Describe your personal brand.

A full-time creative thinker, a part-time fitness and sustainability enthusiast, and a lifelong proponent of chasing dreams.

What were you doing before The NUS MBA?

After completing an engineering degree in India, I started my career as a Business Analyst in advertising strategy and campaign management at a global ad network. After more than three years of working with some of the biggest brands and experiencing accelerated professional growth, I moved to a digital agency based out of New Zealand, a year-long stint that got me exposed to the challenges encountered by small and medium businesses. Right before coming to Singapore in 2018 for MBA, I worked as Head of Strategy (Marketing and Sales) for a corporate apparel business, helping them set up and grow the online retail division.

Why did you pick NUS?

NUS Business School was at the intersection of my interest in the Asian business environment and my desire to share the room with people from different geographies, mindsets, and schools of thought. Having spoken to many alumni and hearing their stories from the classroom to the boardroom, I learned that at NUS, I’d be able to carve out a galaxy of my own with the plethora of opportunities around me, both personal and professional.

Please share your key achievements and leadership roles on the programme.

• Poets & Quants 100 Best and Brightest MBA, Class of 2020
• McKinsey Next Generation Women Leader 2020 - one of the 300 selected from 6,000 applicants from all over the world
• Top 100 MBA Students at the MBA World Summit, 2019 in Sydney, Australia, where I delivered a laboratory session ‘World without words’ on how to have gender-neutral conversations while leading global teams
• Special Recognition for Responsible Leadership at the Graduate Business Conference 2019 held in Paris, France
• NUS Ambassador at the Global Immersion Programme to London, UK 2019, where I organised student learning and networking sessions at Bloomberg, Twitter, and Deliveroo offices
• NUS MBA Class Champion 2020
• Assistant Facilitator, The NUS MBA Launch Your Transformation Boot Camp 2019 that focused on preparing the incoming MBA cohort for business communication and leadership skills
• President, Women in Business, The NUS MBA Student Council. As a staunch advocate of higher representation of women in senior leadership, I used the platform to bridge the gap between aspirations and confidence of young women and to find ways to alleviate unconscious bias within and beyond the classroom. Some of the key highlights of my tenure:
• Founder-Director of the inaugural NUS MBA Leadership Conclave bringing together 12 leaders from Google, Bloomberg, Citibank, KPMG, and more to share their experiences and advice for the leaders of tomorrow
• Organiser and Panel Moderator for NUSxSAP Women in Data Science Conference that was opened by the President of SAP JAPAC, Scott Russell to encourage more women to build a career in data science in Asia.
• International Women’s Day - Soccer Event ‘Bubble of Bias’ to celebrate women in sports
• NUS Delegate at the Singapore Edition of Women’s Forum for Economy and Society 2018
• ‘Play and Learn’ Ladies’ Nights bringing together #WomenofNUS together for evenings of recreation and building awareness about Breast Cancer.
• Core Team Member – MBA Olympics 2019 (third consecutive win against business schools in Singapore)
• Organizer – HECxFacebook, an evening with Ms Morin Oluwole, Head of Luxury at Facebook and Instagram, during my exchange semester at HEC Paris (Sep-Dec 2019)

What has been the single most stand-out experience of your MBA?

Held in January every year, the MBA Olympics brings together sporting teams from various B-schools in Singapore for one day of adrenaline-pumping moments. At NUS, we take the Olympics very seriously (winners for three years in a row from 2017 to 2019), so the tradition is to start the trials and preparations (led by The NUS MBA Sports Club) as early as September, only one month after our official orientation! Despite tricky schedules marked with semester deliverables and internship hunting, students step up, take ownership, and motivate each other to team up and bring their A-game on the day. As a member of the core team, I saw my peers struggle with pain on some days, yet they never backed down, so when you lift the trophy together, the feeling is extraordinary. More than 25 nationalities play together for one spirit – NUS. The strong support from the school is proof enough of how a culture of passion, persistence, and partnerships is fostered throughout the programme.

Tell me something about The NUS MBA that others might not know.

A lot of students think that NUS is focused only on academic learning, and the extreme pressure of lectures, assignments, and exams will interfere with their holistic business school experience. What they do not know is that NUS prepares you for the business world by providing you with both academic and experiential learning opportunities. You only need to know how to make the best of it in the 17 months of the programme

Who is your personal hero? What is it about him/her that you admire?

In the current context, someone who has inspired me beyond imagination with her fearlessness and perseverance in the ongoing battle against Covid-19 is my aunt, Ms Vandana Verma. She works as a Senior Dietitian at one of the busiest hospitals in New Delhi, India. Although I have seen her fight the toughest of circumstances ever since I was a kid, I have been at a loss of words looking at her commitment to her patients, her team, and her family these past few months.

Where do you see yourself in 5 - 10 years’ time?

With the unprecedented crisis that we are facing right now, so much has changed about where we wanted to be and what we wanted to do. I am glad that I channelled my MBA programme towards learning and preparing for digital innovation and enterprise transformation, and that is something I’d like to focus on, at least for the next few years.

What advice would you give to other MBA aspirants?

The pandemic has had a sweeping impact on economies and people. As an aspirant, you should be prepared for the new world. Your skills will definitely help you, but as a future leader, you must value empathy and optimism and build a strong character as you navigate unchartered territories. Don’t hold yourself back. Be proud of who you are. Start your MBA journey with zero expectations. Let it surprise you.