Raj Sachdev

INSEAD

“Dedicated to creating systems change through directing global decisions, one passport stamp at a time.”

Hometown: New Delhi, India

Fun Fact About Yourself: I met the youngest (at the time) mountain gorilla in the world (5 days old) while trekking through the Virunga National Park in Rwanda.

Undergraduate School and Major: Shri Ram College of Commerce, University of Delhi (Major in Business & Economics)

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Senior Associate, Global Vaccines Delivery, Clinton Health Access Initiative

INSEAD is one of the most culturally and professionally diverse MBA programs in the world. How do you see these global perspectives enhancing the value of your business education over the next year? Diversity has shaped almost every meaningful experience in my career so far. I grew up in India, a country that lives diversity daily, and later worked in Kigali, Rwanda, a migrant hub hosting people from across the world. In those places, I’ve grown by challenging my assumptions through conversations with people whose lives differ completely from mine. My work at CHAI also took me around the world, from testing solar powered health facilities in Ethiopia to Karaoke nights after team meetings in Indonesia. Throughout my career, diversity has allowed me to understand how solutions to problems can be localized. Even more, they’ve helped me realize that despite varying circumstances, problems often have universal patterns regardless of geography or industry.

With INSEAD, I hope to expand this environment by engaging with people spanning a vast range of countries, industries, and experiences. It’s not just that the student body represents dozens of nationalities—it’s that the program is built to make that matter. In a world that continues to globalize with increasing reluctance, I think the diversity at INSEAD will allow me to broaden my perspective further and understand problems with the highest eagle’s view.

Why did you choose a one-year program over a two-year program? How do you see an INSEAD MBA giving you an advantage in the marketplace? As a business student, I am obliged to say that this is a business decision. A one-year program not only reduces the direct cost of an MBA, but also helps me avoid the opportunity cost of spending another year outside of the workforce. Having said that, while shortlisting one-year programs, I was intentional about finding one that does not sacrifice on experiences and networks that are crucial to the MBA. INSEAD stands out in pairing rigorous academics with a student body that is naturally supportive. In my discussions with alumni, it was apparent that their networks spanned multiple batches especially due to the efforts of the post-program alumni relations structures established by INSEAD. I aim to utilize these structures throughout my program and beyond.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of INSEAD’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? Impact and sustainability have become key areas that I have grown to be passionate about. I had eyed INSEAD as a potential destination for a while, but its revised curriculum starting 2023 made the case much stronger. As part of the revisions, INSEAD greatly expanded its focus on sustainability across its core courses, focusing on the need of the leaders of tomorrow to work for stakeholders. I am looking forward to electives like Income Inequality & the Future of Business that I hope spark genuine debates about the role of capital in our society. I think this enhanced focus speaks to both INSEAD’s commitment to these topics and the economy’s demand for conscious leaders.

What course, club or activity excites you the most at INSEAD? There are two activities I’m excited about, on opposite ends of the spectrum.

First, as someone with experience in impact but not finance, the Student Impact Fund excites me a lot. Combined with impact investment electives, I believe it will provide an excellent opportunity to learn from my peers and industry leaders while maintaining focus on personally meaningful problems.

Second, I leaned about “Dash” early on, a day when students across the two campuses show up to class in their weirdest cosplays. The bar seems high considering in a previous edition someone pinned fake money to their suit and showed up as ‘cash flow’. A significant part of my energy pre-program is being invested in coming up with similar terribly-good ideas.

What has been your first impression of the INSEAD MBA students and alumni you’ve met so far. Tell us your best INSEAD story so far. Two of the best alumni interactions for me happened while interviewing for the program. Both my interviewers created conducive environments for good conversation and their journeys showed me that INSEAD, at the very least, prepares you in the art of making personal and professional decisions while surrounded by complex choices. This has continued in my discussions with other alumni – I have been consistently impressed with the openness to share and the diversity of careers being pursued.

My conversations with other incoming students have also reaffirmed what alumni mentioned about the INSEAD experience – it is one of diverse perspectives glued together through a sense of community. P0, as they call it, has been far easier to navigate thanks to the brilliant community spread across time zones ready to support each other through the processes.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: The biggest accomplishment in my career has been developing CHAI’s first climate resilience intervention for vaccine supply chains. When I moved from Delhi to Rwanda in 2022 — my first time living outside my hometown — I was pushed far outside my comfort zone. The experience of working across multiple developing countries made me curious, adaptable, and willing to take on challenges beyond my formal role.

That shift in perspective made me take on more side-projects during my work, eventually helping me identify a blind spot in our work. As many countries’ supply chains matured, they remained highly vulnerable to climate risks. I initiated a side project to address this, building the organisation’s first case for climate resilience in cold chain infrastructure. The case outlined how targeted investments could protect assets and sustain immunisation coverage during extreme weather events or humanitarian crises.

In a year of shrinking public health budgets, the case gained traction, securing donor funding for a feasibility study that could open a long-term avenue for future funding in the team. More than the result, this experience showed me that I can dive into an unfamiliar, high-stakes problem and emerge with a solution that drives action.

What do you hope to do after graduation (at this point)? For now, after graduation, I hope to operate at the intersection of strategy, capital, and public good. It might be Impact Investing, working towards directing global finance to meaningful problems. Otherwise, it could be through strategy consulting, working towards marrying profits with purpose.

Having said that, I hope to use the diverse perspectives at INSEAD to challenge my ideas and expose myself to fields that I might not have considered. My discussions with students and alumni have already given me new perspective into opportunities that I had previously discarded – I anticipate this will expand more over the next year and will help me expand my vision.

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into INSEAD’s MBA program? As cliché as it sounds, it is essential to be honest with yourself in the application. For me, the MBA application was also a moment to reflect on my journey so far and my plans for the future. Perfections are monotonous, try to embrace the imperfections of your journey in your application – that is what sets you apart.

Second, talk to as many people as you can to understand whether you fit the program and whether the program fits you. Besides helping you be more confident in your narrative, it will help you prepare for a vast field of networking that lies ahead.

Finally, don’t allow one unchangeable aspect of your application to discourage you. While “averages” provide a good target, no numbers can overshadow a remarkable personal journey.

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