The MBA Jam: Recent Episodes
Avinash Bajaj: Online Entrepreneur, Product Manager, MBA
Please note: For some reason, my audio quality is terrible (sorry!). However, you can hear my guest very clearly, so hopefully this still adds a lot of value. Enjoy!
Dr. Christopher Abraham is a PhD in Business Administration (Design Thinking & Innovation) and has three Post Graduate qualifications in HRM, Business Administration (Marketing), Labor & Administrative Law.He is a Certified Design Thinker from IDEO/Stanford and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (FCIM), UK. He has thirty-five years’ experience in management consulting, marketing, and management education in India, Singapore and the UAE.Currently he is the CEO & Head - Dubai campus and Sr. Vice President (Institutional Development) at the S P Jain School of Global Management, a Forbes Top 10, Economist & FT Top 100 ranked Business School, with campuses in Dubai, Singapore, Mumbai and Sydney.Dr. Abraham has been a visiting Professor at many leading universities in Australia, USA, Canada, Singapore and UK. Earlier in Dubai, he headed the Executive MBA Program of XLRI, Jamshedpur, one of Asia’s top business schools.His areas of competence are Innovation, Design Thinking, Behavioural Design,Neuroscience of Decision Making, Future of Education, Science of Happiness, Leadership, Human Potential, Entrepreneurship, Marketing & Strategy.A much sought after 3 x TEDx and international keynote speaker, he has successfully presented in numerous global forums and has also conducted many consulting and executive development assignments for global organizations, including The World Bank, The Executive Council (Govt. of Dubai), Emirates Airlines, SEWA (Government of Sharjah), Aramex, DHL, P & G, LG, Reckitt & Benkiser, AW Rostamani (Nissan Auto) etc.
Awards & RecognitionsTwice Awarded “Best CEO in the World” in 2018 & 2019, by Indo – UAE Business & Social Forum.Twice winner of the Education Leadership Award – World Leadership Congress 2015 & 2017.Regularly Interviewed in leading TV & Media Channels like CNBC, Dubai Eye, Dubai TV etc.Regular News Columns and quotes in leading newspapers like Gulf News, Khaleej Times, The National, Times of India, Economic Times, The Hindu, Mumbai Mirror etc.
Positions & MembershipsHonorary Fellow – Leaders Excellence at Harvard Square, USAdvisor – RTA Innovation Lab, Government of DubaiGlobal Advisory Board Member - World CMO Council, USMember of the Board – The Abrahamic Business Circle ,Advisory Board Member – CEO Clubs WorldwideSenior Advisory Board Member –WASME World Association of SMEs (An UNESCO Initiative)Senior Advisory Board Member – World Sustainable Business Forum, UKDirector – S P Jain Centre of Excellence for the Science of HappinessMember of the Governing Board – Gulf Marketing AssociationExecutive Board Member – CIVITAS DEI Institute of History and Archaeology of Jerusalem, IsraelMember of the Board of Directors – Talents of EndearmentMember of the Board – Joblio, An AI enabled ethical recruitment solutions company, USMember of the Academic Board – World Masters Academy, ItalyMember of the Advisory Board – Economic Times HR World (ETHRWorld)Member of the CII-Elite Group (SCM) – Confederation of Indian IndustryConferred as the Knight of Parte Guelfa, Italy representing India for Ecology & Environment
Payal Nanjiani is one of the world’s few Indian-American globally acclaimed motivational leadership speaker, executive and success coach, and author. She is the founder of the Success Is Within Leadership, whose global platform has developed millions of game-changing leaders, entrepreneurs, and teams. She's also one of America’s most sought-after women's speaker and is active in promoting women in leadership around the world.
Payal is well-known for creating leadership breakthrough experiences that are guaranteed to change results. Her work with individuals, corporates and entrepreneurs have proven to inspire people for immediate change in their behaviours, influencing their results massively and helping them achieve their highest level of success. She has helped several organizations develop world-class coaches and leaders within their company.
She has been featured on global television, Women's business cover page, global magazines, radio talk shows, podcast and more. She is a regular guest speaker on America’s FM show. Payal lives with her motto- 'Success Is Within' and knows that success can be achieved with speed and serenity in any economy.
