Sanchaita Kohli

University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management

“I bear the heart of a healer and the will of a fighter.”

Hometown: New Delhi, India

Fun fact about yourself: I often share a wardrobe with my 8-year-old niece (we are quite similar in size!).

Undergraduate School and Degree: University of Delhi, Bachelor of Dental Surgery and Masters in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school? I managed my own surgical practice called Face Surgery Delhi in New Delhi, India.

Where did you intern during the summer of 2024? I worked with the Boston Consulting Group as a Summer Consultant in their Toronto office.

Where will you be working after graduation? I will be returning to Boston Consulting Group, Toronto as a full-time consultant.

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School:

Honours and Awards:

1. Dean’s List Awardee & Andrew Alexander Kinghorn Fellow
Awarded to the top 10% academic performers of the cohort.

2. Forté Fellowship
Awarded to Rotman students with exemplary contributions towards empowering women in leadership roles.

3. BMO GATE (Gender And The Economy) Fellowship
Awarded by BMO and the Rotman GATE foundation to students with a distinct background and interest to pursue research related to gender and the economy.

4. Merit Scholarships totaling >$50,100

5. University of Toronto representative at the Global Business Forum, 2024
Selected to represent U of T at the Forum in Banff, Alberta to discuss geopolitical and business trends with global leaders.

6. 1st place – KPMG x SickKids Case Competition
Awarded $1000 and an educational tour of the SickKids hospital for devising an enterprise-wide AI solution to facilitate precision child health at the hospital.

7. 1st place – Rotman Venture Capital Investment Challenge
Awarded the opportunity to compete in national and global VC challenges to simulate a venture capital fund and perform due diligence on innovative pre-seed and seed startups.

Leadership and Extra-curriculars:

1. Vice-President of Industry Relations for the Management Consulting Association (MCA)
Fostered and strengthened the relationship between >50 external consulting firms and the largest student club on campus, the Rotman MCA; Organized and coordinated multiple networking events for students recruiting for external consulting roles.

2. Vice -President of Communications for the Healthcare Management Association (HMA)
Led the marketing and promotion efforts for HMA’s activities and events and managed all social media and communication channels to help connect HMA members to firms recruiting for roles in healthcare and life sciences.

3. Rotman Forté Ambassador
Selected as one of 4 Rotman ambassadors (from >70 students) to propagate the Forté Foundation’s mission of empowering women to become business leaders at Rotman and supported the school journey of Rotman Forté fellow cohorts of ’25 and ’26.

4. Rotman Transition Buddy
Volunteered to mentor two international incoming Rotman MBA students to help them transition to a life in Toronto and find their feet in th MBA during their first six months in the program.

5. Teaching Assistant
Tutored and graded courses including the Management Consulting Practicum, Statistics for Management and Business Design Fundamentals.

6. Rotman MBA Dodgeball Player

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? I was fortunate to have been selected by the school as the sole student to represent the University of Toronto at the Global Business Forum in the beautiful town of Banff in 2024. This forum is an invite-only annual event organized by the former Lt. Governor of Alberta and the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, who bring together the most influential global executives and personalities and create room for healthy discussions with the top 10 Canadian MBA students. Being invited to this event was a grand honour and a matter of great pride for me, as it allowed me the exclusive opportunity to interact with some of the biggest business, geopolitical and media leaders across the world and to participate in closed door conversations that drive the future of business, on topics like the impact of US elections and advances in renewable energy and AI on trade and businesses.

At this event, I was also selected to take the stage on behalf of all students and share the perspective of a future business leader on ways to improve the forum for the coming decades. Being chosen as the voice of U of T showed me that the school faculty and administration had faith in my ability to embody the school’s values and that my opinions and ideas had much value to add in important discussions like those that took place at this event.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? Building and growing my own business, a surgical practice called Face Surgery Delhi, is the greatest source of pride and joy for me. The focus of my practice was to help improve the access to care for individuals seeking gender reassignment procedures, a cause that is extremely close to my heart. Achieving this goal required me to expand my capabilities beyond being a clinician and delivering good patient outcomes to hone the skills of a business developer and an activist. It was challenging but extremely rewarding to build social media campaigns, strategic partnerships, and diverse teams as part of this practice to propagate this mission.

What makes me proud is the fact that I was able to successfully scale the practice up to a global level despite my lack of experience in private healthcare, a limited pre-existing business acumen, and my disadvantaged standing as a woman surgeon in a male-dominated specialty. My belief in the venture’s vision allowed me to stay resilient and overcome these obstacles by seeking the right mentors, building the right networks and being open to learning business fundamentals.

