When Sushmita Mamillapalli, MM-A ’25, looked ahead to her future, she knew a Master’s degree would be part of that journey.

Even with a double major in mathematics and biology and employment at Amazon Canada leading employer in Canada, Mamillapalli was eager to get underway with that future. Her move from Amazon to a new career as a business transformation consultant at Momentum Financial Services Group coincided nicely with the completion of Ivey Business School’s one-year Master of Management: Analytics (MM-A) program.

Now, in her new role, Mamillapalli is able to showcase her ideas that could take her company’s internal processes from manual processes to more digital efficiencies driven by tools she gained while in the MM-A program.

It was the perfect fit with Mamillapalli’s needs: She wanted small class sizes where she could connect with her professors and network with classmates.

The future she envisioned is already paying off.

“I believe the program put me over the top,” said Mamillapalli, who also holds a Lean Six Sigma certification earned while at Amazon. “I’m using the platforms I learned while at Ivey to drive meaningful change that aligns with my clients’ business strategy. I’m enjoying it.”

With a background in retail operations, she wasn’t aware of the challenges her classmates from other industries faced. But the tools learned in the program gave her the ability and confidence to understand the real-world problems faced by her classmates from other sectors.

Mamillapalli admitted the case method approach – which was very different from her text-book heavy undergraduate experience – took some time to appreciate. But with her data and leadership skills in hand, Mamillapalli looked to improve her confidence, particularly when presenting in front of senior executives. The program has given her the confidence to speak confidently about her ideas and how they will contribute to a client’s business.

It has also helped her view her career future in a new light.

“The program has changed what I wanted in terms of my career trajectory,” said Mamillapalli. “I have evolved from supporting other’s ideas to creating my own. I’m only two months into my new role and I’m really enjoying it.”

Now with the program under her belt, she has reignited her primary passion: Writing. Her favourite genres are in the line of thrillers and mysteries, and while she hasn’t had the time to put into a novel, she has poured her creative efforts into short stories.

With her new role and the MM-A program in hand, it is certainly no mystery that Mamillapalli’s future will be thrilling, indeed.