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The Center for Digital Strategies (CDS) is thrilled to announce the cohort of exceptional first-year students who will join the Center’s MBA Associates program this year. These T’23s bring a range of experiences from their diverse backgrounds but are unified in their desire to understand the impact of digital technologies on the business world. 

The CDS’s MBA Associates program provides an opportunity for students to bring their knowledge and experience to digital-focused content discussions with their peers and the center team. Weekly, student-led sessions focus on current digital strategy topics. Past discussions focused on a diverse range of topics including personal data ownership, data privacy, and the impact of tech in emerging markets.

The center is pleased to introduce the following 27 students as this year’s CDS Associates:

Adrian Rodriguez has a long-held interest in how data flows from users to advertisers, along with digital advertising ecosystems and implications. His experience at Google, Smaato and Criteo offer valuable insights into e-commerce and monetization strategies.

Alex Arnold’s current interests include data visualization, blockchain, and interactions between AI and humans, including how to use data to track sociological and psychological trends. His background in audio and software engineering provide unique insights into how data is used to make business decisions around the creator economy and how to support and promote artists.

Alicia Shiue joins the Associates program to find a community of Tuck students who are equally interested in discussing new and growing opportunities and trends in the tech industry. Her current interests include bias in AI and machine learning, carbon neutrality and sustainability, and fintech. Prior to Tuck, she worked for two years at Vivino before most recently working as a product manager at Shippo.

Alison Kadavy brings years of experience working in client-facing account management roles at Roku where she drove audience development for channel partners. Her goal as an Associate is to broaden her knowledge of the future of digital technologies, both within and outside the media and entertainment sphere.

Amit Lakamsani is interested in expanding his understanding of tech and digital topics, such as the difficulties of balancing the need for analytics with consumers’ increasing awareness of – and desire for – online privacy. Before Tuck, Amit majored in computer science and worked as a software engineer and development lead for five year. He brings a deep understanding of the entire lifecycle of a software product, from ideation to research through to the entire development cycle.

Andrew Kyeremeh worked at an AdTech startup that raised a series A round during his time at the company. Additionally, he spent three years as a senior consultant at EY, where he focused on digital transformation. He is currently interested in digital transformations and digital business models, as well as how startups decide to monetize based on their customer segments.

Bharati Manandhar is eager to learn more about the complexities of new technologies and digital trends from her peers as an Associate. She brings supply chain and operations expertise from her years of consulting at Impendi Analytics. Her interests include the use of big data for predictive analysis of consumer behavior, digital and cloud transformation in developing countries, and digital currencies.

Calvin Garay is inspired by fintech’s use as a means to decrease wealth inequality in the US and emerging markets. He gained fintech experience as a consulting product manager within Goldman Sachs’ digital finance group, where he launched three fintech products, one as a solo product manager. 

Carly Wolberg’s six years at Amazon, four of which were spent in Prime Video and launching Amazon’s Live Sports platform, offer valuable perspective on online merchandising, marketing and tech product management. Her interests include digital marketing, digital transformation and digital business models, especially as they relate to the media and entertainment industries.

Carson Taylor brings over five years of experience in the gaming sector, having worked as a project manager at EA and a product manager at Zynga before Tuck. His current interests include the metaverse, web3, the creator economy, and novel forms of digital entertainment.

Elyse Curtis joined Tuck following five years at SKF Group, a large manufacturing company that is leveraging predictive maintenance as a service to drive insight about the product. Her interests center around human capital and the impact of a company’s culture on innovation and organizational transformation.

Emily Muller worked at Altman Solon, a global TMT consulting firm, before joining Tuck. During her tenure she gained understanding of the functionality and trends in wireless (5G, IoT, wireless infrastructure), data centers, and cloud. She’s primarily interested in the challenges of edge computing as more industries look for the benefits over more traditional cloud, but also funds herself recently drawn to issues of data privacy and cyber security. 

