Anne Zolnowski
Sr. Program Manager at Ingram Micro
USA

Jason Murphy
Product Lead at Tata Consultancy Services
USA

“I have the privilege of working with Kautilya on the Product Owner team responsible for a global e-commerce platform. Kautilya has led the development of the go-to-market hub module. His experience in Agile methodologies and Scrum has ensured the product exceeds requirements and delivers high business value. Kautilya's communications skills, technical acumen, and strategic thinking make him invaluable.”

“I had the pleasure of working with Kautliya on a very large digital product development project. Kautilya made my life so much easier during our working relationship, and I continuously sung his praises to our colleagues. His strategic mindset, excellent communication skills, deadline driven attitude, and ability to adapt to changing requirements without breaking a sweat made him an invaluable asset to the team. He really fostered a positive atmosphere on the team which inspired everyone to succeed. Any team would be lucky to have Kautilya on board.”

Naveen Prakash
Director of Marketing Analytics (Search Engine Marketing) at Priceline
USA

“I had the pleasure of working with Kautilya for about a year while he was a senior business analyst. Kautilya did an excellent job managing through the complexities of a software development project. In addition to being detail oriented and thorough, Kautilya has the ability to step back and focus on the broader objectives from end user perspective. Kautilya's verbal and written communication skills combined with his positive attitude were highly critical in streamlining the product development lifecycle. I strongly believe Kautilya would be a valuable contributor in a cross functional team as a Product manager / Owner.”

Donald Chapman
Managing Director at Pollinate, Board Advisor at Tallyx, UberFi, Modo & OV Loop, President & Managing Director at DNC Consulting
USA

“Kautilya is an exceptionally sharp and creative individual. His work experience, recent MBA studies and perceptive nature combine to make him a great strategic asset. We are excited to have him as part of the team at DNC Consulting and look forward to his continued efforts to drive client success.”

Christiane Figueiredo Mendes, MBA
Product Marketing at CoStar Risk Analytics
USA

“I worked with Kautilya in a Consulting project aiming to help I Love Milkshakes to adapt the business after COVID-19. Fast learner, committed, flexible, and attentive to details he went through the ideas to its implementation within outstanding four weeks. His consultancy was supported by Innovation methodology, benchmarks, and ended up employing straight forward approach towards operation and digital strategy. It was an intense project and I would be glad to work with Kautilya again in the future.”

“I am happy to write this recommendation for Kautilya. I know Kautilya through both my career advising work and faculty role at Babson College. Kautilya was always a proactive student; coming in to discuss his career development starting very early on, planning a concrete strategy, and persistently working towards his goals. In the classroom he proved to do the same. Kautilya took my Thought Leadership in Technology course. Throughout the semester he contributed to interesting in-class discussion, asked our guest speakers brilliant and thoughtful questions and produced an excellent portfolio of articles which can be found on his LinkedIn publications. Kautilya is dedicated, smart, likable and a thinker. He would make an excellent addition to any company he lands with post-MBA. I highly recommend him.”

Dr. John Marthinsen
Distinguished Chair in Swiss Economics & Professor of Economics and International Business at Babson College
USA

“Kautilya was a student in my MBA-level International Macroeconomics course at Babson College during the spring 2020 semester. The course focused on the intersection between international macroeconomics and business strategy, highlighting the movements of and interrelations among major macroeconomic variables that affect the performance of nations, in general, and businesses, in particular. Kautilya is a bright and self-motivated student, who put wind in my sails during class and showed keen insights regarding international macroeconomic issues. During the summer of 2020, Kautilya’s knowledge of cryptocurrencies and macroeconomics were put to use when he read and provided useful feedback on “The Economics of Cryptocurrencies,” which is a chapter in the third edition of my book, entitled Demystifying Global Macroeconomics. As his professor, I have had the pleasure of witnessing Kautilya’s passion for learning new concepts and can endorse that he is smart, creative, and reliable.”

Prof. Glenn T. Migliozzi, CFA
Board Chair at Open Table, Inc. & Associate Professor of Practice- Finance Division at Babson College
USA

“Kautilya served as a Board Member for Open Table, Inc. through the Babson Board Fellows program. I am very pleased with Kautilya’s dedication to contribute in all aspects of the board office functions and his willingness to utilize his versatile business skill-set to enhance our operations. Kautilya is an organized individual who always performed in a professional manner. He demonstrated a culture of service and managed his time perfectly between his studies and his responsibilities for the board. Being the youngest on the board, Kautilya brought a fresh perspective and entrepreneurial approach to solving complex legacy problems. He contributed to defining the decision-making processes, accountability and succession plans for existing and incoming board members as well as drafting the orientation process for identifying and cultivating future board members. Kautilya is a strategist and is often well prepared with ample research to support his recommendations. When it comes to sharing his ideas, Kautilya knows how to present and make sure it gets conveyed to the audience on all levels. One good example of his analysis and conceptualization was when Open Table was planning to introduce the Advisory Board. While Kautilya agreed on the initiative he recommended to delay the launch of the initiative for a couple of months. To support the recommendations, Kautilya did an in-depth research and convinced the board about the benefits of a delayed launch of the initiative. Kautilya inspired his peers and senior board members with creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. Open Table applied the growth strategies which he devised and implemented. This meant thoroughly considering competitors, stakeholders and consumers in the organization’s value chain so that Open Table could capture the maximum value from opportunities and could cater to a larger community. As a mentor and the Board Chairman of OpenTable, I would like to recommend without any reservations Kautilya Nishant for any leadership position or assignment that requires a creative, open, responsible and entrepreneurial global executive.”

