Jacqueline Deprey

Columbia Business School

“I’m a lifelong learner passionate about building technology that makes a quantifiable impact on others.”

Hometown: Rockville, MD

Fun fact about yourself: In the summer of 2023, I was the team captain for a 6-person running relay team in which runners collectively ran 4,000 miles from Baltimore, MD to San Francisco, CA while raising $150K+ for cancer patients along the way.

Undergraduate School and Degree:

• University of Maryland – BS Computer Science (2020)
• University of Maryland –BS Operations Management & Business Analytics (2020)
• Columbia Business School – MBA (2026)
• Columbia School of Engineering & Applied Sciences – Master’s in Engineering AI Concentration (2026)

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school? Dropbox, Senior Product Manager

Where did you intern during the summer of 2025? Perpetua (Co-Founder & CEO), New York, NY

During the summer of 2025, I founded Perpetua through Columbia’s Summer Startup Incubator in New York City. Perpetua is software for the modern estate executor to discover, access, and manage a loved one’s digital and financial accounts in a streamlined, secure way. After conducting 100+ interviews with estate professionals, defining the core product, and building an MVP to simplify estate settlement, Perpetua won first prize in grant funding. I’m excited to build on this momentum and keep building post-graduation.

Where will you be working after graduation? Perpetua – Co-Founder and CEO

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School:

• Forte Fellow & Scholarship Recipient (August 2024)
• Columbia Women in Business Scholarship Recipient (April 2025)
• Dean’s List (Fall 2024)
• Columbia Women in Business
  • Co-President (April 2025 – present)
  • AVP of Conference (September 2024 – April 2025)
• Student Leadership and Ethics Board – Representative (September 2024 – Present)
• Columbia Run Club
  • VP of Events & Partnerships (April 2025 – Present)
  • AVP of Events & Partnerships (September 2024 – April 2025)
• Columbia Entrepreneurship Organization
  • General Body Member (September 2024 – Present)
  • AI Impact Competition Grand Prize Winner
  • Summer Startup Trek Grand Prize Winner
  • Fast Pitch Competition 1st Prize Winner
  • Entrepreneurial Greenhouse Incubator – 1 of 12 teams selected
  • AlleyCon Pitch Competition Finalist
• Cluster W Chair (January 2025 – Present)
• Career Management Center Fellow (April 2025 – Present)
• Hermes Society Ambassador (April 2025 – Present)

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? In my first semester at CBS, I helped organize and execute the 2024 Columbia Women in Business Conference, “Crossroads: Women Building Bridges & Beyond.” As part of the organizing team, I helped shape programming centered on how women navigate complexity across identities, industries, and expectations. We brought together diverse voices across sectors and generations, including keynote speaker Hilary Super, the first female CEO of Victoria’s Secret, alongside 27 other panelists. The conference reached full capacity with over 300 attendees and secured more than $150K in primarily in-kind sponsorships, underscoring both its scale and support from industry partners. While I’m proud of these outcomes, what mattered most was the sense of community it fostered. Attendees left feeling supported and re-energized. This experience reflects how I aim to lead, by delivering results at scale while creating spaces where people feel seen, connected, and empowered.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? During my tenure at Dropbox, I led a team in building an internal enterprise search product that was estimated to save over one million hours of productivity annually. This initiative applied natural language processing to enterprise workflows and enabled employees not just to find information faster, but to act directly from search. What began as an internal tool evolved into a strategic priority, eventually integrating with an acquisition and becoming a core part of Dropbox’s AI roadmap. The success of this project led to me being awarded a paid sabbatical, which I used to captain a six-person relay team running 4,000 miles across the U.S., raising over $150K for cancer patients.

Why did you choose this business school? I chose Columbia Business School because of its deep commitment to diversity as both a value and a practice. I’m passionate about breaking inclusion barriers and expanding opportunities for underrepresented communities, an ethos shaped by leaders like former Senior Vice Dean Dr. Katherine Phillips. At CBS, I saw that commitment embedded into the student experience, from the Phillips Pathway for Inclusive Leadership to traditions like CBS Matters that encourage reflection and empathy. Beyond the classroom, Columbia’s global student body (representing over 70 countries) and its location in New York City create an environment where diverse perspectives are not just present but constantly engaged.

I chose CBS because I wanted to grow alongside a diverse population whose cultural and industry perspectives will expose me to a wide range of experiences and viewpoints, which will help me become a more thoughtful, inclusive, and effective leader.

Who was your favorite MBA professor? My favorite MBA professor was Brett House, whom I had during the Global Immersion course on South Africa’s economic transformation. What set Professor House apart was his ability to meet students where they were while expanding our perspectives beyond a U.S.-centric lens. He brought global context to life, challenging us to think critically about economic development, inequality, and the role of business across different environments. Because much of South Africa’s story is rooted in racial injustice, he approached difficult conversations with empathy and candor, acknowledging historical and systemic inequities without avoiding their complexity, while keeping us focused on how to move forward constructively.

What I appreciated most, though, was his investment in students as individuals. After learning about my interest in building technology startups, he leveraged his network to connect us with companies like Yoco and Takealot. Hearing directly from their leadership teams about scaling in emerging markets made the experience deeply tangible and personally impactful.

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? CBS Matters is my favorite tradition because it does something rare in a program defined by ambition and forward momentum: it asks us to slow down and look back. In the tradition, classmates share their formative experiences such as family struggles, unexpected failures, and defining moments that brought them to the room. The result is a kind of intimacy that no case study or club event can manufacture.

In an environment where it’s easy to relate to each other only through accomplishments, CBS Matters reminded us that the most compelling leaders are shaped just as much by where they came from as by where they’re going.