Payal’s speaking and coaching have largely and positively impacted-
Fortune 500 Companies High School & University Small and Medium Business Owners Education Industry Women leaders Corporate Leaders & Teams
Mission: Payal’s mission is to help leaders thrive and succeed in their job and business- for themselves, their people and their teams- regardless of the economy and circumstance. She works towards developing game-changing leaders and entrepreneurs. She served as the President of BPW- A national women organization in America. She is known for cutting through the complexity of leadership in today’s fast-changing environment to uncover the core problems and devise real-world solutions.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/payalnanjiani/
Official Website: www.payalnanjiani.com
Kartik Patiar has done his MBA from SP Jain Institute and has also done an exchange program at ESB Business School in Germany. He has diverse experience in marketing and sales across domains - from industrial engineering in the B2B space to FMCG in the B2C space, to online retail and e-classifieds space in the C2C space. Kartik currently works as Director of National Accounts at Swiggy. Prior to this, he has worked as Senior Manager at Flipkart for 2 years, before which he worked as the Regional Manager at OLX. The other top firms he has worked at are Mondelez International, and Procter & Gamble. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kartikpatiar
Garima Bharadwaj has done her MBA from Great Lakes Institute of Management in India. Garima has recently shifted to a new role of leading strategy at an IOT company called Enlite Research. Garima’s previous experience includes leading business development & partnerships at The Moms Co, driving strategic alliances and partnerships at OYO Rooms and Business development for Microsoft Dynamics Practice in APAC region.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garimabharadwaj/
Garima Bharadwaj has done her MBA from Great Lakes Institute of Management in India. Garima has recently shifted to a new role of leading strategy at an IOT company called Enlite Research. Garima’s previous experience includes leading business development & partnerships at The Moms Co, driving strategic alliances and partnerships at OYO Rooms and Business development for Microsoft Dynamics Practice in APAC region.
Michael Schwartz has done his MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business, also known as NYU Stern. Michael has got 10+ years of experience ranging from new product development and asset creation to in-market execution and media planning across retail and online. He has worked on iconic global brands such as Axe, Dove Men+Care, Knorr, Amstel and Philips Norelco. He currently works as Brand Director for Amstel at Heineken.
Michael has been featured in the prestigious Forbes “30 under 30” list in 2016.
Hear what it takes to get into this Forbes list and how Michael's career has progressed and changed since his MBA.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mschwartz/
Praveen Karadiguddi is a Serial Entrepreneur, he has led and founded 2 consultancies with around 120 and 30 people respectively. He has done his MBA from Imperial College London. Praveen helps with digital/agile transformation and builds/enables great teams that build great digital products. He is passionate about
Enabling teams to frequently deliver innovative business value and end-user needs Nurturing people to get the best out of them Bringing clarity of purpose Creating a sense of urgency needed for change and Helping teams launch products that solve user pain point
An experienced technical and commercial leader with more than 15 years of experience in both private and public sectors. Passionate about transforming organisations & helping teams adopt Agile mindset. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/praveenkaradiguddi/
In this episode, Engel Jones, Founder and Podcast Host of Twelve Minute Convos, interviews me, Avinash Bajaj, about my motivation to start The MBA Jam, and more about my personal life and experiences.
Vikramaditya Duggal is currently heading his own organisation - Abhivyakti - the expression. It specialises in training and coaching services for people, leadership and organizational development.
He is a professional banker. He worked in State Bank of India for 22 years. He held a variety of roles and responsibilities during that period. He took early retirement to pursue his passion in the field of learning and development. He was Assistant General Manager and faculty member in State Bank Staff College, Hyderabad when he took retirement.
Thereafter, he worked in Administrative Staff College of India and Centre for Organization Development, Hyderabad where he developed and delivered a variety of programs in the field of Organizational Behaviour.
Some of his areas of interest include Leadership – an inside-out approach, Emotional Intelligence, Coaching, Communication & Presentation Skills, Negotiation Skills, Team Building and Work-Life Balance. He also has the expertise of conducting Out-bound Learning Activities.
He is associated with many organizations as Consultant Trainer. He has delivered more than 20 programmes in Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia and Mauritius.
In his experience of over 15 years in the field of Learning & Development, he has interacted with more than 16,000 participants from public, private, government sectors and NGOs. He facilitates personal and organizational transformation by encouraging people to discover their hidden potential and take responsibility for change.
He is an Associate Power Coach (APC) from Coaching and Leadership International (CLI), Canada. CLI's methodologies encourage clients to use whole-brain thinking to develop solutions. PCMK's (Power Coaching with Mind Kinetics) scientifically structured methodologies are used in coaching.
He is also a Certified Trainer from Success Resources on Accelerated Learning Methodologies that involve left-right brain and VAK in learning.
He is B.Com., M.B.A. and CAIIB by education.
