed needy students and others in the community who suffered the loss of loved ones from the virus. Community members and local businesses contributed $26,000 to help Khan serve 67 hot meals daily for 30 days.
In recognition of the campaign, Khan received the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal for Community Engagement in 2023. The medal is awarded to Canadians who make outstanding contributions to their communities.
Outside work, he’s still a stand-up comedian.
“I hope to leverage my experience to continue to grow in my career, so I have an impact professionally and socially,” Khan says. “Eventually, I’d like to transition to business. I’ve started thinking about getting an MBA. My dream is to go to HBS, so we’ll see where I end up.”
If you’re interested in growing your career, explore HBS Online’s leadership and management courses. Aren't sure which course to start with? Download our flowchart to find the right fit.