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? One thing I’d do differently is prioritize depth over breadth. I arrived at CBS determined to absorb everything and overloaded my schedule, joined numerous clubs, and said yes to nearly every event to do so. It gave me wide exposure, but I often left interactions having connected with many people without truly knowing any of them in depth. In hindsight, my most valuable experiences came from one-on-one conversations which were unhurried and unscheduled, with no agenda beyond genuine curiosity. If I did it again, I’d protect more time for those moments and let go of the fear that saying no to something meant missing out on everything.

What was the most impactful case study you had in business school and what was the biggest lesson you learned from it? The most impactful case study of my MBA came through the Global Immersion Program, examining South Africa’s economic transformation in the post-apartheid era. What struck me most was how inadequate policy alone proved to be as a driver of inclusive growth. Real progress required corporations, NGOs, and communities to coordinate across deep historical divides, rebuilding trust as much as rebuilding institutions. That insight reframed how I think about change: the hardest part is rarely the strategy, but ensuring it can be implemented effectively across fragmented stakeholders. Even the best ideas fall short without alignment, trust, and execution. This reinforced to me that leadership is not only about setting direction but bringing people together.

What did you love most about your business school’s town? As cliché as it can sound, being in New York City truly puts Columbia at the center of business. Since so many global leaders pass through NYC, CBS consistently attracts an exceptional caliber of speakers and events across industries. This proximity gave me access to founders, operators, and executives at the top of their craft not just in finance, but across tech, media, healthcare, and beyond.

What business leader do you admire most? The business leader I admire most is Verna Myers, former VP of Inclusion at Netflix. What sets her apart isn’t just what she advocates for, but how she does it. At a time when conversations about inclusion often generate more defensiveness than change, Myers has built a body of work that makes these ideas accessible and actionable for organizations that genuinely want to improve. Her tenure shaping inclusion strategy at Netflix showed how this thinking can influence culture, decision-making, and performance at scale. It was not as a values exercise, but as a business imperative. What I find most compelling is her ability to challenge leaders to confront their blind spots without making them feel attacked. As someone who also shares roots in Maryland and Columbia, I feel a personal connection to her journey. More importantly, I strive to emulate her approach of delivering honest, urgent feedback in a way that invites progress rather than resistance.

What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What insights did you gain from using AI? AI has been integrated into my MBA experience from day one. In core courses like Strategy Formulation, we evaluated how tools like GPT could inform real company decisions including where the gaps still were / how MBA graduates should add real value on top of the generated output. Additionally, electives with faculty such as Olivier Toubia and Daniel Guetta deepened my understanding of generative AI’s capabilities and limitations.

Beyond the classroom, I engaged with AI from an ethical lens through my role on Columbia’s student leadership and ethics board, where we helped shape conversations around responsible AI use and supported the development of a new Tech Ethics course.

As a dual MBA and Master’s in Engineering candidate, I’ve approached AI from both business and technical perspectives, studying underlying algorithms while exploring how companies can apply these tools at scale. The biggest insight I gained is that AI’s value isn’t just in generating answers, but in augmenting human decision-making when implemented in a way to control for biases.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? Keertana Chirra inspires me most with her purpose‑driven leadership, and genuine care for others to everything she does. When I served as our Cluster Chair and as the Co-President of Columbia Women in Business, where Keertana served as the VP of Conference, I saw firsthand Keertana’s exceptional ability to lead large, complex initiatives that center underrepresented voices and create space for honest conversations about equity and opportunity. Whether she’s organizing a conference for hundreds of attendees or hosting a casual board game night, Keertana approaches every interaction with empathy, ensuring that everyone feels included and that diverse perspectives are represented.

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

1. Launch a product from 0 to 1 that improves the lives of over 1M people.

2. Inspire others by speaking at the Grace Hopper Conference which helped me breakthrough in the technology space.

What made Jacqueline such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2026?

“Jacqueline Deprey is an MBAxMS student who entered the program with a clear goal of pursuing the startup path and has not only stayed true to that vision but exceeded expectations. She assembled a founding team across Columbia Business School and Columbia Engineering to launch her company, demonstrating exceptional leadership, collaboration, and vision. Building on this momentum, she served as team lead in the annual Fast Pitch competition, where her team, including a member from the School of International and Public Affairs, won first place in the graduate division for their company Perpetua, which provides software for executors managing digital estates.

Beyond her entrepreneurial achievements, Jacqueline has made a major impact on the CBS community through her leadership in Columbia Women in Business (CWiB), where she has been involved since before her first semester and now serves as Co-President. Under her leadership, CWiB organized its annual conference, expanded career-focused programming, hosted community-building events, and coordinated a full Women’s History Month calendar, making it one of the club’s most active and inclusive years in recent memory with the highest number of members to date. Jacqueline also serves as J-Term Cluster Chair, working closely with administration to address challenges within her cluster, gathering and relaying feedback from MBAxMS students, and guiding her cohort through key moments such as graduation preparation. She generously mentors classmates exploring entrepreneurship and advises newly elected student leaders, sharing her experience and insights to help others succeed.

Jacqueline enjoys running marathons and earned a Guinness World Record during her time as an MBA student as a fun and personal challenge, reflecting her drive and willingness to push herself outside the classroom. Her combination of vision, leadership, and commitment to community exemplifies the spirit of the MBAxMS program and positions her to make a lasting impact in the startup ecosystem after graduation.”

Samantha Shapses, Ed.D.
Senior Associate Dean and Dean of Student Affairs 
Columbia Business School

 

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