Prof. Siddharth Vedula
Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at Technical University of Munich
Germany

“Kautilya was a student in my entrepreneurship and opportunity MBA class that I taught at Babson college. He was a smart, hard working, and dedicated student who brought energy, creative thinking, and an excellent work ethic to the classroom. One instance that stands out in particular is his idea for the "rocket pitch" assignment - this is a challenge where the students are given 2 minutes to propose and pitch an innovative idea to solve a problem that they have identified. Kautilya's idea about a haptic device was chosen by his peers as one of the top 5 in the class, and his pitch was engaging and compelling. We have kept in touch after the course ended, and I continue to see how Kautilya continually leads with the Babson MBA student community. I highly recommend him and support him in his career pursuits.”

Subashini Silvadas
CEO at AirAsia Consulting & Group Head of Strategy at AirAsia Group
Malaysia

“Kautilya was one of my summer intern at AirAsia who was attached with me for 8 weeks. I assigned 2 short projects to him, to assess his abilities, work attitude and understand how we can improve on these areas. The project assigned was on revenue management and on how to improve our website from an UI/UX stand point of which he had to present his findings. He did really well on both the projects and the management team was very happy with his work. His work on both the projects was shared all the way up to the President and CEO. Some of his strengths are ability to work and communicate with different teams to execute his work, analytical ability to understand and present data in a meaningful format, team player who got along very well with my team and others within the organisation, pleasant personality and ability to think strategically and provide recommendations which can be implemented in the business. In summary, we were very happy with his work, his abilities and believe that he will be a great addition to any organisation.”

Kesavan Sivanandam
Chief Airport & Customer Experience Officer at AirAsia Group
Malaysia

“Kautilya brings in an insight that's different from the usual and is able to add value to the stakeholder engagement! He would be an asset!”

“I had the pleasure of working with Kautilya for one year on the Babson Graduate Net Impact Club leadership team. Kautilya brought an entrepreneurial attitude to the group, regularly encouraging us to experiment and test new ways to create value for our club members and connect them to social impact opportunities in the local area. In his capacity as the Vice President of Marketing, Kautilya brought fresh and creative ideas to our communications strategy and played a critical role in helping us to surpass our event attendance targets. Kautilya is a team player and a highly effective individual and I have no doubts that he will be a valuable asset to any team he is on!”

Lindsay Sanders
Design Strategist at Duke Energy Corporation
USA

Kait Lanthier
Senior Consultant at Liberty Mutual
USA

“I managed Kautilya during his time as a graduate assistant on Babson's College Marketing team. During that time, he brought a problem solving mindset to any challenge I threw his way, from turning complicated data sets into easy to update and understand reports, to doing extensive competitive benchmarking and research to drive future content strategy. He is incredibly professional, consistent, and kind--sure to be a formidable contributor in any of his future roles.”

Jose Miguel Sandejas
Enterprise Analytics at UpStream
USA

“I worked with Kautilya in managing and executing the Marketing for Babson's largest student led event - the Babson Entrepreneurship Forum. Needless to say, Kautilya is an extremely dedicated individual. Silent and strong, we never worried when Kautilya was assigned a task because we knew he would accomplish it with flying colors. A great balance between analytical and creative prowess, he was able to give wide perspective to our team. On a personal level, he is definitely a character who upholds integrity and treats everyone around him with respect. He is a strong asset to any team, that I have no doubt. I am sure that he has many great things lined up for him in the near future. Kautilya is a force to be reckoned with - You can expect nothing short of excellence from him.”

Lily Chryssis Awad, Ed.D
Senior Associate Director (Graduate Center for Career Development) at Babson College
USA

Vishwaroop Lal
Director AGTS, Ex-CEO at InterRAO India, Essar Power, NTPC Limited (NSPCL), & Ex-Regional ED at NTPC
India

“In my career of more than 40 years in Energy & Power Sector and in company leadership, I have rarely come across talents as promising, driven and visionary about their work as Mr. Nishant. Throughout my career I have guided and worked along with brightest leaders of the country and have duly noted Mr. Nishant’s tremendous potential both as a technologist and as a leader. I have directly supervised and worked in parallel with Mr. Nishant at Abhay GreenTech Solutions. My confidence in him rests not only on the remarkable work and leadership he provided to the company, but also on his display of knowledge, initiative, communication skills and maturity far beyond his years. It is his strong networking skills, a clear career vision, and his will to take calculated risks that he was the first candidate I had in mind for brainstorming and leading our startup, Abhay GreenTech Solutions. Mr. Nishant showed that he has the gift to turn goals into results. His drive towards working on a sustainable and cleaner environment and his ability to look at the problem holistically is impressive and he earns my highest recommendation.”