You can find him here:
LinkedIn: https://in.linkedin.com/in/vikramadityaduggal
Website: www.abhivyaktitraining.com
YouTube: www.youtube.com/viduggal
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vikramaditya.duggal
Twitter: https://twitter.com/vikram_inspire
Ritu Srivastava recently finished her MBA from Coventry University London. She is a keen follower of the Global XR industry (VR, AR, etc..). She is also the founder of the facebook group 'Women in Immersive Tech India' https://www.facebook.com/groups/1665600700189879/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/ritu-s-72a561144/
Puja Talesara has done her MBA from Institute Of Technology And Management, Southern Hampshire University. She has largely worked in Leadership coaching and HR across various organisations. She also runs a podcast of her own, called Leadership Demystified, where global leaders across segments share their insights on the emerging / foreseen interesting leadership trends. Here. she talks about how to re-centre life. More information about her: Human Resource professional with around a decade of experience across Industry segments. Have worked closely with CEOS and Management Team in delivering HR value proposition. Proficient in HR management, aligning HR initiatives to Business objectives. Certified in counselling Robert Carcuff model. Trained outbound Assessor. I believe being Business champion and Talent champion go hand in hand. As numbers drive Business, however, it is the talent who enables it. It is vital for HR initiatives to touch the mind and heart of the people: create Talent Magnet. Passionate about Talent management and growing myself continuously. I had been contributing regularly to 'Prerana' HR newsletter during my stints with The HR Practice. I am happy and geared up to partner for the next suitable Assignment, with an ambitious team and create success story together. Currently in my space of learning and enhancing my skill sets. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/puja-talesara-1236b32b/ Link to Puja’s Leadership Demystified podcast: https://www.linkedin.com/company/leadership-demystified/
Bhumika Zhaveri has done her MBA from London South Bank University (LSBU). Bhumika is the founder of a company called Interimarket™. InteriMarket™ is a unique platform built to solve the challenges modern organisations face in attracting, evaluating and retaining project based highly skilled talent. Before Interimarket, Bhumika has largely worked in HR & Resource Management in various organisations across London, UK. Machine Learning & AI Enthusiast - techie at heart with expertise in HR, Recruitment, Project Management, Change & Transformation. As a female tech entrepreneur, she advocates #GirlsinTech #WomeninTech and challenges the traditional views that suffocate the growth of brilliant talent due to biases and perceptions. As thought leader within her sector, you will find her regularly writing for well-known publications including HR Tech Weekly & Partners on a wide range of topics, feel free to check them out via company page @InteriMarket LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bhumikazhaveri/ Article on whether MBA is worth it or not: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140321121413-80480795-is-my-mba-worth-it/
Davis Jones has earned his MBA from EDHEC Business School. He is the co-founder of Eazl, a business education company with more than 100,000 students worldwide that has published multiple bestselling video courses on topics like growth hacking, entrepreneurship, management training, and managing your career. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Mr Jones was a headhunter for firms in Silicon Valley, the city of San Francisco, and the North Bay at Robert Half, the international talent consulting firm with ~$5.4 billion in annual revenues. While working in talent acquisition, his clients included Western Digital, Lending Club, Hitachi, and the Kendall-Jackson family of companies and small and medium-sized organizations like hedge funds, non-profits, and biotechnology companies. Prior to joining Robert Half, Mr Jones was a team lead and content marketer for the CCA Group, the consultancy that was established by the framers of equity crowdfunding legislation (Title III of the JOBS Act) in the United States. Mr Jones earned an MBA with a focus in global finance from EDHEC Business School in France, ranked one of the top 50 MBA programs in the world by The Economist, and a bachelor's degree in international economics with a focus on international development (with highest honors) from Sonoma State University in California. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pdavisjones/ Website: eazl.co
Karthik Viswanathan is a senior product management professional with overall 10+ years of experience in product development, product management and vendor management, with the last 5+ years in core product management - managing platform products, APIs and consumer-facing experiences. Proven capabilities of designing and developing products with exceeding customer satisfaction. A talented and flexible individual with business cognition, product design and development knowledge with good presentation and organisational skills. Technology thought leader, worked on building ML systems pioneering automation. Entrepreneurial mindset boosted with startup experience, with a strong quench for product and process innovation. Certified Pragmatic Marketing Professional in Practical Product Management and a Certified Scrum Product Owner. Specialities: Data-driven product management, with strong consumer and business focus, to drive initiatives from conceptualisation to realisation. Karthik’s journey started at Wipro Technologies, right after his engineering at Anna University in India. Since then, Karthik has worked in Product Management across different companies, such as Sprinklr, 24/7 Innovation Labs, and Flipkart. Currently, Karthik works as Senior Product Manager at LinkedIn India, where he is helping build the LinkedIn team in India. Karthik has done his MBA from Illinois Institute of Technology. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apkarthik/ Blog: https://uberproductmanager.wordpress.com/