Why did you choose this business school? The Flexible Internship Program (FIP) was the biggest factor in my decision to choose Rotman over other schools. Under the guidance of an internship advisor, this program allows Rotman students the flexibility to choose their internship timeline across different terms in the second year and it also offers the option to pursue a 12-week course with similar learning outcomes instead of the internship. The second-year electives at Rotman are structured favourably to accommodate this flexibility.

I was well-aware that my previous career in healthcare gave me little to no exposure into the corporate business world, and that the internship experience during the MBA would be critical in my career pivot and in my ability to decide the right job and firm for myself. I started the MBA with an open mind to try different things like management consulting, healthcare strategy, and marketing for pharma companies. I wanted to take my time in identifying what worked best for me. Having the flexibility in internship timelines that Rotman’s FIP offered gave me the space and time to find my fit with different roles and organizations during the MBA.

Who was your favorite MBA professor? Prof. Yongah Kim, who taught two of my electives, namely Management Consulting and Strategic Change and Implementation, had the most lasting impression on me during the MBA among all the brilliant Rotman professors. I gained very deep insights into management consulting as a career with the help of Prof. Kim’s profound knowledge in the realm of strategy and consulting, which is grounded in her rich career trajectory at McKinsey & Co., having worked there for nearly 25 years across multiple roles, practice areas and geographies. Her classroom teachings are truly unique, captivating and thought-provoking. This is not just because she is an excellent communicator, but also because she exemplifies course concepts using relevant and moving case anecdotes from her own professional experiences. These are extremely bold and inspiring, and leave a lasting memory with students.

My admiration for Prof. Kim extends beyond her classroom teachings to her attributes as an aspirational woman business leader, and a strong proponent for social impact, female empowerment, and healthcare leadership. I have also received valuable guidance and mentorship from her as her teaching assistant for the Management Consulting Practicum. Also, being the core faculty for the Rotman Institute for Gender and the Economy (GATE), she has mentored me in my research on gender dysphoria. I have really enjoyed this multi-faceted learning experience with her.

What was your favorite course as an MBA? The Leadership Development Lab (LDL) at Rotman focuses on delivering experiential and facilitative guidance to students to find their distinct leadership strengths and styles. In my second year, I took an elective called the LDL Retreat, offered by Prof. Scott Rutherford through this lab. This has by far been the most unique, illuminating, and impactful course that I took at Rotman.

The course was set in the serene backdrop of a quiet and beautiful resort, an hour away from the bustling noise of city life on a snowy weekend and was structured to detach students from the stress of school deliverables, electronic devices, and tight schedules in the spirit of facilitating meaningful and engaging conversations. The two-day course involved a series of deep and open reflections into the root causes of the irrational fears that hold us back as leaders and it helped us find their own distinct ways of quashing them. What moved me the most about this course was its unique ability to deliver a personalized learning experience to each student and its focus on finding and strengthening one’s individual leadership style.

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? My favourite event at Rotman has been the Venture Capital Investment Challenge (VCIC). I participated in this multi-stage case competition to fan the flame of my entrepreneurial curiosity and as an aspiring future venture builder, to learn how venture capitalists view and assess startups. Little did I know that this competition would become what is today: the most memorable and enjoyable learning experience of the MBA program. VCIC creates a simulated investment scenario, where participating teams act as partners in a VC fund and are tasked with evaluating real, impactful startups for a potential investment. Judged by actual venture capitalists, the competition is a very practical exercise that closely resembles real-life fund dynamics and investment decisions. I really enjoyed meeting the passionate founders of these innovative startups. I also loved learning about the nuances of different VC investment approaches across different regions by traveling and competing in different locations across North America, as our winning team progressed through the various rounds of this challenge.

Rotman’s focus on hosting this competition and supporting the winning team through all subsequent rounds speaks volumes about the school’s emphasis on experiential learning. The insights we gained from assessing real startups, meeting actual founders, and talking to professional venture capitalists with their unique investment intuitions were paramount in our understanding of the VC world and building valuable networks across North America. This opportunity and these learnings transcend the scope of academic teachings at school. It also demonstrates Rotman’s focus on exposing students to avenues beyond Finance and Consulting, inspiring more students to pursue careers in VC or with startups. As an aside, this competition also allowed me to work in a team with some of the most brilliant minds and the kindest people I know in my MBA cohort, all with extremely different skill sets and backgrounds, but with a shared passion to help scale the most meaningful ventures!

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” This modest quote by John Lennon comes to mind as I reflect on my MBA journey. Rotman is teeming with curious and driven students, who want to capture every great learning opportunity thrown at them. I was also one of these students, navigating the whirlwind of club events, recruitment activities, case competitions and of course, academics. Like many other students, I was oblivious to the learnings and growth opportunities that live in social interactions and experiences.

