Meet the MBA Class of 2023: Rekha Jagadish, Indiana University (Kelley)

Rekha Jagadish

Indiana University, Kelley School of Business

“Career-driven, loves travelling, loves power-dressing, a little bit of an emotional butterfly, wine connoisseur!”

Hometown: Bangalore, India

Fun Fact about Yourself: I can speak in five languages, write in three, but can think only in English. I consider myself a polyglot with a preference!

Undergraduate School and Major: St. Joseph’s College of Commerce; Major – Accounting

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Wells Fargo; Controls Officer, Assistant Vice President

In the second half of the year, you will be completing an Academy devoted to areas like Marketing, Finance, Operations, Digital Enterprises and more. Which Academy interests you the most and why? With my experience gained in audit, risk and compliance with KPMG and Wells Fargo, I want to focus on an external facing role and I am keen on the Consulting Academy, which offers the perfect platform to hone your skills in strategy, negotiation, and problem-solving by giving you exposure into a wide range of business cases and  challenging situations.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of Indiana Kelley’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? Being a firm supporter of diversity and inclusion, I believe that it is important to engage and continuously learn from people who come from all walks of life and different cultural backgrounds. I have demonstrated this virtue, both in my professional and personal life, and Kelley is the perfect place for me to continue to live this value. I am eagerly looking forward to serving as a Kelley Diversity champion and this experience will further help me in my leadership journey enabling me to be a truly empathetic and inclusive leader.

Kelley also offers extraordinary support to women empowering them to become tall leaders. The experiential learnings offered as part of the academies during both years, especially the GLOBASE program as part of the leadership academy, would be a unique experience with great learning.

What course, club or activity excites you the most at Indiana Kelley?  I am excited about serving as a Kelley Diversity Champion and exploring opportunities at the Association of Women MBA’s club. These experiences will give me the platform to focus and continue to build on two of my most important values — women empowerment and advocating diversity.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Throughout my professional journey, I have gained significant experience of being a solutions architect, by providing workable solutions to problem statements. I have “built” things from scratch for a lot of teams in the roles that I was playing — from building frameworks, sustainable testing models and leading a process transition to setting up an entire function. My biggest achievement thus far has been independently establishing a first of its kind, end-to-end Quality Assurance Program and setting up this QA team for one of the organization’s key programs.

How did COVID-19 change your perspective on your career and your life in general? Up until COVID-19, I was running the mad race. Working from home the last couple of years, I have learned that it is essential to take a step back and strike a balance in life. I have become calmer, more patient and have realized that family is the most important thing in our lives.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point and what do you hope to do after graduation? I have over 10 years of progressive experience in audit, risk and compliance with KPMG and Wells Fargo, where I gained good subject matter expertise over these years. For the next level of leadership, I will need to build skills such as strategic thinking and planning, managing large teams, innovation, negotiation, and understanding organizational behavior in different business environments. Though I have gained unstructured learnings in these areas, an MBA at this point will give me a more structured learning opportunity. I can also develop my cross-functional knowledge and skills from classroom learnings. Even more, I will have the opportunity of applying  these  with case studies and projects giving me an insight into different business models and helping me obtain a holistic view of all functions in an organization.

With my experience and MBA learnings, I want to get into an external facing role preferably in the Strategy Consulting space.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Boston University Questrom School of Business

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into Indiana Kelley’s MBA program? Keep it real. Be genuine and be yourself. Kelley teaches you that you can be competitive and collaborative at the same time. This is the place for students who really want to invest in themselves holistically and become well-rounded individuals. In turn, this will set them up for long term success in life.

DON’T MISS: MEET INDIANA KELLEY’S MBA CLASS OF 2023

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