Gennaro Cuofano graduated as a Lawyer. Then earned an International MBA from LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego. He then worked as a financial analyst for a Real Estate Investing Company in San Diego, California. At that time he began to think about the possibility to create a blog. It took him two years, but in 2015 he created FourWeekMBA.com, a blog about business modeling, and growth marketing. From online courses with 3,800+ students and paid ebook with 1,000+ readers, he found the web a fantastic place to experiment. Now he dedicates most of his time to starting and growing online businesses. He is also involved in the growth of WordLift.io as Business Developer. https://www.linkedin.com/in/gennarocuofano/
Sean Tope Akinwale started his journey as a software engineer at Accenture, before pursuing the path of Project Management and Business Development. Sean currently works for himself, as a Freelancer, as a Change Management Consultant. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-tope-akinwale-mba-4030b220/
Jeremy Glassenberg is an experienced product leader of 9+ years with a proven track record of growing and helping to monetize startups. He has managed and expanded developer platforms to communities of tens of thousands of developers, executed on high profile integrations promoted by Salesforce and Google and established key components in paths to monetization. While specialized in Product, he also manages and grows developer communities, partner relationships, and customer relationships. As a consultant, he supports companies with their Platform launch and growth plans. He also helps startups build their first MVPs and prepare their initial launches. He also advises and mentors startups and accelerators. Specialties include but are not limited to Product Development, Marketing & Strategy, Developer Relations, API Integrations, and Partner Relations. Jeremy has done his MBA from Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jglassenberg/ Website: https://www.apistrategist.com/
Inna Semenyuk is currently the founder of a company called Innavation Labs. Innavation Labs is a marketing consultancy based in San Francisco, and one of it’s clients is the Calm App. She has also worked as a marketing strategist with companies such as Facebook, Skype, eBay, Calm app, Starbucks, NBC Universal, Turner Broadcasting, Visa, DeveloperWeek and many other companies. Inna is also a snapchat expert, helping companies understand how to develop and launch their Snapchat marketing strategies. Prior to this, Inna has worked as a Digital Director at MHP Communications in London, UK. Inna is originally from Russia, where she worked as Director and Chief Operating Officer at a company called Grayling, before she moved to London for her MBA. She's the founder of http://snapchatdaily.com/, a blog about the best-kept Snapchat secrets for brands. As an influencer, Inna has collaborated with Google, Virgin Mobile, Bloomberg.org, lululemon, SoulCycle, and others. A former TV journalist and PR strategist, Inna has an MBA from Imperial College London, Inna is also an alumna of Singularity University and SingularityU San Francisco Chapter founder. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/innasemenyuk/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/innavation Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/innavation/ Website: https://www.innavationlabs.com/ Website: http://snapchatdaily.com/ Singularity University: https://su.org/
Jonathan Chizick started his career as a Product engineer with Ford where he worked for 6+ years, after which he went on to work in various roles with big brand names such as Apple, Best Buy, Dell where he was for another 6+ years, then to Samsung in the New Ventures division, after which he joined Drippler as VP Sales & Business Development. Currently, Jonathan works as Head of Marketing and Business Development at AppZen, which is the world's first artificial intelligence (AI) solution for back office automation, using data science technologies to automate expense report audit and fraud detection. Over his career, Jonathan has led the marketing for over 20 technology product launches, covering all aspects from strategy and planning to the creation and execution of integrated marketing campaigns. Jonathan is also actively involved in the Silicon Valley startup world, as a mentor at leading startup accelerators and advisor to several startups and Venture Capital funds, including 500 Startups. Jonathan has done his MBA from University of Michigan Ross School of Business. He is currently also a career advisor at Berkeley Haas School of Business. LinkedIn link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jchizick/ Twitter link: https://twitter.com/JCinSV Jonathan’s blog: https://www.jonathanchizick.com/
Ignatius Fogarty began his journey at UCL as an Admissions Assistant. Following which, he moved on to Preqin where he spent close to 9 years. He held various roles while there - starting as Research Analyst to growing his way to the Head of Private Equity products. After which he moved on to Evaluate Ltd as a Product Manager. Following which he now works at Elsevier as a Product Manager. Ignatius has done his Bachelors in History from Kings College London, and an Executive MBA from Imperial College London. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ignatius-fogarty-mba-0245681b/
Diego Gosmar is a Passionate Visionary Innovator with almost 20 years of experience in the ICT and Telco industry. He started to work on the early Voice over Internet technologies at Telecom Italia Labs in 1997, when he was finishing his University studies. In 1998 he moved to Omnitel (now Vodafone) where he led some strategic projects for the early GPRS and UMTS vendor selection. He worked in Atlanet (Telefonica Data company) from 1999 to 2004, where he managed more than 20 Million strategic purchasing and planning for the international IP network. In 2005 he decided to explore the entrepreneurship experience in Wildix, a leading Voice over IP vendor, where he drove the company growth and business development, overtaken 5 Million revenues in a couple of years and opening subsidiaries in France (Paris) and Ukraine (Odessa). In 2007 Diego and his current partners were awarded for the best business plan in the Telecommunication industry at the I3P Polytechnic University of Turin Innovative Enterprises , therefore he decided to join Xenialab as co-Founder. The company was initially specializing in ICT services, and starting from 2012 Diego has been driving the XCALLY international expansion, covering now more than 50 countries worldwide all over the continents, managing key partners and hundreds of customers. XCALLY provides one of the best Omni Channel software along with effective User Experience for any customer care industry. Diego’s leitmotiv is: “Identify your problems, but give your power and energy to solutions.” http://www.gosmar.eu Diego is also active in the Sport Technology market managing the Sport Technology Community: sport is his passion and he likes to spend his leisure time in this area. together with his family and friends. Diego has done his Fully Employed MBA from UCLA in USA. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/diego-gosmar-242b521/
