Team

About Her

Archana pursued an MBA from Darden, University of Virginia and holds a B.Tech in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering from Army Institute of Technology, University of Pune. An Army kid, she studied across 8 different schools in conflict prone regions in India, was selected as a Teach for India Fellow, and was a founding member of an HBS lead venture called Mentor Me India. She unequivocally believes that quality education and purposeful mentorship is the ultimate equalizer in society and life. 

Archana currently leads Strategy for a 600+ sales team for a large US Ed-tech publisher as the Sr. Director of Sales Strategy & Operations. She was pivotal in designing the first of its kind Netflix-for-textbooks subscription model including pricing, commercial, product, and Go-to-Market strategy.

Archana’s career demonstrates expertise in Strategy Consulting & Private Equity Due Diligence at top management consulting firms and banks like The Boston Consulting Group, Parthenon Group, Ernst & Young, HSBC. She served Fortune 100 C-Suite clients spanning K-12, Higher Ed, Technology startups, Consumer e-commerce brands, and B2B enterprise providers. Her most impactful work for clients include the World Economic Forum, Bill & Melinda Gates and Private Equity firms like Carlyle Group and BlackRock. After living and working across New York, San Francisco, and Houston during her years in consulting, she is now based in Boston. 

At Darden, she was selected Chief Editor of the B-School Magazine, elected VP of Pro-Bono Consulting Club, and currently serves as the MBA Class Secretary. She passionately writes about B-school, chronicles her travels, doodles cartoons, and founded a podcast called Life of a Global Desi with ~2000+ monthly listeners. She loves practicing Yoga, meditation and minimalism in all aspects of life.

Expertise

• In-depth knowledge in Education Technology, having consulted for VC backed startups, PE backed Ed-tech publishers, and top philanthropic orgs funding education initiatives around the world
• Cracking Consulting Case interviews, Case prep, and Technology Interviews having received 10+ offers from top consulting and tech firms post Darden
• Having studied, lived and worked in India and abroad, she has an excellent understanding of the Indian and international education systems

Have a degree from a top tier college? Join our Team of Experts!

Garima Rana

Senior Counsellor
MPP, University of Oxford
B.Sc. IT – Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University

Ananya Jain

Senior Counsellor
M-Fin, University of Cambridge
B.Com, Delhi University

Kovid Gupta

Senior Counsellor
MBA, Cornell University
BBA, BS, BA, UT-Austin

Archana Rao

Senior Counsellor
MBA from Darden, University of Virginia
B.Tech, University of Pune

Suman Barua

Senior Counsellor
M.Ed, Harvard University
B.E, Mumbai University

Madhav Pathak

Senior Counsellor
MBA, Indian School of Business
MS, Carnegie Mellon University

Gaargi Desai

Senior Counsellor
MS, Harvard University
BA, Tulane University

Ameya Bhangle

Senior Counsellor
MBA, Harvard Business School
B.Sc., St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai

Niyati Dave

Senior Counsellor
MA, Smith College, Northampton

Aashay Doshi

Senior Counsellor

MBA - Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business,

BSc. Finance & Marketing - University of Maryland College Park

Kanishka Elupula

Senior Counselor
Ph.D, in Social Anthropology, Harvard University
Master of Arts in Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University Bachelor of Commerce (Honors) – Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University

Akshay Navaladi

Pharma Professional
MBA, Harvard Business School
Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering , BOSTON University