Kolade Ladapo ’26

In my current role, I focus on data strategy, AI transformation, and data governance for our financial services clients. While I love the technical aspect of what I do, I’m also extremely passionate about business strategy. At the end of the day, I want to be more involved in strategic decision-making processes, and I knew the MBA was the best way to build the skills and foundation to get there.

The SOM curriculum starts with basics and builds up to a high-level, enterprise perspective, and that has helped me on a day-to-day basis. I primarily work with C-suite and junior executives and am often in cross-functional conversations. I’m constantly trying to understand what operations is saying, versus what technology is saying, and then bridging the gap to build a practical solution.

The course Corporate Finance has been particularly valuable, especially from a mergers and acquisitions (M&A) standpoint. My current client has achieved significant inorganic growth via acquisitions, and they’re looking to continue that. Understanding the M&A lifecycle has given me more credibility in conversations and has helped me design solutions that the client is actually going to use post-acquisition.

Every class weekend, you’re not only gaining knowledge from leading professors; you’re also learning from all the people in your cohort. I’ve learned about the challenges and opportunities other industries are facing, the ways people approach solutions within those industries, and how I can repurpose them for what I’m doing within mine. It’s been great to bring this knowledge back to my organization and my clients, week in and week out.

I’m sure the MBA is going to take me somewhere I can’t imagine right now—that’s one thing I’ve learned from the Colloquium speaker series—but my goal is to become a truly differentiated technology strategy leader. Even if I leave consulting, the program has positioned me to move into strategy roles where I can create business value, rather than contributing only as a technical subject-matter expert.

My time in the Navy taught me that the best leaders inspire others through their actions. I want to be technically smart and strategically astute—but also a leader people are excited to follow.

From my very first coffee chat to interviewing in person and meeting the program team and some of my potential cohort-mates, I could feel that the energy and culture here was different. I knew that these were the types of people I wanted to be around and grow with. I came to SOM because I want to give back to society and lead in a way that inspires my colleagues and makes the broader community proud.