Sagnik Roy started his journey in Accounting, but made the shift into Marketing, Sales and Advertising after finishing his MBA from Fordham University in the US. He started off at Sony Entertainment where he worked for 4 years. After which he worked at Star TV for almost 3 years. Following that, he spent the next 6.5 years at Willow TV, which I believe is the premier broadcaster of cricket in the United States and Canada. currently, Sagnik works as the Vice President and Head of Multimedia Sales at BCCL Worldwide, heading sales for the North American digital and TV assets of the Times of Indian group, which includes timesofindia.com, cricbuzz.com, Willow.tv, Times TV Network and Gaana. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sagnikroy/
Alex Pitt is a co-founder and director of Mustard Seed. Mustard Seed is an impact investment firm whose investment philosophy is around supporting visionary entrepreneurs who they believe will generate compelling and sustainable outcomes. Mustard Seed’s portfolio is very interesting. their investments have been in the areas of economic inclusion, education, environmental sustainability, family and community, and health. Prior to this, Alex was formerly Senior Vice President at Mubadala in Abu Dhabi, Project Leader with The Boston Consulting Group in New York, Chicago and Dubai, and Investment Banking Analyst with Goldman Sachs in London. Alex holds an Economics BSc from the London School of Economics and an MBA from Stanford University. Alex is reachable on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-pitt-a92951/
Ved Ramakrishnan started off his journey as an engineer, he’s done his Masters in Computer Science from Utah State University in USA. Ved has largely worked in Management Consulting, he’s got 12+ years of hands-on experience managing global cross-functional teams, business planning and strategy. Ved has done his MBA from the University of Texas at Austin, McCombs School of Business. He currently works as a Manager at EY. Ved is reachable on LinkedIn here. FYI: We have had Ved's brother on this show before. You can listen to Episode 18 with Maheshwar Ramakrishnan.
Steven Charlton currently runs his firm called Infinity Loop Consulting, as the Managing Director. Prior to this, he’s run various other businesses, which he has sold off to his partners over time. Steven finished his MBA from University of Westminster last year. Steven has also served as a Soldier in the British Army for almost 10 years. Steven would be one of the most unlikeliest candidate to do an MBA. He comes across as a true entrepreneur by heart - through hustling and he’s almost a raw natural business person. That’s why I was very keen to learn Steven's journey. Steven is reachable on LinkedIn here.
Taponeel Mukherjee started his journey as a Trader at UBS, where he went on to being the Associate Director. After which he joined Citi where he was the Vice President for around 4 years. However, the latest thing that Taponeel is working on is his own company called Development Tracks, which provides advisory services to investors to explore, access and invest in optimal business opportunities in infrastructure, commodities trading and real estate in India. Taponeel has done his MBA from INSEAD, before which he has done his bachelors from Northwestern University in the US and his Masters from London School of Economics and Political Science in the UK. Taponeel is reachable on LinkedIn here.
John Cousins is currently the CEO of MBA ASAP. MBA ASAP helps you learn skillsets that will make you more valuable at your job, help you start something on the side, or let you quit your job and start your own business. John also runs his own podcast and Youtube channel with the same name of MBA ASAP, and blogs at http://www.mba-asap.com/. John has been running this business for 3+ years. Previously, John was the CEO of Biomoda, a biotech company developing innovative cancer diagnostics. He was also the CFO of several public companies for 15 years. John is also a Professor at University of New Mexico, teaching New Venture Strategies & Managing and Operating Growing Businesses. John is also an intriguing pianist, and has also published books on a wide variety of business subjects, history, literature and music. John has done his MBA from The Wharton School, after studying Electronics from MIT and Music & Media production from Boston University. John is reachable on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncousinsiii/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jjcousins MBA-ASAP Website: http://www.mba-asap.com/
Dan Ziv is currently the Chief Product Officer and Managing Director UK & ROW at TouchNote. Dan is also a Mentor at Techstars, a member of Founders of the Future, Member of the advisory boards at Feedr Ltd and MORI. Prior to this, Dan has been vice president of product at Velocity Mobile and he’s also co-founded a business called Uncover, which was an app to discover and book London’s most desirable restaurants at the last minute. Dan is actually the second person on this show who’s got a Law degree, following which he transitioned into product management after doing his MBA. Dan has done his law degree from Tel Aviv university, and MBA from London Business School, one of the premier B-Schools in the UK. Dan is reachable on LinkedIn here.
Mayur Satyavrat currently works in RBL Bank in India as Head of Learning, Organisation & Leadership Development. Prior to this, he was the director of human resources at Viacom18 Media, during which I believe he also did his MBA from ISB, one of the premier B-Schools in India. Mayur’s experience has largely been in HR, Leadership Management & Organisation Development, besides which he has also obtained numerous degrees and certificates from Kellogg, Wharton, IIM, XLRI and several other institutions in India. Mayur is reachable on LinkedIn here.