Throughout these two years, Rotman offered several opportunities for students to engage and connect over shared interests like sports, music, literature, food, and travel. These are opportunities that I feel I did not explore enough. One such amazing opportunity that I missed was the Orientation Camp at the beginning of the program. This camp offered a great platform for students to get to know each other and build friendships before they are hit with the ups-and-downs of the program. What I would do differently is not discount the importance of these gatherings in shaping the overall MBA experience and engage in social events more actively.

What movie or television show (e.g. The Big Short, The Founder, Mad Men, House of Lies) best reflects the realities of business and what did you learn from it? I found that the TV show Succession captured the realities and power struggles of the business world in a way that course learnings could not. While academic learning and case competitions during the MBA largely help in outlining the most appropriate approach to problem-solving, the complex characters and convoluted plots of Succession highlighted the significance of changing interpersonal dynamics, political factors, and pure business intuition in growing and sustaining an organization. For instance, it was interesting to see how hostile takeovers emerge and evolve from a target firm’s perspective and what creative efforts can be ensued to resist it. The show taught me that people management and relationship building is as important as having a good business acumen and financial planning aptitude while managing a successful business. If you haven’t watched the show yet, I highly recommend it, there are some great twists!

What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What insights did you gain from using AI? Rotman has developed an AI-powered tool to navigate and seek course concepts taught in lectures. It is a platform that, upon feeding a certain question, provides conceptual answers vetted by the course instructor, making use of information from all relevant resources approved for that course.

I found that this tool significantly simplified and expedited my learning and knowledge seeking process and helped me better understand the scope of a particular topic. The tool also provided relevant examples to explain concepts, which helped cement the learning further.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? I have the deepest admiration for Drishti Thakkar as a classmate, as a friend and as a colleague with whom I have worked on several projects. I have really enjoyed getting to know her during the program and I have grown tremendously as a person and as a professional just by working alongside her. I am constantly being inspired by her never-going-to-give-up attitude and her absolute desire for excellence in everything she does.

What I appreciate the most about her is her unrelenting passion to build a stronger presence and better environment for women in the finance world, and her amazing ability to tune out the background noise of naysayers in this pursuit. As the Director of R-Women (a woman-focused division of the Rotman Finance Association), a fellow Forté ambassador, and a pioneer woman in our cohort who interned in investment banking, Drishti has consistently broken ceilings, set new trends, and inspired women students at Rotman to push boundaries and support each in their leadership journeys.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list?

1. Seeking mentorship: In the past, I have been able to navigate unfamiliar professional situations, like transitioning from public service to the business world. I was successful only with the help of wise and supportive mentors, who had walked similar paths before and helped me anticipate and overcome obstacles in my journey. Now, as an individual undergoing a career pivot from healthcare to management consulting layered over a recent immigration, I expect similar challenges in my future. Therefore, finding the right mentors at my firm to guide me towards my long-term career goals and give me advice specific to my journey would be a major focus for me upon starting work after graduation.

2. Get international experience: The MBA has allowed me to visualize the impact that diversity in thought and ideas can have on solving business problems. Specifically, my visit to Singapore to learn Innovation Strategy as part of a Global Practicum at Rotman highlighted how different countries and governments view and approach business development, venture building, trade, and collaboration differently. Reflection on this course allowed me to conceive ideas on incorporating valuable learnings into the North American business context. International work experience has thus far been missing from my career, and I hope to seek consulting projects in varied locations across the globe to broaden my problem-solving skills at work.

What made Sanchaita such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2025?

“Sanchaita is a BMO GATE MBA Student Fellow at Rotman’s Institute for Gender and the Economy (GATE). Each year, GATE selects a few fellows through a highly competitive, multi-round process that draws applications from an exceptional pool of candidates. Fellows receive a bursary and commit to a project aligned with GATE’s mission. They work under the mentorship of faculty, executives-in-residence, and Bain consultants. As one of just five fellows chosen for 2024–2025, Sanchaita is researching awareness of gender dysphoria in the North American business community with the goal of developing practical, evidence-based solutions for businesses and policymakers. GATE mentors have described her project as “bold and creative,” “enlightening,” and “a compelling and unique project that only an MBA student with such an interesting background could undertake.” Her work draws on her expertise as a healthcare entrepreneur, her deep understanding of business strategy, and her grasp of the medical and social dimensions of gender dysphoria. Sanchaita is a valued member of the GATE fellowship community—a supportive peer and a strong ambassador for both GATE and the Rotman School.”

András Tilcsik
Canada Research Chair in Strategy, Organizations, and Society and Professor of Strategic Management
Rotman School of Management

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