Deepesh Chandra, MSBA '14
“I have always been curious,” says Deepesh Chandra of his lifelong fascination with data and technology. “As a teenager, I had a gift in terms of being very analytical. I excelled in mathematics and once I got my hands on a computer, I learned more and more about data and was able to make more sense of it. I wondered: what more can I do with this?”
Those same curious instincts struck a decade later, when Deepesh worked in software development and management consulting in the healthcare industry. “I was amazed by how often people were not using data to their advantage and utilizing technology to its full potential,” he says. “Whereas I’m constantly asking: what more can we do with the information, with the millions of data points we have available to us?”
Deepesh wanted to better understand how to merge business and technology. However, he had “hit a ceiling as an engineer” because of his limited understanding of data analytics and business strategy. He therefore set his sights on a master-level program with specialized courses that might enrich his understanding.
“NYU’s Master of Science in Business Analytics program offered just what I wanted: a classic business school with the right blend of management and analytics, and of course the network and the cohort that comes with a program like this. The MSBA program struck on all chords for me.”
The curriculum itself delivered both the broad strokes and niche courses Deepesh had hoped for: “The blend of the subjects—technology, data, and business—that were part of the curriculum, was very well done. The early stages of the program included data mining courses, which were more foundational in nature. Later was data visualization and a strategy-based course, which focused on the question: how do you use analytics to your advantage? How do you force cultural change in these organizations? All of the courses were infused with business-school knowledge, and it was an effective blend.”
The formal classroom education was exponentially enriched by his peer group, who were of nearly twenty different nationalities with backgrounds in dozens of different industries and with a wide range of experience levels. “I had an amazing cohort,” he says. “The different nationalities and diversity changes your perspective to the world and the problems we all are facing across industries. We learned more from each other than from our professors—who are geniuses in their fields. Our offline conversations and debates in class (with our professors listening in, chuckling)—were all intellectual, stimulating conversations and amazing learning experiences.”
An immediate benefit of his experience, Deepesh says, is how confident he felt speaking with colleagues who specialized in data analytics. “At Mount Sinai, I worked with individuals who greatly influenced me, and I’d previously felt short-changed when having conversations with them—I felt I couldn’t speak on the level they could. With the foundational knowledge from the program, however, I gained the knowledge and language to be on par with these colleagues.”
Deepesh says that his experience in the program—the NYU Stern stamp on his resume, as well as the specialized skill-set—has elevated the professional opportunities available to him. He recently joined prestigious consulting firm McKinsey & Company’s New Ventures team, where he will focus on the innovative aspects of health care analytics and create scalable models for the greater healthcare industry.
“When it comes to recruiting, top-tier management consultancy firms are increasingly becoming more interested in data-analytics specialists who can blend business and next-generation analytics,” he says. “Landing this job at McKinsey—which combines my passions for data analytics, technology, business, and healthcare—would not have been possible without the MSBA experience.”
In his new position, Deepesh says he will return to those questions he’s asked for decades (What more can we do with the information available to us? How do we maximize the technology’s potential?) to solve some of the most pressing issues facing healthcare.
“My cohort and I are on the frontlines of these new technologies and analytics,” he says. “This is deeply exciting.”
Favorite course: Data Mining
Words to live (or work) by: “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
Proudest professional moment: The more recent work I have done that has been associated with Medicaid redesign program in New York State. We service a wonderful population and the money is tighter and tighter. I like how we were doing our small part in redesigning the models to make Medicaid more sustainable, and designing a model that could be scaled up nationally.
If I had a month off work to do anything I wanted, I would: Travel across Europe.
If I wasn't in this profession, I would be: Training myself in aeronautics. It has been a dream for a long time.
I define “professional success” as: Excelling in the “triple aim.” Success has to be considered successful for oneself, for one’s organization, and for one’s community in general.