Saumyaa Vardhan is the Founder & CEO Shubhpuja.com, India's only science & technology based O2O platform for providing authentic Vedic services such as Vedic pujas, Astrology, Numerology, Vastu consultation, Palmistry through educated and qualified professionals. Prior to launching Shubhpuja.com, she worked in London for 7+ years as a seasoned management consultant with KPMG London and Ernst & Young London. She is an MBA (with Distinction) from Imperial College, UK, an MSc in Operational Research from Lancaster University and a BSc (Honours) in Statistics (Gold medalist & Delhi University topper) from Lady Shri Ram College (LSR), Delhi University. She is also a qualified astrologer, Vaastu Shastra and Numerology professional. She has a penchant for numbers and developed her own software models in predictive astrology and numerology. Widely acclaimed worldwide, she is the Founder of Shubhpuja.com, the first online platform for authentic Vedic research and Services. Her contribution to Vedic sciences & spirituality industry has been featured in worldwide media publications including Forbes, New York Magazine, LA Times, Voice of America, Times of India and many more. She has been awarded by Department of Science & Technology, Government of India for her ground breaking venture www.Shubhpuja.com Shubhpuja.com now has become the top-most authentic Vedic spirituality based online venture and has more than 500 Indian Vedic Brahmins and other professionals as part of their team. To further learn about the science and mathematics behind Vedic spirituality, she pursued Master’s level courses in Astrology, Vastu, Fengshui, and Numerology. She brings in a difference in terms of professionalism, scientific and accurate services, research & development, and educated, through Indian Vedic Acharyas. She has also been featured and felicitated by all top-most organizations worldwide. Awards & Recognitions:
Awarded by Department of Science & Technology, Government of India Femina ‘Women Super Achiever Award 2017’ Digital Women Entrepreneur for ‘Best Service Disruptor’ 2016 Awarded equity free seed fund by Department of Science & Technology, Government of India Best Student in Statistics 2002-03 by Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University Best Student in Statistics 2000-01 by Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University Ranked 'Top 40 women Entrepreneurs' in India by Yourstory Ranked '30 women Entrepreneurs changing the digital space in India' list by SheThePeople.TV Selected by empoWer accelerator by Zone Start-up by Department of Science & technology – Govt. of India and partnered by Google, Bombay Stock Exchange
She has been featured on
Forbes, CNBC International, Voice of America, New York Magazine, Los Angeles Times, OMNI TV Canada, Caixin China, CNA Taiwan, Zee News, Hindustan Times, ET, Indian express Times of India Gulf News & many more
Michael Peña works as Principal Project Manager at Pacific Gas and Electric Company, where he manages complex projects with budgets of $6M+. Michael has done his bachelors from Fresno Pacific University, Exec MBA from Pepperdine University and has also done a certificate course from Stanford University. Michael’s career has transitioned across Project Management and Operations, but for over 10 years, he’s also worked in the US Air Force Reserve. Michael is reachable on LinkedIn here.
Maheshwar Ramakrishnan has done his MBA from SP Jain, one of the popular MBA institutions in India. Mahesh is currently Product Manager at Walmart Labs in India. After his Bachelors in Life Sciences from NUS in Singapore, he started his career as Web Developer at PropertyGuru, following which he had a brief stint at starting his own company called Cranium Media, which was a platform connecting freelance photographers and companies / individuals who required photography services. After his MBA, he moved into Product Management, starting as a Product Manager and advancing to the position of Senior Director of Product Management at Knolskape until October last year, when he moved to Walmart Labs. Mahesh is reachable on LinkedIn here.
Alex Mitchell is currently the Director of Product at Upside Travel. Previously, he was a Product Manager for Vistaprint and Webs, which was acquired by Vistaprint back in 2011. Alex started his career at JP Morgan, where he was the Assistant Vice President for Marketing Analytics. Alex has done BBA in Finance from University of Michigan and later went on to do his MBA from George Washington University, which he finished earlier this year. Alex describes himself to be passionate about creating and growing powerful web and mobile products that make a significant impact in millions of people's lives. I first came across Alex when I read his Medium post, where he breaks down his experience and insights from doing his MBA and asks the million dollar question: is this degree worth it? Alex is reachable on LinkedIn, Twitter, Medium and on his website. Alex’s Medium article can be found here. Get a copy of Alex’s book on Product Management here.
Michele Ferrario is the Co-Founder and CEO of StashAway. Based in Singapore, Southeast Asia’s financial epicenter, StashAway is committed to transform and lead the wealth management industry throughout all of APAC. Prior to founding StashAway, Michele spent the first part of his career in and around the financial industry, and the second part of his career focusing on using internet to provide customers with better services. Michele was the Group CEO of ZALORA, Southeast Asia's largest fashion e-commerce platform, where he was responsible for leading a team of 1,500 people across eight countries, in the process growing the company 15x to make it the undisputed leader in the market. Before ZALORA, Michele founded the Italian and Pakistani operations of Rocket Internet, launching 5 companies in these 2 countries. From 2004 to 2012, Michele worked in the financial industry, first as a consultant at McKinsey (Milan and New York offices) where he served primarily Financial Institutions, then in Milan-based Private Equity Fund Manager Synergo. Michele earned his MBA at Columbia Business School and his Bachelor of Science in Finance at Bocconi University in Italy. Michele has also been invited by Singapore’s Minister of Finance to be a member of the Committee for the Future of the Economy. Michele can be contacted on LinkedIn here.
