A key lesson that Aayush Desai absorbed at Suffolk was to “be open to changes and challenges.” That lesson, along with his relentless drive, has led him to impressive achievements in the business arena.

Raised in Bangkok, Thailand by entrepreneurial parents, Aayush always had a penchant for business. Suffolk’s large international enrollment and a business program that could provide crucial training appealed to him. Suffolk, Aayush remarks, “opened a lot of doors for a person experiencing his first time in America.”

Aayush earned his BSBA in 2016, with a triple major in Global Business, Finance, and Entrepreneurship, an opportunity made possible by Suffolk’s Strategy & International Business program (formerly the Global Business program). Thereafter, Aayush earned a master’s degree in quantitative finance at Brandeis University.

When opportunities came his way at Suffolk, Aayush took full advantage of them. He was a member of the Sawyer Business School Honors Program, which gave him early access to priority classes and networking events. As a Sawyer Ambassador—a student group that promotes business school programs and communication within the school—Aayush was a coordinator of the annual Global Business Conference. This event allowed students to rub elbows with managers of multinational companies. And Aayush’s teamwork experiences have served him throughout his career: “Coordinating the Global Business Conference, I learned how to leverage everyone’s skills to their greatest strengths, so that people can work together in the best way.”

Aayush secured four internships while he was at Suffolk. Among his roles were salesperson for a technology applications company and private equity analyst for an investment firm. These experiences propelled him to a series of jobs where his skills continued to grow.

His first post-Suffolk job was in business development at Dynamo Software, an investment software firm. To attract customers, Aayush would make 100 cold calls a day. Among his successes was opening the company’s first branch in Asia. Later, he worked at Northwestern Mutual, followed by a post at Vroom, where he taught himself fundamentals of data analytics and wound up managing the company’s analytics team.

At his current job at Nike, in Portland, OR, Aayush integrates all his considerable talents. As a senior product manager, he oversees a team of engineers, data analysts, and data modelers. Their duty is to predict the profitability of Nike’s products. “When I see an athlete play,” Aayush says, “I know exactly what went into making their shoe.” He credits Suffolk’s Strategy & International Business program for equipping him with management skills so that he can “lead my staff in delivering value to the company.”

As a lifelong sports enthusiast, Aayush appreciates that Nike encourages him to nurture that passion. One of Nike’s mantras is to “make sport a daily habit” and, thus, as a perk, Aayush happily gets to “play tennis with my manager, soccer with my colleagues, and then return to work.”

For today’s Strategy & International Business program students just embarking on their careers, he advises “always keep your long-term goal in mind. Don’t be afraid to make some mistakes. You need to be patient to work toward the job you really want.”

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