Leadership Team 2018

UCONN Graduate Consulting – 2018 Leadership Team

 

Mercedz Austin
President

Mercedz L. Austin, a Connecticut native, is Full-Time MBA Candidate and Graduate Assistant at the University of Connecticut Graduate School of Business. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and American Government from Providence College where she was a member of their highly selective and prestigious Liberal Arts Honors Program. Upon graduation, Mercedz worked as a Financial Representative with The Northwestern Mutual Financial Network earning her FINRA Series 7. While at Northwestern Mutual, she was awarded the Pacesetter First 40 Award, which is earned by only the highest achieving 11% percent of financial advisors nationwide. Prior to attending the UConn Full Time MBA Program, she worked as the Real Estate Manager for her family owned SRO Real Estate business where she decreased vacancy rates by over 40% and theft by over 85%. In addition, Mercedz served as the Junior Chief Financial Officer and Office Manager for her family owned General Contracting firm. Enhancing her technical, leadership, and team building skills are her primary goals while attending the Full Time MBA Program. As the President of UGC, Mercedz plans to enhance the existing UGC culture as it relates to members and clientele. She has rolled out initiatives to develop the overall impact and presence of the student organization within the University of Connecticut and the state of Connecticut at large.
 

 


Neetika Gahlot

Vice President – Marketing & Finance

 

With about three years of experience in product development and management, Neetika decided to pursue her MBA to polish her managerial skills. She has led cross-functional teams in implementing product development projects for major clients in Health, Nondestructive Inspection, Electronics Industry. She has consulted mobile technology clients on technical issues and challenges. Also, she has hands-on experience in strategizing Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Search Marketing Optimisation (SMO), Application Search Optimisation(ASO) to enhance the presence of companies.

Neetika supports UGC manage the financial resources and marketing collaterals utilizing her marketing background and financial industry experience, to maximize the club’s outreach and to ensure that the students get maximum opportunities to get the maximum value of the UGC experience.

Neetika loves to serve the community, primarily supporting NGOs focussing on girl child and animal care.


Concentration: Business Analytics, Finance and Fixed Investments


Ashish Kumar
Vice President – Client Development

I am a core techno-managerial professional in solution designing, network consulting and business analytics with diverse experience across multiple technologies and cultural backgrounds.
At present, I am the Graduate Assistant Full time MBA student at UCONN School of Business, Hartford. I am also serving as the Vice President – Client Development, UCONN Graduate Consulting, UCONN School of Business. Additionally, I am associated with Connecticut Education Network (CEN), UCONN as part-time Network Consulting Intern offering technical and consulting services to CEN clients in Connecticut.
Before joining UCONN, I worked with Ericsson for almost 7 years in “Operations” and “Consulting and System Integration” profile as Senior Solutions Integrator. At Ericsson, I got the opportunity to work on different but inter-connected technologies in culturally diverse environments across the globe.

Ishan Sinha
Vice President – Talent Management

Ishan is an experienced Data Analyst skilled in storytelling, automating, developing and compiling reports and dashboards using BI Tools. Adept knowledge in data analysis, data management and data visualization.
At present, he is currently enrolled as a Graduate Student at University of Connecticut(Hartford) majoring in Business Analytics and Project Management. He is also working as a Vice President of Talent Management at UCONN Graduate Consulting Group. He has worked with Ford Motor Company for 3 years as a Data Analyst where he has standardized data collection process from multiple systems & subsidiaries to normalize and store information on an on-going basis by working with a global data analytics team for customer behavior analysis and market segmentation.

Sravanthi Kappuram
Vice President – Graduate Operations

With a corporate experience in Analytics for a period of 3 years, Sravanthi has worked with a big four on Audit Risk Mitigation and Innovation. Owing to her zeal in improving Audit as a business process she has traveled to the US to pursue her master’s degree in Business Analytics and Project Management. Being an extrovert and with interest in people management she is a part of several clubs back in India and in the US. She is a cheerful Toastmaster who believes that communication is the key to most problems. Sharing the objective of the UConn Graduate Consulting club, she looks forward to applying her strategic and people management skills in Graduate Operations of the club and catalyze the success of UGC.

Olubunmi Fatunmbi
Vice President – Strategy and Operations

Prior to the MBA program, Olubunmi Fatunmbi was a key member of the Strategy division at Capital Express Assurance, tasked with repositioning the company for market share growth. I led cross functional teams in driving process optimization and information systems deployment within business units. In an Internal consulting capacity, I carried out internal business reviews, highlighting process gaps and recommending feasible plan of actions to tackle challenges.
Olu is a Technology strategist with over two years of experience in IT and Business strategy alignment and change management. By positioning myself at the intersection of Technology, Business and Management, I contribute strategic planning and management expertise in utilising technology to automate processes, identifying new market opportunities and driving business growth and expansion. I am currently a full-time MBA candidate at the University of Connecticut School of Business. Previously, I obtained a Master’s degree in Knowledge & Information Systems Management from the University of Southampton, England. I am serving as Vice President of Strategy and Operations for the UConn Graduate Consulting, facilitating seamless delivery of activities and operations in driving UGC client and community engagements.