Student Profile: Syed Ahmad, MPP/MBA Class of 2026

Syed Ahmad, MPP/MBA Class of 2026, decided to pursue a joint MPP/MBA at the Harris School of Public Policy and Booth School of Business because each degree supports his ambitions to become a leader in the private and public sectors.

As a former consultant at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Ahmad said, “Everything we did has a KPI [Key Performance Indicator] associated with it. There's nothing you could do without proving impact, and I appreciate how that aligns with Harris’ brand.”

Ahmad’s choice to pursue a joint MPP/MBA degree is unsurprising when you look at his academic and work history. In 2019, he earned dual undergraduate degrees in business and computer science from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. “I chose business because I knew I wanted to operate my own business in the future, and computer science because it was fun, I was good at it, and I knew it would be useful in today's digital world.”

After graduating, Ahmad evaluated his quickest pathway to becoming a business leader and landed on a career in consulting. “I joined BCG in Seattle, Washington, and have been there ever since.”

Ahmad’s interest in policy developed while working at BCG. “I am still interested in being a business leader, but I saw firsthand the impact of policy on the organizations I was supporting. Business is great for getting things done quickly, but there are certain challenges business could never influence. That’s where I saw a gap in my skills—I haven’t done any substantial policy crafting. The Harris MPP is the perfect opportunity for me to fill that gap, so when I make the transition to politics down the line—starting as a city council member or mayor and then working up to state politics—I‘ll have the credibility and knowledge to do it effectively.”

Elaborating on his career at BCG, Ahmad said, “My most formative project, which I can discuss because the information is all public, was one I did for the Department of Defense. The US Navy has four public shipyards it uses to maintain its nuclear aircraft carriers and submarines, and the maintenance periods have been getting longer and longer over the past several decades. This obviously has negative implications for national security, but it also impacted government expenditures, as each day of delay meant paying thousands of crewmen, engineers, and mechanics for their time. Our task as BCG was to ‘fix that problem.’ That project stood out because I was given quite a bit of responsibility and independence to execute the work, transforming me from a relatively new employee to what we call an anchor—the person on the team who gets their work done to a high level of quality, mentors junior team members, and helps the manager out wherever needed. After that project, I got more and more opportunities to lead others, but it all started from there.”

Now, ready to immerse himself in his dual degree program, Ahmad offered this advice for prospective students: “Ask yourself where you want to be in five to ten years and work back from there to figure out what you need to be doing today… and know that you don't need to have every detail sorted out right from the start. While I knew I wanted to be a leader in business, I did not know what industry, what size of business, or what type of leader. However, I set the overall goal, drove towards it, and those smaller details fell into place.”