Raj Mukherjee currently works as Senior Vice President of Product at Indeed – one of the most well-known job search sites in the world. In this role, he leads the day-to-day operations of the global Product team, growing their core products and drives new product innovation. Raj has done his engineering in Computer Science and has earned joint MBA from Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and Columbia Business School. Raj’s career has transitioned from being a Product Manager at Microsoft where he was working on Online Services division, following which he worked on the Enterprise Platform team at Google—leading the product management for Domains for Google Apps and Google Drive for Enterprises. Going on from there, Raj joined GoDaddy as SVP of Product and was responsible for helping their 14 million customers build successful businesses online, following which he moved to Indeed. However, along the way, Raj has also invested in and mentored several early stage companies such as FindYahan, that was acquired by Zimmber in India; Mosix Tech which is also based in India and he is also an advisor at Flok, a customer loyalty platform based in the Bay Area. You can reach him on LinkedIn here.
Matheus Riolfi is currently the Director of International Expansion at Turo. He’s done his MBA from Harvard Business School. His career has transitioned from M&A to Strategy to Consulting to Product Management, and along the way, he’s also run his own businesses before now settling into expanding Truro’s footprint internationally outside the USA. Matheus has written a very interesting Medium post that talks about how to get a startup job after your MBA. Check it out here.
Matheus can be contacted on LinkedIn.
Marc Abraham is an experienced Digital Product Manager, interested in everything digital. Marc is currently the Head of Product at World First. His past experience has been in notonthehighstreet.com, Carwow, YouView TV Limited, Beamly, Reevoo, 7digital, Headshift and Comic Relief. He’s been working in Product Management for a long time now, but what was very surprising for me to learn was that Marc started his career as a Corporate Lawyer before he found his calling in Product Management. Marc has done his MBA from University of Durham, after doing Law degree in Amsterdam. Marc's website: https://marcabraham.com/about/ He can be found at:
marcabrahamlondon@gmail.com
uk.linkedin.com/in/abrahammarc/
@MAA1
@hiphoplistings
https://medium.com/@maa1
His talks/presentations:
http://www.slideshare.net/abrahammarc1/minimum-viable-product-9-june-at-makers-academy-london
http://knowit.co.uk/a-few-minutes-with-marc-abraham-from-world-first-product-tank/
https://soundcloud.com/yoursproductly/marc-abraham
https://designyourthinking.com/dyt-010-curiosity-art-product-management-marc-abraham/
https://www.slideshare.net/abrahammarc1/how-to-create-a-product-culture
http://www.slideshare.net/abrahammarc1/how-to-best-create-and-manage-product-roadmaps-64123743
http://www.slideshare.net/abrahammarc1/product-roadmaps-tips-on-how-to-create-and-manage-roadmaps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oq2xxf7UyLA
http://www.slideshare.net/abrahammarc1/using-data-to-inform-product-decisions-cape-town-26-march-15
http://www.slideshare.net/abrahammarc1/102214-pivotal-labs-tech-talk
http://www.slideshare.net/abrahammarc1/102214-pivotal-labs-tech-talk
http://tech.onefinestay.com/post/66364089752/lessons-learned-from-producing-a-new-product
http://www.slideshare.net/abrahammarc1/draft-forward-v2-pdf
http://www.slideshare.net/abrahammarc1/product-camp-020814
http://www.slideshare.net/abrahammarc1/hamburg-product-tank-using-data-to-inform-product-decisions-16514
Until recently, Ellen Chisa was the VP of Product at Lola, a mobile travel-concierge company. She has previously worked as Product Manager at Kickstarter and Microsoft. Besides that, Ellen regularly teaches Product Management at universities and at General Assembly. She is currently working on her own startup idea, with a simple goal: make it possible to build a complete scalable app in an afternoon. Ellen started her MBA at Harvard Business School but decided to not continue with the course, but rather go back into the industry after one year of business school - going back to school Ellen realised that tinkering gave her more joy than being in the classroom. After her first year at Harvard, she spent the summer working at Blade, a consumer tech incubator - that is the company that turned into Lola, where Ellen was until recently the VP of Product. Ellen is writing a digital book on her product management essays. You can pre-order that here. Ellen is reachable on LinkedIn, Twitter or Medium.
Richard Sharp is currently the CTO of Shazam. His past experience has been largely in Engineering and Product Management in companies such as Google, Intel, Citrix, AT&T and Yieldify.
Richard has done his Executive MBA from Cambridge University, before which he has also done PhD in Computer Science from Cambridge. Richard describes himself as the Hardest Working CTO in Show Business @Shazam; he is also a Computer Science Director of Studies at Robinson College, University of Cambridge; And he is also Member of the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
Richard Sharp is currently the CTO of Shazam. His past experience has been largely in Engineering and Product Management in companies such as Google, Intel, Citrix, AT&T and Yieldify.