Ishani Mukherji hopes to pursue a career in e-commerce and marketplaces, so the CDS Associate’s program will help her develop an understanding of important trends in the digital ecosystem. She brings years of experience from PWC India and Etsy, where she was the Program Lead for India Market Growth.

Jeffrey Williams Navarro’s interests span immersive gaming experiences and big data analysis to digital innovation hubs in the developing world. He brings a knowledge of the digital music ecosystem from his time as a legal specialist and music publishing partnerships manager at YouTube.

Jessica Jiang brings international experience from Southeast Asia and China to her perspectives on fintech, the metaverse, and digital marketing. She most recently worked at Cargill in Singapore as a Corporate Strategy Associate to identify growth opportunities in the Southeast Asia market.

Julia Pearl brings unique experience working in the nonprofit world, with over two years at the New York City Ballet and four years at CCS Fundraising. She is most interested to learn about digital transformation as it relates to societal transformation, but also hopes to gain a deeper understanding of how technologies impact business.

Kakeru Tsubota spent the past five years at SAP, most recently as the Senior Principal in the Transformation Office in Tokyo. He brings deep knowledge of how corporate innovation is adopted and scaled within a company, which he learned as a practitioner of digital transformation and design thinking for over 8,000 corporate executives.

Katherine Aldrich brings experience as an analytics translator and building the IoT and cloud architecture for pharmaceutical companies. As an analytics translator, she designed digital use cases for pharmaceutical companies and then led a team of data scientists and engineers to build them out. Her current interests include IoT and the role of technology in operations, as well as ways to improve public knowledge of all things digital.

Kenan Sakarcan spent three years at Starbucks as an Associate Strategy Manager before Tuck. He is currently interested in small internet businesses, encompassing both software and consumer products, and the technology and infrastructure that enables these small businesses to connect, transact, and thrive. Originally from Turkey, he has professional experience in Latin America and Southeast Asia.

Lena Rice developed her interest in the digital transformation of healthcare during her years as a healthcare consultant at Optum, where she focused on the management of revenue cycles and hospital operations. She hopes to learn more about digital transformation and how out-of-industry best practices could advance healthcare business models.

Luke McDermott spent five years as engineer at Ford Motor Company, during which time he experienced the company transition from hardware-first to software-first product development, as well as the rise of electric vehicles. He brings hands-on experience from working in an assembly plant for six months, as well as deep rooted interest in transportation and freight technologies. 

Nick Lovinger’s interests center primarily on the impact of digitization on media and entertainment industries, specifically on the way that tech will change the way society creates, consumes, and shares information. He brings years of experience at WWE, where he developed eSports strategy, digital advertising, and diligence digital avatars.

Paul Pathikulangara Jose joins Tuck after working as an early-stage fintech Product Manager responsible for building out commercially viable APIs for India’s largest investment product. He is inspired by the intersection of finance and tech, an interest he developed when he encountered the P2P mobile walled mPesa while working in Nairobi consulting for the Kenyan government.

Sandhya Rajaraman brings over ten years of experience as an embedded software engineer at a smart manufacturing firm. Her interests include the intersection of technology and public interest, as well as digital transformation, analytics, and the design of digital strategies. She is inspired by the idea of effectively applying digital strategies to traditionally slower industries.

Sarah Jolley brings a curiosity to uncover the unknown and develop a broader knowledge base of all things digital. Her interests lie primarily in digital transformation in the fitness and wellness industry, but also span to the intersection of human-centered design and digital strategy. Prior to Tuck, she worked at Deloitte Consulting, most recently as a Senior Consultant in Deloitte’s GPS practice.

Sophia Donovan’s background in astrophysics and data analysis within the federal sector has prepared her for data-backed discussions with technical and non-technical audiences. She is currently interested in big data, machine learning, and algorithmic bias and hopes to increase her knowledge base to include current issues in the tech space.

Theresa McCartney is most inspired by the payments industry, specifically as it relates to API integrations. She has experience in fintech, API integrations, and asset management, and brings six years of professional experience in communications at BlackRock.