Sourav Ghosh
Vice President at Citi
USA

“I supervised Kautilya for around two years in the project named NeuroFocus for the client AC Nielsen at TATA Consultancy Services. The core development project involved extensive knowledge of programming concepts and hands-on experience with modern software tools. Kautilya excelled in every phase being consistently pleasant, and tackling all assignments with dedication and a smile. I believe his impressive resume is really self-explanatory, however what impressed me much was the way he managed his time between his work and extracurricular activities. Besides being a joy to work with, Kautilya is a take-charge person who is able to present creative ideas and communicate the benefits. He has always taken his role seriously and is passionate about his results. Beyond his passion on driving performance, Kautilya is a natural leader, and fights hard for his beliefs. He’s at his best in a group environment, and is consciously proactive at getting full involvement of all other team members to drive the best results possible. During his tenure, we saw an increase in productivity that was a direct result of the plans implemented by Kautilya. As a supervisor and a mentor I have the deepest personal and professional respect for Kautilya, and sincerely believe he will his unique energy, optimism, passion, and tireless creativity to any organization.”

Jesse Pocisk
Senior Creative Pencil at Robots and Pencils
USA

Dr. Manu Mehta
Scientist at Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)
India

“Kautilya has been more than a pleasure to work with, he has made my work life easier which ranks him high among his peers. While he has been able to provide countless solution options for the client, his flexibility and agility is impressive. He is goal-focused and vigilant about keeping the product on track in order to meet the strict timelines placed upon the project. Kautilya’s dedication to the stakeholders is unparalleled in his field. While I technically fell under the category of “client” in Kautilya’s role, I was made to feel more like a colleague. We were introduced roughly 18 months ago to be partnered together for the Go To Market module of the vendor-facing Ingram Micro Xvantage platform. I was quickly able to rely on Kautilya’s previous Product Management experience while we worked with stakeholders and set goals for the upcoming releases. Kautilya was able to rely on my knowledge of the inner-workings of Ingram Micro. We were able to fall into a quick and easy working relationship with frequent check ins and status updates that kept the product development moving forward.The Go To Market module was one of the first modules to be available on the live platform which was used by Ingram Micro’s Vendors due in no small part to Kautilya’s excellence in project management. With each internal demonstration that was provided by Kautilya, the Ingram Micro team expresses how impressed and excited they were with the progress made. When constructive feedback was provided, Kautilya responded professionally while also ensuring that the speaker was acknowledged and understood. Given that this project was to serve a global community, his ability to think locally while also keeping a global mindset was the exact strategy we needed to utilize for our success.On a personal note, the bond I have been able to forge with Kautilya was not typical among our peers. We spoke honestly but respectfully with each other. We analyzed feedback as a team but also were fully comfortable sharing our disagreements. The interpersonal skills Kautilya has cannot be taught or faked. The quality of the person is clearly evident in Kautilya Nishant. I write this recommendation with a level of melancholy that can only be expressed as such; while I am thrilled to champion his successes in leading future projects, I am humbled and saddened that we will be parting ways due to project completion. He is simply an asset to any company he joins, any client he manages, any product he leads.I am proud to have been able to work with Kautilya and know he will shape the industry for years to come.”

“Kautilya took guidance and supervision from me in the start of 2013 for 16 weeks, and completed with outstanding performance. This was a research internship course with rigorous research over the subject, analysis of written reports and coding of applications. Kautilya excelled in every one of them and his affability towards people is ideally suited to any appointment that deals with working with people. His analysis was very thorough and his bibliographical research regarding the topic, “Simulation of Atmospheric Scattering due to Aerosols using Remote Sensing”, was well-balanced and well-developed. Kautilya often provided unique insights into specific issues. Before I even had a chance to look at Kautilya’s highly impressive resume, I knew he must be a very good team player. His group presented an extensive case study largely due to his work. He knows how to spearhead and coordinate a group project successfully, and share the credits with his teammates. Equally impressive is Kautilya’s aspiration for greater challenge. Kautilya is a very disciplined individual who sets high standards and works diligently to achieve his goals. Although I do not know Kautilya very well outside the classroom or at a personal level, his experience and knowledge in many areas in addition to his technical expertise very pleasantly surprised me. Kautilya is one of the best students I’ve known in my teaching profession, and I am confident that he would excel in any capacity, welcoming it’s considerable challenges and interacting fully with the members of the organization. He is a remarkable scholar and I have no doubt in mind that he will be a great resource and a valuable asset to any organization.”

Olesea Klymovych
Sr. Product Designer at Microsoft, Sr. Principal Product Designer at Ingram Micro
USA

“I had the pleasure of working closely with Kautilya, and I can confidently say he's a dedicated and knowledgeable product manager. He ensures solutions meet stakeholder expectations, navigates potential pitfalls adeptly, and fosters collaborative communication across teams, even across different time zones. As a UX designer, I particularly appreciated his open-mindedness and willingness to brainstorm on ideas, which greatly enriched our collaborative process. Kautilya's commitment to the product and his proactive approach make him an invaluable asset to any team.”