Richard has done his MBA from Cambridge University, before which he has also done PhD in Computer Science from Cambridge. Richard describes himself as the Hardest Working CTO in Show Business @Shazam; he is also a Computer Science Director of Studies at Robinson College, University of Cambridge; And he is also Member of the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
Andre has finished his MBA from Imperial College London. Previous to his MBA, Andre has done a variety of roles - ranging from Consulting to Project Management to Sales to Leadership in Director position. Andre is originally from Brazil, he’s also done an Executive Program from Stanford University, and he’s also been a Student Recruitment Ambassador at Imperial College. Andre currently works as Pathways Operations Manager at Amazon (his dream company). Besides that, he's also working on growing his startup called FitCat. You can connect with Andre on LinkedIn.
Max Wesman is currently the VP of Product Management at GoodHire, where he oversees GoodHire's product strategy, development, pricing, marketing, and overall growth. Before joining the Inflection team, GoodHire's parent company, Max managed and launched enterprise and small business software products for HP and Microsoft. He received an MBA from University of California Berkeley's Haas School of Business and undergraduate degrees from the Wharton School and School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. Max’s passions outside of work include international travel, golf, cooking, home brewing, and epic karaoke performances. You can connect with Max on LinkedIn.
Ankush Bhatia has done his bachelors in engineering, following which he went on to pursue his Masters in mathematics and statistics from the Stony Brook university in New York. That led him into the world of Finance, Investment Banking and Venture Capital. Since finishing his MBA at Columbia University, Ankush continued his journey in Finance before recently focusing on consulting with Startups around creating business plans, working on business development initiatives, helping in data analysis to improve their KPIs and putting operational processes in place for early stage startups. Connect with Ankush on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Conrad Chua is the Head of MBA Admissions, Marketing and Recruitment at the Cambridge Judge Business School. He also regularly blogs at www.thecambridgembaadmissions.com where we writes about MBA admission processes and perspectives at Judge Business School. You can find him on LinkedIn here and his tweets here.
Doc graduated from the University of Hull in 2004 with a first class honours degree in Chemistry. In 2006 he commissioned as an officer in the British Army and served a total of seven years within the Royal Engineers operating in Europe, Kenya, Nepal and Afghanistan. On leaving the army in 2013 he became the first person to walk 1650km solo across the Great Himalaya Trail before completing an MBA at Cranfield School of Management. After graduating, he was an independent consultant before becoming an Executive Development Director. As part of his role within CCED, Doc is developing his knowledge and experience around leadership and culture. He is also developing opportunities with other departments across the University, particularly the Bettany Centre for Entrepreneurship and looking at how different businesses can benefit from entrepreneurial mindsets and activities. As part of his role within CCED, Doc is developing his knowledge and experience around leadership and culture. He is also developing opportunities with other departments across the University, particularly the Bettany Centre for Entrepreneurship and looking at how different businesses can benefit from entrepreneurial mindsets and activities. LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/doc-mckerr-52ba5b34/
Having worked across Strategy & Management before her MBA, Vidisha shares her experiences in this episode on how an MBA from ISB Hyderabad (one of the most premium institutions in India) allowed her to pursue her real passion in the fields of Design and Product. Let’s hear more from Vidisha on how exactly did that one year changed her life.
Wendy has done a bunch of things in her career. Starting off as an Analyst and moving quickly to an Associate role at major Management Consulting firms, Wendy decided to pursue her MBA at Columbia Business School. While at school she co-founded a business venture called CoHatchery, which is a co-working space dedicated for parents. At the same time, she also joined one of the most popular venture firms Northzone as a Venture Investor. To top it all, Wendy achieved all this with a new baby by her side. Let’s find out what kept Wendy motivated through this journey, and how she managed to pull this off.
Sanket, currently HR Manager at Reliance, finished his MBA from MDI Gurgaon only last year, that brings in a much fresher perspective on the MBA degree. Let's hear more about what inspired Sanket to do his MBA and how has his career progressed since then.
Manish Sharma is the founder of Printo, a very successful business based in Bangalore and many other cities in India. Learn more about what Manish gained out of his MBA from Oxford University.
Have you ever wondered if an MBA degree is the next best step for you and your career? Do you know what people gain (or lose) out of doing an MBA? Are you confused between the various MBA programs out there, and not able to make your mind up about which one is the best for you? Have you spoken to a lot of people yet unsure of your decision?
Well, that is exactly what happened to me. After having lived through these trying times and after answering tons of emails and giving advice to a lot more MBA prospective applicants, I decided to stop focusing on helping just a few people, but to start a podcast to influence a lot more – not just from my experience but also bring in varied perspectives of others who have walked this path. So, in this show, we will be interviewing MBA Alumni from the world’s top MBA institutions, in order to learn from their experiences of doing an MBA. We will also aim to bring in experiences from current students, lecturers, staff, recruiters and other related professionals.
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