Foster Futures: Ami Shastri

Ami Shastri (MBA 2018) is originally from Indore, India, where she was an engineer by training. She has spent the majority of her professional career as a management consultant in India and the Middle East. “I love solving problems,” she says, “and want to tackle the biggest problems faced by the tech industry today.”

To take her problem-solving skill to the highest levels, she enrolled in the Foster School’s Full-time MBA Program. She is one of the school’s first Forte Foundation Fellows and an MBA Ambassador. She is vice-president of the MBA Women In Business and a mentor to Undergraduate Women In Business.

“I am very passionate about addressing the gender gap in the workforce, especially in the field of technology,” Shastri says. “Women In Business has provided me with this opportunity to participate in efforts we take to prepare women leaders for future challenges in the workplace. We also work closely with a massive team of male allies in creating awareness and sensitivity around gender issues.”

During her time at Foster, Shastri has worked as a product marketing consultant at Microsoft. She has interned as a data scientist at Wunderman and a senior product manager at Amazon, where she will return after graduation in June to serve as a senior product manager for technical products.

More about Ami:

What has been your most impactful experience at Foster?

My most impactful experience in business school was when I lost (yes, lost) the business case competition. The brief was to create a business case for what we believe is a moonshot opportunity for a tech giant. I got it all wrong and did not make the cut, but the experience tought me a lot about the tech Industry and “moonshots.” Failures do teach you a lot, after all.

What is your ultimate career aspiration?

Cloud computing is shifting the paradigms of enterprise IT. I have grown to be very passionate about cloud computing. My dream job would be to be the chief evangelist of a large enterprise cloud computing company.

How are you leveraging your Foster experience to achieve this potential future?

Working with my peers has been the most important experience for me. Students from diverse backgrounds and walks of lives bring a wide range of experience to share. Learning from them was most impactful for me to prepare myself for managing diverse teams in a large multinational technology firm. I must also mention the esteemed faculty members who make even the most complex topics palatable and engaging.

What aspects of Foster’s culture do you believe will particularly serve you in your career?

I’d call out three. 1. Small class size makes us a very close knit and collaborative group. People invest in each other’s success and that truly leads to an outstanding learning experience. 2. Access to the best faculty and an uncompromisingly high standard of instruction. I have been awed by our professors’ brilliance on numerous occasions. 3. Access to a very strong alumni network. As we celebrated 100 years of the Foster School of Business last year, it’s important to point out how all aspects of the MBA experience are positively touched by our alumni. We have unlimited access and resources contributed by alumni who take interest in your aspirations and help you in achieving them.

Do you have a favorite professor or class?

Thomas Gilbert is my favorite professor at Foster. He made my fear of finance vanish in just a few lectures. I would immerse myself completely in his class due to his engaging content which was beautifully tied together. Popular phrases from his class such as “value would be destroyed” and “pick a project with most positive NPV” have become part of my vocabulary.

What other professional aspirations do you have?

I am very passionate about addressing the gender gap in the technology industry and I aspire to be able to address this issue. I hope to enable women in building the right skills for the tech industry and create a conducive work environment for them.

What do you like to do in your free time?

I like playing table-tennis, taking small arts and crafts projects, traveling and exploring new things.

What is a “fun fact” about you?

I love travelling solo. I have traveled solo across three continents. Four more to go! I was also featured on national television as a background yoga artist for a televised yoga class.

Foster Futures is a series highlighting some of the students who are leading the Foster School into its second century—and themselves into promising careers. The series began in the winter issue of Foster Business magazine.