Rohit Kumar Gupta

Washington University in St. Louis, Olin Business School

“Researcher-turned-operator pursuing an MBA, building scalable businesses at the intersection of supply chain, data, and impact.”

Hometown: Pune, India

Fun Fact About Yourself: I once acted in a school movie, my first and last attempt at a film career.

Undergraduate School and Major: Amity University – M.Tech in Nanotechnology

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: ShopUp (APAC) – DGM / Business Head, Agro Division

What has been your favorite part of St. Lous so far? makes St. Louis such a great place to earn an MBA? St. Louis has the warmth of a close-knit community with the resources of a major business ecosystem. I love how accessible everything is, from professors to startup founders to Fortune 500 leaders. It creates a uniquely collaborative environment where you can test ideas, build relationships quickly, and truly focus on growth.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of Washington Olin’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? Olin’s deep integration of experiential learning. Programs like CEL Practicum and the Skandalaris ecosystem allow students to work on real, high-stakes business problems from day one. For someone who has spent his career building and turning around businesses, this hands-on, impact-driven approach was far more important than theory alone.

What course, club or activity have you enjoyed the most so far at Washington Olin? Marketing Management has been my favorite course so far because it pushed me to view marketing through entirely new lenses. Coming from operations and supply chain, I was used to thinking in terms of efficiency and execution. This course challenged me to think deeply about customer psychology, brand positioning, and value creation, helping me connect how great operations only matter when they serve a clearly defined customer promise.

Beyond the classroom, the Olin Student Consulting Association (OSCA) has been incredibly impactful. The structured training, case preparation resources, and peer-driven culture have given me a strong foundation to prepare for a consulting career and sharpen how I approach problem-solving.

What truly stands out at Olin is the daily experience itself. Almost every week brings a new speaker, challenge, trek, or hands-on activity. That constant exposure makes learning feel alive and ensures growth isn’t limited to the classroom.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: It was co-founding and scaling my startup Turms, a venture-funded, nanotechnology-enabled apparel brand, into one of India’s leading D2C fashion companies. I built the business from a lab-stage idea into a nationally-recognized brand, grew it to multi-million-dollar revenue, and led a 120-member organization spanning product innovation, supply chain, and digital commerce.

Describe your biggest achievement in the MBA program so far: It was earning selection into highly competitive experiential learning programs. Simultaneously, I was leading consulting-style projects and working on commercialisation for a unique technology from lab-to-market through Skandalaris Centre— all while shaping a clear post-MBA path in strategy and operations leadership.

What has been your best memory as an MBA so far? Group assignments. The real joy has been thinking, discussing, and sharing perspectives with classmates from different cultures, regions, and professional backgrounds. The diversity of mindsets and problem-solving styles constantly challenges my assumptions and expands how I see the world. Every project feels like a real-world boardroom — where listening deeply matters as much as leading.

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