City: Haryana, India
Occupation: Management, Strategy, and Finance Associate for Malaria Elimination in Southeast Asia, Clinton Health Access Initiative
While working with Southeast Asian governments on malaria elimination strategy and financing, I leveraged my analytical and technical skills from my consulting experience to develop multiple systems and tools to enhance the malaria programs’ efficiency. One such tool, for example, helped significantly improve annual fund absorption rates from around 60 percent to 95 percent in two years. It became evident to me that the nonprofit sector did not function with the same rigor and finesse that the for-profit sector did. At Booth, the flexibility of the MBA curriculum, the highly experienced faculty, and the class diversity will provide me the right platform to learn not only business management skills but also their wide applications to the social sector. Additionally, the Civic Scholars Program will provide me lifetime access to a socially inclined network, whom I can support and who can guide me as my personal board of advisors.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my time working in public health, empowering governments across developing countries in reducing inequity to health-care access. Though I would absolutely love to return to the healthcare sector in the future, I also feel passionate about advocating for equity across other areas such as gender, race, ethnicity and economic disparity that have created deeply rooted biases in the society. I am certain that Booth’s diverse offerings would provide me several opportunities to explore additional underserved sectors and functions within the social sector. Leveraging the Civic Scholars community and faculty as my advisory board, I would love to get exposure to these areas and look for opportunities to work with communities that I haven’t had a chance to serve yet.
The pandemic has highlighted the severe and urgent need for public health to be far more accessible, organized, and agile than it has been ever before. It has also validated my belief that the nonprofit sector, at a minimum, deserves the same business expertise and rigor that the private and for-profit sector has constant access to. To grow as a leader in public health or any other social subsector, I will leverage Booth’s resources and faculty to enhance my organizational planning, business operations, stakeholder management and leadership skills. These skills would further enable me to bridge the wide skill-gap that exists in the social sector today.
I chose the full-time MBA program for three key reasons. First, it would provide me complete access to my faculty, peers, and the academic and professional resources available at Booth. Secondly, it would give me an environment and opportunity to understand other deep-rooted problems faced in developed countries such as the US. Finally, the program will give me a generous period of time to build strong connections in the Booth community and grow with my peer group.
I have six years of work experience across UBS (healthcare investment banking) and Bain (private equity) in India, and at Clinton Health Access Initiative (Malaria Elimination - Strategy and Finance) in Southeast Asia. My interest and commitment to the social sector, however, began over a decade ago. Since my teenage years, I’ve been involved in community and social service in multiple ways, be it by leading my school's environment council, co-leading my college's social service cell, starting a social venture, or volunteering across nonprofits on youth empowerment and gender equity programs. My contributions led me to receive the Karmaveer Chakra Award, a civilian honor granted to only a few young change-makers annually in India. Gradually, as my interest in the sector deepened after working on a few pro-bono cases at Bain, I declined a fast-track promotion and a transfer opportunity to Europe to follow my passion full-time with the Clinton Health Access Initiative.